For the Fall 2012 semester, a group of MA Fashion Studies students had the opportunity to take a class taught by Otto Von Busch, Assistant Professor of Integrated Design in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons, which focused on fashion’s ties to social justice.  In his description of the course, Otto Von Busch wrote, “This course explored topics such as the the technologies of the self and cultural identity, global production and consumption, body size and regimes of asceticism, aesthetic apartheid and politics of the dressed body.  Specifically the course juxtaposed the struggles of social justice with the injustices amplified by fashion to draw parallels and find new tactics for empowerment through fashion, finding ways by which fashion can mitigate injustices.  This would mean to produce new forms of engagement as well as to cultivate craft capabilities – in other words, to make people fashion-able.”

The students’ work over the course of the semester culminated in a book, Just Fashion: Critical Cases on Social Justice in Fashion.  The topics cover a wide subject range, featuring the essays: “Wellness on the Runway: the CFDA Health Initiative,” “Sourcing Social Justice: Fashion Designers Without Borders,” “Hung Out to Dry: The Clean Clothes Campaign,” “Legs by McQueen: Aimee Mullins’ Prosthetic Fashion,” and many more.  The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com.     

The book’s description:

“Fashion is a phenomenon that thrives on social injustices.  Fashion harvests its energy from the frictions of social competition: the desire for social acceptance as well as the fight for individuality fuel fashion production and consumption.  Where few social differences exist, fashion produces them anew and with an added weight.  The realms of fashion and social justice may seem far apart, but each intersects with topics such as the technologies of the self and cultural identity, global production and consumption, body size and regimes of asceticism, aesthetic apartheid and the politics of the dressed body in the widest sense.

This book is a collection of cases that engage with social justice through fashion from the course ‘Critical Fashion and Social Justice,’ at Parsons The New School for Design.  The texts explore tactics for empowerment through fashion, locating ways by which fashion can mitigate injustices.”

To learn more about Otto Von Busch’s work, be sure to read “An Interview with Otto Von Busch: Fashion + Sustainability–Lines of Research Series” in Fashion Projects, a non profit journal founded and edited by MA Fashion Studies’ very own Francesca Granata.