TOPICS: FASHION MATERIALS & PROCESSES in Spring 2025 (CM2091A)

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of materials, especially textiles, and their central role in designing, producing and experiencing fashion. Students will learn to identify materials and techniques, relying on historical and contemporary examples from all over the world, focusing on their properties and applications in fashion design.

This course is devised as an immersion into the materiality of fashion, exploring fibers, raw materials, dyes, textiles, finishes, and garment construction. It will also address pattern making, surface ornamentation, textile design, and the different stages of collection design. Issues of production and labor, functionality, seasonality and sustainability will also be integral to class discussions.

Combining object-based study, textile and garment analysis, and hands-on activities, this course will engage students in thinking critically about the different making processes and materials of fashion and the artisans and producers behind them. Through lectures, seminars, and site visits, and extensive use of literary, visual and film sources, students will gain insights into how fashion is made from start to finish.