Decolonising Fashion and Textiles
Design for Cultural Sustainability with Refugee Communities.
Award-winning participatory action research aimed to explore the concepts of cultural sustainability and community resilience through the lived experience of refugees.
The project aims to explore the concepts of cultural sustainability and community resilience through the lived experience of refugees and contributes to decolonising dominant design practice within a fashion and textile industry context. The project team collaborates with London-based refugees and asylum seekers backgrounds, adopting a process of reciprocal learning and making, through textile heritage. Fashion offers a safe space for participants from different walks of life to use fashion to express their shifting identities as they rebuild their life in their new place of resettlement.
Storytelling sessions were conducted to understand the participants’ personal identity and cultural heritage. Place-based connections between people and organisations were mapped in order to build a support network fostering community resilience. Through a series of co-design sessions, the participants outlined their collective visions for a more compassionate future. Fashion and textile artefacts were co-created, grounded in the cultural heritage and shifting identities of the participants. Recommendations for positive policy change were outlined, to overcome some of the barriers that refugees face in the UK. Dissemination activities were conducted throughout the project to amplify its impacts.
Research Context
The mainstream system of fashion production and consumption is proving unsustainable in terms of cultural heritage, social equality, autonomous livelihoods, and environmental stewardship. Improvements in these areas are unravelling at a slow pace, and new research is urgently needed in order to build back better and shape a more sustainable future. Besides the three commonly recognised pillars of sustainability (i.e. environmental, economic, and social), there is also a need to consider a cultural dimension (meaning diverse cultural systems, values, behaviours, and norms) as an essential component of a sustainability agenda.
Historically, the textile heritage of minorities has often been subjected to cultural appropriation practices undertaken by fashion brands or has been systematically obscured or undervalued as 'non-fashion' produced by 'the other'. Moreover, with a harrowing 89.3 million people worldwide having been forcibly displaced at the end of 2021 due to global and local political, economic, and environmental issues (UNHCR), it is clear that we need to rethink and address the needs and aspirations of migrant minority communities and find ways to honour their diverse cultures. Adopting a holistic approach to sustainability, the project focuses on fashion and textile artisanal practices that thrive or live on through the material legacy carried by people despite traumatic journeys. In fact, their culture, customs and faiths are retained as well as a variety of invaluable craft heritage skills.
Furthermore, to avoid the current situation where designers (originally from or trained in Europe and America) are 'parachuted' into marginalised or disadvantaged communities with the assumption that they can bring their own knowledge and expertise to solve other people’s problems, the project takes a ‘decentred’ approach. This means challenging colonial systems of oppression and exploitation, and empowering a multiplicity of voices and agencies, whilst leveraging the values of equality, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability of cultures.
Project Outputs
The findings from the research informed the development of a range of outputs, including:
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42 'Textile photo-stories’ created by the participating refugees, representing their unique identities, stories of displacement, cultural heritage and diversity;
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3 Textile maps of connections between people and places, contributing to building a support network and fostering community resilience;
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3 Textile banners manifesting the participating refugees' collective visions for an equitable and sustainable future;
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1 Public action delivered in Parliament Square in June 2023 advocating for protecting refugee children's freedom to play;
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A collection of 21 fashion artefacts co-created with the participating refugees, embodying their personal and cultural identities;
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3 Fashion performances delivered at the Victoria and Albert Museum during Refugee Week 2024;
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1 Policy paper outlining recommendations for positive policy change to overcome some of the barriers that UK-based refugees face - "Threads of Opportunity: Good Work for Refugees in the Fashion Industry" by Dr Francesco Mazzarella, Dr Seher Mirza and Froi Legaspi;
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1 Lifeline activation and related Lifeline zine created by Professor Lucy Orta in collaboration with participating refugees.
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4 Showcases of the co-creation process and project outputs, alongside a series of public engagement events;
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1 Digital Booklet for the “Shifting Narratives: Reciprocal Making and Learning through Fashion and Textiles” exhibition at the Barbican Library;
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2 Short films documenting the stories and journeys of the refugees participating in the project, amplifying their voice and agency;
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2 Symposia including panel debates with researchers, practitioners, project participants, and members of relevant organisations working with ‘diverse locals’ both in the UK and in other contexts. 'Shifting Narratives' (LCF, 30 January 2024) and 'Fashion as Catalyst' (Barbican Centre, 25 July 2024);
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2 Student project briefs and 1 MSc dissertation;
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1 Special Issue of the DISCERN Journal and 1 editorial article by Dr Francesco Mazzarella and Dr Seher Mirza;
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7 Blog posts.
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The project won the 'Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Sustainability' category in the UK and Ireland Green Gown Awards 2024.
"This is an exemplar project where the College has sought to take its core mission and align it with sustainability that explicitly focuses on addressing those at the margins in a way that respects the dignity of each person. It serves the students to build their creativity and employability skills as well as further developing their empathy and ability to communicate authentically. A winner every which way! Awesome work."
- UK and Ireland Green Gown Awards 2024 Judges
“The honour of the Green Gown Awards emboldens us in our University’s social purpose and ambition to expand knowledge, capabilities, and agency by broadening our sources and practices of co-discovery. I am truly delighted to be recognised by the Awards’ community. Together, we can fulfil our collective potential to foster equity, diversity, and inclusion, and prepare learners for fulfilling livelihoods and becoming drivers of sustainable futures.”
- Professor Dilys Williams, Director of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Chair of UAL Social Purpose Advisory Group
Project Team
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Dr. Francesco Mazzarella of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UAL – Principal Investigator
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Professor Lucy Orta of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UAL – Co-Investigator
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Dr Seher Mirza –Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
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Nicole Zisman – Project Administrator
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Camilla Palestra of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UAL – Curatorial Associate
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David Betteridge – Filmmaker
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Alisa Ruzavina – Fashion and Textile Designer and Maker
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Froi Legaspi – Policy Advisory
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JC Candanedo – Visual Artist
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Mehrdad Pakniyat – Photographer
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Toyin Gbomedo – PhD Researcher
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Jess Amaral – Assistant Cultural Producer
Advisory Board
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Professor Helen Storey, Professor of Fashion and Science at Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UAL
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Professor Stuart Walker, Research Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University
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Dr. Cory Rodgers, Senior Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
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Dr. Erica de Greef, Co-founder of the African Fashion Research Institute
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Nadja Romain, Founder of Everything I Want
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Almir Koldzic, Director of Counterpoints Arts
Funder
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Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Project Partners:
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London Borough of Newham (LBN)