Personal Touch: Making Gender Identity a First Hand Experience

As the team who operate BA Fashion Design Womenswear at LCF, London, we have observed considerable student interest in the area of gender and gender identity- however there appears to be considerable confusion over a number of related terms. Students seem to be lacking contemporary awareness in this area and for the most part they tend toward a theoretical approach. We run a second year project called “MUSE” which asks students to design for a real client, with whom they meet, develop a dialogue, hold fittings and eventually present their collection to. MUSE is a project which focuses on the importance of personal contact and touch, for understanding fashion and how these understandings can develop teaching and learning. By definition the muses are individual and diverse and students are required to engage with thoughts about sizing, body type, age and gender as well as personality, taste and the context in which the clothing will be worn and seen