In celebration of the back-to-school season, Dr. Laura Beltrán-Rubio discusses the need to redress fashion history education by incorporating diverse perspectives and personal narratives, while also emphasizing the significance of engaging students’ passions and values in their learning process. The conversation highlights various strategies for educators to create a more inclusive and meaningful fashion curriculum.

This is not a fashion history podcast nor a practical note on fashion and style, but it has bits and pieces of both. While this is intended for mostly fashion educators and students, I also hope it will be relevant to those who are not fashion students or educators or are not returning to fashion school this year.

Special thanks to Katie Ibsen, Serena Dyer, Jonathan Square, and Kimberly Jenkins for their generous contributions to this episode!

Chapters

00:00 Reflecting on Fashion Education

04:58 Dismantling the Fashion History Survey

09:33 Making History Personal

12:02 Redressing Fashion History

15:47 Engaging and Personal Histories

22:30 Antidotes to AI

26:00 Outside the History Classroom

27:55 Personal Style and Fashion Scholarship

32:12 Third Spaces for Fashion in Schools

35:20 Three Little Things

Takeaways

- Critical thinking should precede reliance on AI tools.

- Fashion education needs to reflect diverse cultural narratives.

- Personal style development is a continuous journey.

- Engaging students' passions is crucial for effective learning.

- Redressing fashion history involves questioning traditional narratives.

- Diversity in fashion education enhances student engagement.

- Fashion history should include non-Western perspectives.

- Teaching strategies should adapt to student backgrounds.

- Fashion education can foster personal and social values.

Meet the scholars (in order of mention/appearance)

Professor Hazel Clark: https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/faculty/hazel-clark/

Katie Ibsen: https://www.katieibsen.com/

Dr Serena Dyer: https://www.serenadyer.co.uk/

Dr Jonathan Square: https://www.jonathansquare.com/

Kimberly Jenkins: https://www.kimberlymjenkins.com/

Relevant links & references

• Fashion Education: The Systemic Revolution: https://www.intellectbooks.com/fashion-education 

• Learn about the history of boteh: https://fashionandrace.org/database/boteh/

• Join my group style coaching program: https://laurabelru.com/style/ 

More about Laura

Visit my website: ⁠https://laurabelru.com/⁠

Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurabelru

Find me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurabelru

Sign up to my newsletter: ⁠https://laurabelru.substack.com/