We are an interdisciplinary team of academics who work critically and creatively with fashion and storytelling to drive social change.
F/fashion Narratives is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research group that considers F/fashion’s role in the lifecycle of stories that people and communities share to galvanize their self and social identities. Fundamental to our research is the shared understanding that fashion possesses two meanings that frequently coincide and collide. Fashion, a capitalised noun, which refers to one of the world’s largest industries, responsible for 2% of global GDP, that developed within the ‘west’ during the nineteenth century and continues to prioritise ‘western’ attitudes and behaviours. And fashion, a verb, that encompasses people’s use of dress in the negotiation of their public identities across diverse chronologies, cultures and geographies.
We seek to clarify the cultural impact and narrative potential of F/fashion and bring stories from minoritized voices, especially from beyond the ‘west’ and those that are typically marginalized or wholly ignored within fashion-related research, into a conjoined discourse that can support the fashion industry and fashion education to tackle the global challenges they pose.
Crucially, we recognise that F/fashion exists as both a research subject and as a conduit to deeper understanding within many other disciplines and fields.
