Roots to Routes

Roots to Routes is a project that explores the connection between fashion and culture by students from the Level 2 BA(Hons) Fashion Media and Industries and BA(Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles programmes in the School of Fashion, in collaboration with the team at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT), New York. The project explores and questions the global context of fashion through the development of fashion products, brand identities and marketing strategies.

Fashion consumption has evolved from seasonal spectacles to a daily barrage of the digital. The idea of ‘newness’ is rapidly and constantly changing lifestyles and culture. Stuart Hall (1999), suggests, “…instead of asking what are people’s roots, I (we) ought to think about what are their routes, the different points by which they have come to be.” This translates directly to culturally significant designs, products and practices. Rather than only thinking about our roots (or the past), we should recognise the complex routes (how and where we are going) that have carried our roots to the present day and lead us towards the future. 

This project calls on our student designers to explore the continuation of these processes, practices and products through their fashion designs, image-making, and storytelling in an ever-changing social and cultural sphere and an evolving fashion ecosystem.

^{_{Image: Keya Prajapati from BA(Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles.}}