We’re all pushing boundaries, but RCA MA FASHION 2021 might actually break them

The course only exists at MA level, which means the students all have different backgrounds when it comes to their previous education. This encounter and crossover of various trainings leaves the crop remarkably multidisciplinary, as fine artists mingle with 3D specialists and sculptors exchange with tailoring masters. These graduates feel no need to define themselves as fashion designers or creative directors. They are researchers and creatives working in the field of personal identity and community ‒ artist, sculptor, observer, performer, fashion psychic, or notably, a designer that paints too much. The monikers also indicate the importance this class attributes to vocabulary. A restructuring of the system always comes with a reïnvention of language.

These graduates feel no need to define themselves as fashion designers or creative directors. They are researchers and creatives working in the field of personal identity and community.

“What does it mean to be human? What are our values? What are the communities we design for? Crucially: how can fashion practice be an agent of change?” – Annie Machinnon, Humanwear pathway

Similarly, the course aims to open up conventional menswear and womenswear categories, proposing a total of thirteen pathways, including “humanwear” and “no-wear”. The pathways overlap and intersect, but ultimately, they illustrate a fundamental aspect of the school’s philosophy, to diminish binary and hierarchical creative structures.

“I want to reject the binary conventions of gendered fashion at a time of unlearning and dismantling of all oppressive societal structures,” writes Annie Mackinnon. “What does it mean to be human? What are our values? What are the communities we design for? Crucially: how can fashion practice be an agent of change?”

As part of her graduate project, the humanwear graduate made a 104-page zine, exploring the 4th Industrial Revolution, and how this intersects with sustainability, social justice, and ecology. Just like many of her peers, Annie’s final project didn’t take the form of a twelve-look collection and a runway show. Clothes were not even the focal point of her presentation. Instead, the graduate used image, text, and sculpture to develop her ideas.

Course Director Zowie Broach is adamant about giving the designers the freedom to present their work in the way that best suits their process and research. Take Lingyu Hao, for example, whose work reflects on self-expression, the relationship between the individual and the world mediated by garments, and performance. Her final project included two chairs and a 3D rendered room. Reading through her artist statement evokes more emotion than any beats-driven, lights-engulfed, vitaminwater-sponsored runway ever could.

Zhonghua Sui used “fingerprinting” to record the garment making, directly visualising the labour on the otherwise standard designs.

Or Zhonghua Sui, whose work reflects on the invisibilization of labour in production in fashion. In this industry, images of the clothes are pushed everywhere, but the people who made them remain behind the scenes. Bringing the process to light, the graduate used “fingerprinting” to record the garment making, directly visualising the labour on the otherwise standard designs. The garments were then presented in department stores to average shoppers. The practise holds mids between fashion design and activism.

Linyun Yu did a two year focus group with burn victims to develop innovative protective wear that responded to the patients needs.

In the course, political engagement goes beyond meta-criticism of the cultural system. In Adaptive Wear specifically, inclusivity reigns. The elderly and disabled are recognised as key consumers, under-provided for by conventional garment and product design. Students are encouraged to work closely with healthcare professionals, including carers and occupational therapists, and users to co-design their products.

In line with the tradition of fashion and art education, the designers (-or observes, thinkers, creatives,… for once, this writer is at a loss for words) also seek to understand the self, as they reflect on ways to serve the community.

Linyun Yu did a two year focus group with burn victims to develop innovative protective wear that responded to the patients needs. “To me, positioning clothes on bodies is not just about glamorous appearance. It’s more essential, a covering that brings protection, enhancement, and good feelings,” writes the graduate. Fashion is often written about as a form of communication, a language on its own, but Linyun’s project truly reveals its potential for connection and empathy. When you encounter a burn victim, she writes, “Don’t give them a bizarre look, don’t be scared to talk to them, don’t treat them differently. To understand, to intrigue, to emphasize with is another fashion meaning to me.”

In line with the tradition of fashion and art education, the designers (-or observes, thinkers, creatives,… for once, this writer is at a loss for words) also seek to understand the self, as they reflect on ways to serve the community, personal identity and experience remains a fruitful starting point. Anne Ferial developed a speculative, therapeutic quest video game titled “Exoblock”, based on her personal story as a stroke survivor and her autobiographical illustration work. Body and identity politics necessarily pass through a personal understanding of the world.

Ultimately, the course simply offers opportunities. The opportunity to reflect, to reshape, to change, and to do things differently. One more example for the road, pathway Biowear Design considers the act of making along with biological and organic processes. The maker no longer exploits its environment, but rather mediates and enhances it. A new discipline of fashion has emerged where humans and non-humans are allowed a material and digital dialog.

“What could a future look like where we live in partnership with nature instead of exploiting it? How can new technologies and biodesign help us find alternatives to capitalist systems of exploitation and pave the way for new ways of making, working and living together in social communities?”

Fashion design, runway show, twelve-look collection. It is time for fashion education to open up those categories and definitions.

In fashion media, graduate projects are conventionally heralded as the new wave. They “break with convention”, “push boundaries”, and “redefine gender”. But which conventions and the boundaries of what exactly? ‒ Aesthetics? Styling? Casting? Wonderful starting point, but too superficial on their own to bring systemic change.

Not every school should offer an education in “Symbiotic Design”, but we could start by loosening up the framework and expectations in which we operate. Fashion design, runway show, twelve-look collection. It is time for fashion education to open up those categories and definitions. We know that students are asking for it.