Intervention 2
Testing the FUSL(fashion uniform symbol) group on how they feel if adding a business option to their curriculum.
 
I invited members of the FUSL group to read a business course article and mark the key points, express or write their thoughts on the reading and what they learned from it in a given day, both offline and give me feedback about what they learned, to see if they were interested in business.
 
Intervention 3
In the FUSL group test how they feel about the addition of a window display course. They can do a window display design in one day to use their favorite brand.
 
I find someone who was not previously in fashion but is now a de facto practitioner to talk to, and I found someone who had studied fine art and is now the head of a shoe design brand. I found out what motivated her to switch from her previous profession to the fashion industry and interviewed her about whether she would choose to study fashion if she had the option to go to school in the future, and he answered in the negative.

In comparison to intervention2&3, all respondents chose to do only window display design drawings, and after I sent them the request, they gave me the designs very quickly and they all did well. That shows they are good at designing and making art. They are also happy to make window design an optional course during their undergraduate years.

But fashion graduates no longer have almost no choice of companies. Despite the fact that British universities and fashion schools are reputed to be the best in the world, too many graduates leave school unsatisfied. According to annual satisfaction surveys, career paths are not adequately explained, technical courses like pattern cutting are missing, and business training is not even covered. In an interview with The Guardian, Sarah Mauer (chief critic of Vogue.com) said: “A huge skills gap is emerging – many universities are no longer cutting patterns, and design houses are desperate for skilled pattern cutters and paying good salaries. People design a collection, but it’s the technicians who sew it.”

If more and more young designers want to set up on their own and create their own labels, then there is no doubt that fashion education needs to be overhauled. A degree in fashion needs time to evolve, the question itself, challenge and reflect. Why does the final product have to be the ultimate collection that students spend hundreds to thousands of pounds to achieve? To simply mimic outdated industry structures, seasonal and traditional fashion presentations, and rules that may never apply to them in the future? There should be choice and flexibility.

Beyond that, how else can we get students to demonstrate that they are already working towards honing a professional skill, interest, area of focus, or aesthetic and technical study? What other option is there than to ask to learn and absorb everything in just three years, instead of focusing on a fleeting collection of modules, ad hoc projects, and hastily realized finales? With the coming uprising of Generation Z, can the tiresome bureaucracy of traditional university education really meet the needs of a new generation of creative talent in practice?