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The course is the brainchild of Ian Cook, Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter and a member of Fashion Revolution's Global Coordination Team
'Who Made My Clothes?' - Free online Fashion Revolution course starts 26th June
Fashion Revolution, the global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry, is launching its first free online course next Monday, 26th June 2017 to teach thousands of learners worldwide to Be Curious, Find Out and Do Something about their clothes. The course is in association with the University of Exeter and will run on the FutureLearn platform.
Taught over three weeks, it will introduce learners to the supply chains from which our clothes have emerged, and to the people who may have made our clothes, where in the world;,to forms of online research that can help us to find, tell and publish the human stories hidden in our clothes; and to the ways in which we can contribute our findings to the wider Fashion Revolution movement.
The course is the brainchild of Ian Cook, Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter, a member of Fashion Revolution's Global Coordination Team and 2017 recipient of the Royal Geographical Society’s ‘Taylor and Francis Award for Excellence in the Promotion and Practice of Teaching and Learning of Geography in Higher Education’. Additionally, the course will feature Fashion Revolution’s co-founder and Creative Director Orsola de Castro, Head of Policy Sarah Ditty, and Country Coordinator Joss Whipple, as well as student mentors, who will participate in weekly filmed responses to learners’ questions and comments.
Orsola de Castro, Fashion Revolution Founder and Creative Director said: "This online course will inspire people to explore the fashion industry and its complicated supply chains. Now we can all learn how to follow the thread, from citizens to producers, and begin to unravel the long journey our clothes go through before they hit the shops - from the farmer who planted the cotton seed, to the mills where it was dyed and the garment workers who sewed it.
“Encouraging students, educators and the wider public to understand the provenance of clothing and to connect with the stories of the people who make them, is fundamental in creating an emotional attachment to the clothes we wear, and in challenging the unsustainable culture of throw-away fashion."
Professor Tim Quine, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education at the University of Exeter said: “Our University is committed to research-inspired, inquiry-led learning and discovery, in which our students are partners in knowledge creation. In this “Who Made My Clothes?” MOOC we are inviting curious citizens across the world to become learners and researchers alongside our on-campus students and Professor Ian Cook and members of the Fashion Revolution team. We are excited about this MOOC because it will be both a pedagogic and a social science experiment; it will create a borderless academic community; and it will blur the distinctions between educators and learners and between education and research, just as we seek to do across all our on-campus degree programmes.”
People increasingly want to know #whomademyclothes, - in fact, in April 2017 and during Fashion Revolution Week, 113k people used the hashtag on Instagram, proving that the conversation on sustainability in the fashion industry has never been so topical.
Fashion Revolution is a global movement that works for a more sustainable fashion industry, campaigning for a systemic reform of the industry with a special focus on the need for greater transparency in the fashion supply chain. Fashion Revolution is a non-profit organisation with presence in more than 90 countries around the world. Our vision is a fashion industry that values people, the environment, profit and creativity in equal measure. Fashion Revolution works all year round to raise awareness of the fashion industry’s most pressing issues, advocate for positive change, and celebrate those who are on a journey to create a more ethical and sustainable future for fashion. At its heart is a simple question, ‘Who made my clothes?’
Sign up for Who Made My Clothes? on FutureLearn, the social learning platform.
For more information, images or interviews, contact Ian Cook I.J.Cook@exeter.ac.uk, martine.parry@fairtrade.org.uk or press@fashionrevolution.org, Tel: +44 (0)20 7440 7695.
Date: 21 June 2017