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Op-Ed | How Fashion Education Prevents Inclusivity

Fashion's future creators and decision-makers are taught a narrow worldview in school, helping to perpetuate racism, fatphobia and other damaging tropes that plague the industry.
(L) Excerpt from an exhibition based on Kimberly Jenkins' Fashion and Race course, (R) Indigenous beading on a suit created by Justine Woods, a Ryerson alumni, | Source: Stevens Añazco, Courtesy
By
  • Ben Barry

At the end of 2019, Condé Nast introduced diversity as one of the “Vogue Values” to guide its vision into the new decade. All 26 editors signed off on bringing these values to life through their platforms and workplaces. We’ve known for a while that inclusivity is the future of the fashion industry, and it’s about time brands like Vogue publicly acknowledge it. But to fully enact this ideological shift, we need to prepare our next generation of fashion creatives. Vogue Values and other industry efforts won’t bring about systemic change unless we also change fashion education because fashion education is the pattern from which the fashion industry is sewn.

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