Abstract

DOWNING PETERS, Lauren. Fashion or dress?: Pedagogical issues in fashion theory. Cuad. Cent. Estud. Diseñ. Comun., Ensayos [online]. 2014, n.48, pp.113-127. ISSN 1853-3523.

In this article, I plan to reflect on the pedagogical challenges I've faced in my first semester of teaching fashion studies material at Parsons, speaking specifically to the challenges I've overcome in leading my junior seminar, Supermodel: Beauty, Fashion, and Performance, and in devising a new undergraduate fashion theory elective. In doing so, I will provide an overview of Fashion Studies as a newly-emerging academic field and outline the reflections that other scholars have published thus far. While the aforementioned will serve as a broad foundation for my paper, my primary focus will be on my own experience. In contributing my perspective as a teacher of undergraduate MFA students at Parsons to this conversation, I will pose the following questions: What challenges do my students face in working within a discipline and in a manner that is so different from their own practice? What is the most effective way to introduce students to fashion theory and criticism? What issues are students most drawn to? And finally, how might classes such as mine influence students in reflecting on their own practice as designers? The purpose of this article will thusly be to foster a dialogue between Fashion Studies scholars as well as with other academics who work and research in interdisciplinary fields.

Keywords : Education; Fashion history; Fashion studies; Fashion theorym; Pedagogy; Educação; Estudos de moda; Historia da moda; Pedagogia; Teoria da moda.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in English     · English ( pdf )