The film is based on my childhood friendship with Simone, who has Cerebral Palsy, and the continual discrimination she has faced throughout her life. This is something that had always deeply frustrated me, but came into sharper focus when I began studying fashion at Central Saint Martins in 2016.
Is fashion education ignoring disability?
CSM BA Fashion Communication and Promotion graduate Saskia Rowlands created a documentary that explores the significant lack of disability representation in the fashion industry
“I consider the whole representation issue a lost cause now. I mean the fashion industry is trying to approach diverse people, people with disabilities and it has always been Kaia, Gigi, and Bella and then for one issue, we have the ‘other’ type of person. It’s just a way to clear conscience and that’s it” Maria Benedetta Melini explains in Rowlands’ documentary “Same People”. Is fashion really trying to be inclusive or is it just visiting the concept of diversity whenever it is convenient to its narrative? What is the role of fashion education in raising creatives and designers who are authentically engaged with the representation of disability in fashion and want to change a flawed industry? CSM Fashion Communication and Promotion graduate Saskia Rowlands presents a documentary that explores and aims to answer why fashion and education are still not addressing disability and diversity enough.
“Same People” by Saskia Rowlands
I realised that the course I was studying, and the industry I was aspiring to work within, were both directly contributing to society’s negative perception of disability – promoting and selling a bodily ideal to which disabled people, like Simone, cannot conform.
It was whilst on my placement year from CSM that I decided I had to challenge this. I wanted to know why, in 2020, and at some of the most progressive fashion schools in the world, the teaching of human-centred design and communication is still being overlooked? But more importantly how, through education, we can begin to change this?
The film follows my journey in search of these answers. Featuring activists, icons, and educators, Same People is about the social fragility of the disabled body within an industry obsessed with perfection, but ultimately, is a call to arms about the power of clothing to change people’s lives.
Dance influences meet architectural details in designer Sun Mu Lee’s sporty garments
The South Korean designer works with body movements to transpose architecture into garments
Why are fashion creatives so into ceramics lately?
Clay has become an antidote to the onslaught of modern-day tech. But why are fashion creatives turning to the world of ceramics?
Naranjo Del Vas: Two designers, one presentation, from Central Saint Martins to Palais de Tokyo
Their designs are poles apart but their design processes are radically similar. We caught up with Paula Cánovas del Vas and Ernesto Naranjo before their collaborative presentation at Palais de Tokyo.
Sofia Mollberg: “We musn’t shame vulnerability”
The Swedish designer is using her graduate collection to discuss the importance of body language and recognising the effects on mental health in the fashion industry
For Zhuoran Li, the body is a blank canvas
How a leg surgery as a kid impacted the designer’s views for years to come
Rin Choe on the artistry of pattern cutting and deconstructing Korean tradition
Choe fell into the industry unexpectedly, but in doing so, her collection aims to rewrite the traditions of her Korean heritage
Fabrice Desvaux de Marigny: When Businessman Meets Beauty Queen
The CSM graduate’s BA collection, featuring tight leather trousers, glitz and tailoring, was inspired by an affair his father had ten years ago.
