FASHION DESIGN EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABILITY. A CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Fashion is one of the most relevant phenomena to describe contemporary cultures and societies (Fioraai, 2006; Bertola, 2018). Despite this, fashion has always been a marginal topic within the design scientific debate. Fashion design education has been a small niche within the whole academic system. Nowadays, this exile, that could be considered both forced or voluntary, is ending. Fashion is strong of its recognized impact on global economies, society, culture, and is conscious of the need for it to engage, as for all other sectors, in guiding a coherent transition of the surrounding world towards a more sustainable paradigm. In view of this, this exploratory paper, developed within the scope of the author’s doctoral research, present an initial analysis of the current state of the art in practices across Europe, mapping existing and emerging practices within university level institution and industry, to identify approaches and practices that could be amplified, and implemented to contribute to a sustainable paradigm for fashion design education.