Explore how the fashion system can utilise sustainable practices

Addressing the three pillars in the fashion system – economic, social, and environmental – is crucial if we want to achieve sustainability.

On this three-week course, you’ll explore these pillars and learn how we can create a balance between them to work towards sustainable goals.

Learn to define your role within the fashion industry

As an individual wearer of fashion, you’ll explore your role and responsibilities within the fashion industry and analyse the tensions within this relationship.

With this understanding, you’ll determine how you can create a more responsible relationship between you and the fashion industry.

This knowledge will also help you explore the industry on a broader scale and how we can build dynamic relationships in sustainable fashion.

Explore concepts such as circular fashion

You’ll finish the course by thinking about different kinds of models, and how that affects relationships within the fashion system. From active to passive, linear to circular, these models all play an important role in redesigning a sustainable fashion system, and you’ll explore exactly how this can be done.

By the end of the course, you’ll have the confidence to define your role in the fashion industry and understand how relationships affect the outcomes of sustainability goals.

Guided by the experts at Parsons School of Design, you’ll gain insider knowledge of fashion systems to help you feel empowered to tackle the challenges the industry faces today.

Syllabus

Week 1
Forging New Connections within the Fashion Ecosystems
- Introduction
  Welcome to Week 1
- Sustainability Models
  Sustainability Models
- Inputs to the Fashion System
  Inputs to the Fashion System
- Wrap Up
  Week 1 Wrap Up
Week 2
Relationship Between the Wearer and the Fashion Industry
- Welcome to Week 2
  Welcome to Week 2
- Defining the Relationship
  Defining the relationship between wearers and the fashion industry
- Impacts of your relationship with the fashion industry
  Impacts of your relationship with the fashion industry
- Future Relationship Scenarios
  Future Relationship Scenarios
- Wrap Up
  Wrap Up
Week 3
Building Dynamic Relationships
- Welcome to Week 3
  Welcome to Week 3
- Fashion Ecologies in Terms of Relationships
  Fashion Ecologies in Terms of Relationships
- Active to Passive Relationships
  Active to Passive Relationships
- Moving toward circular relationships
  Moving toward circular relationships
- Course Conclusion
  Course Conclusion

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Explore the context and connections of the various fashion ecosystems.
Evaluate the relationship between the fashion wearer and the fashion industry.
Classify the different types of relationships within the fashion system and their relevance to sustainability.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in sustainable fashion.

You may be a student or pursuing a career in fashion or sustainability.

Who will you learn with?

Jennifer Whitty

I am a sustainable systems educator, researcher, and designer. I work on developing new mindsets, models, and systems for alternative ecologies of fashion practice for social and environmental justice

Who developed the course?

Parsons School of Design

For more than a century, Parsons School of Design has been inspired by the transformative potential of design. Today, the school’s groundbreaking academic programs carry forward that mission, making Parsons the number one design school in the U.S. and among the top three globally. At the heart of a comprehensive university — The New School — Parsons draws on a range of academic fields to deliver a uniquely interdisciplinary education enriched by the resources of its home in New York City

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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