Feedback for All Walks Lectures, Forums and Diversity NOW!

The All Walks talk to students at Central Saint Martins was brilliantly informed, inspiring and smart. Diversity is core to our approach at CSM and the ideas and issues discussed by Caryn were poignant and totally relevant. The presentation had a powerful message and continues to resonate with our students.

Hywel Davies Course Leader BA (Hons) Fashion Communication Central Saint Martins

 

The Diversity Now! lecture really gripped my students. It encompassed a wide range of topical debate which is so relevant to our society today. It was thought provoking and intellectual, pitched at just the right level to enable students to be able to start asking themselves the right questions aswell as validate how we perceive inclusivity.

UCA thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to have All Walks back for more students to benefit from such a fantastic lecture. We are all turning up our Volumes!

Katherine Boxall, Acting Course Leader BA Hons Fashion Management and Marketing

 

Fashion should be about empowerment in all senses – body, mind and soul. Empowerment for everyone no matter what shape, size, age, gender or colour they are. This presentation has helped to wake me up as well as cement a strong awareness of diversity in fashion that I can deliver to my students. Thank you.

Tamsyn King Lecturer for level 3 and level 2 Fashion & Clothing courses. Fareham

 

This was a hard hitting but poignant lecture. The students were totally engrossed.

As tutors we have been trying to engage our students in more conscious image making. The All Walks lecture, really cemented what we have been telling them in tutorials. The students need to be reminded that the future of fashion imagery lies in their hands and they can help define what they do and don’t want to see.

Kathryn Ferguson, Filmmaker & Fashion Film Lecturer, London College of Fashion

 

The Diversity Now! campaign has fostered a wave of considered perspectives, a change in thinking and the ability to accept that an individual opinion is valid and needs to be heard when so many images that we come into contact with on a daily basis are questionable.

My students stand on the precipice of whether to make a difference and offer an alternative solution or simply sit back. Caryn’s thought provoking lecture has given students the permission to proactively shout from a larger platform and prepare the tools to say politely no.

This debate is not just about size, it encompasses and encroaches on so many finite details surrounding how we envisage and embody ourselves in our daily appearance. Subsequently it has been a fascinating journey for the Make-up and Hair Design students, indeed they have quickly recognised that they have entered a new realm of thinking about the body - a place where standard beauty ideals are not prescriptive, and that there can be more than one solution to imagine how we desire to be seen.

Diversity Now! has certainly thrown down the gauntlet (or should that be the mascara wand?), for Southampton Solent students.

Sharon D. Lloyd, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Make-Up and Hair Design, Southampton Solent University

 

Respecting Yesterday + Developing Tomorrow = Diversity NOW!

This is undoubtedly the most important project that a creative student could be part of. It allows the student to dictate a positive formula for the future of fashion. All Walks have planted the seed which allows emerging trees to blossom with the brightest of leaves.

Paul Luke, Course Leader Leeds College of Art

 

On behalf of Ryerson School of Fashion I would like to thank you again for coming to speak to the first year students in my FSN 123 - Intro to Fashion class. The students were thrilled at this keynote speech They had many “take aways” from your visit both through your presentation and the break out sessions lead by our graduate students. As always, I was very impressed with the All Walks lecture. Everyone could engage in the passionate, humorous and enthusiastic approach to diversity.

Lu Ann Lafrenz, PhD Associate Professor Program Director, MA Fashion Ryerson University School of Fashion, Toronto

 

The students were captivated … by the discussions flying around the campus this morning they have certainly been provoked into finding their `fashion voice’ just a great vibe so good to see this reaction, all buzzing today, just inspiring all around.

Irene Dee FHEA/ MA/PGCE/BA, Programme Leader BA(Hons) Fashion Design BA (Hons) Fashion Design/Newport: University of South Wales

 

Diversity NOW! is creatively and commercially vital – and a unique opportunity for design students. Constructing an identity is one of the responsibilities of design while also being a creative catalyst that encourages student innovation.

Diversity NOW! brings the customer into the designers’ focus, either through the personification of design or catering to individual desire at the same time as addressing real, practical needs. My students enthusiasm for this project is reflected in their brilliant work and I’m proud that we at London College of Fashion have this platform to express our passion for identity.

Homogeneity is almost a by-word for our modern times, but the door to the new is wide open. I encourage everyone who can to take part in this wonderful competition and embark on what will undoubtedly be an enlightening process.

Rob Phillips, Creative Director, London College of Fashion

 

We are going to embed Diversity NOW! every year as it really opened our eyes in relation to how little the students of this generation had thought about diversity and body image before. They tend to focus on the size zero debate at school rather than self-acceptance and diversity as a whole.

We also find there’s a lack of critical thinking generally nowadays so this project has really helped address that and I think it’s been useful for the students who lack confidence. One of them commented that she thought it was only her that felt a certain way but after discussing some of these topic areas, she realised that everyone feels the same which in turn made her feel happier about herself. Bob Hurling, the behavioural psychologist, really opened their eyes to self-acceptance - a lot of them commented that doing this All Walks cluster of projects was like having therapy!

Sarah Lewington, Principal Lecturer, BA (Hons) Fashion Communication and Promotion, Nottingham Trent University

 

We have embedded diversity into the curriculum within an Illustration module and within a module looking at Fashion in Society. Looking forward to some interesting debates around body issues, prejudices etc.

Alexandra Barnes Foundation Degree in Fashion Course Leader New College Nottingham

 

Caryn’s presentation was inspirational. Speaking to the future generations of the fashion industry she deftly highlighted the shocking themes which are frequently at the heart of major fashion advertising campaigns and elsewhere. The time for sleepwalking is over, the All Walk’s call to action has started a much needed debate and will doubtless steer a more diverse and positive expression of clothes and the people who wear them.

Christian Hutter FHEA/PGCE/BA Senior Lecturer BA (Hons) Fashion Design/Newport University of South Wales

 

The Tutors Forum was really interesting, informative and very heartening! From my perspective as a lecturer it was reassuring there are other lecturers and students trying making a change. Reminded me why I believe practical ethics are a vital part of a designers education and practice! Listening to both the methodologies and anecdotes reminded me of the very positive outcomes changes of thinking can have. It was a reminder, a wake up call, and a challenge for get back out there again; that fashion design practice and the industry needs to be, and can be more inclusive.

Dr Sue Thomas, Course Leader, Bachelor of Fashion (Apparel Engineering & Design) University of Canberra/Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, Melbourne, Australia

 

Thank you so much for inspiring our students to consider that a more caring and inclusive fashion industry is a possibility – and that they have the power to implement change. Thanks to All Walks, Diversity in fashion is now a hot topic of conversation amongst our entire cohort and is informing decisions about garment design, fashion photography, fashion illustration and how our end-of-year fashion show can be organised to include a greater diversity of body-types.

Carol Ryder, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Design, Liverpool John Moores University.

 

The All Walks lecture was incredible, inspirational, hard hitting and thought provoking. Those thoughts have been echoed by the lecturers who attended and the students feedback has been amazing. Everyone feels fired up about the project and the subject matter in general.

Elena Kate Gifford, UCLAN

 

I cannot thank you enough for your inspiring and insightful lecture. Our students have been buzzing all week about it; better yet, many of our MA students have changed their thesis projects to focus on diversity issues because they were so excited by your lecture.

You encouraged them to think about topics that they never previously considered. The faculty was equally thrilled, and felt motivated by the ideas and perspectives that you shared.

Ben Barry, MPhil, PhD, Chair, Toronto Fashion Incubator, Assistant Professor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, School of Fashion, Ryerson University, Toronto

 

Phenomenal presentation. Truly brilliant - dynamic, inspiring, thought-provoking. Created a huge buzz amongst the students.

Elizabeth Tomos, Fine Art Contemporary Practice Course Leader & Critical & Contextual Studies Lecturer, Camarthanshire College

 

Caryn’s words and questions about the fashion industry really make you think and question the messages that the media portrays and how we as educators can help to change the perceptions of the designers of the future. This has been a fantastic way to kick of the Diversity NOW! project and I can’t wait to see the results!

Jamie Louise Hawkins Programme Co-ordinator for BA (Hons) Fashion: Apparel Design and Construction Programme Co-ordinator for Work Based Learning Pathway in Fashion Level 2 & 3 Camarthanshire College

 

All Walks is a vital call out for us all to stand by our values, design and communicate by our values and to show how the influence of fashion creates culture change - towards diversity, identity and positivity – isn’t that what we want our work to be known for?

What a great opportunity it is for us to be able to respond to that call with a resounding array of possibilities. This can’t stop here - it must be embedded throughout the curriculum - thank you All Walks for catalysing us to do just that.

Dilys Williams Director Centre for Sustainable Fashion University of the Arts London

A very powerful and truly inspirational presentation, motivating people to look beyond what they have been brought up to believe is the ‘ideal’. All Walks encourages people to open their eyes to the real world and real people and I think this campaign will do no end of good in improving the industry’s reputation and people’s lives for the better. Thank you!

Mair-Louise Rudd BA2 Fashion Apparel Design and Construction, Coleg Sir Gar

 

Thank-you Caryn for inspiring our students and tutors!

Your lecture included imagery and provoked questions that made the issue of Diversity a real subject that has to be addressed through all the assignments our students do. Your method and choice of delivery made the topic exciting and most of all consolidated the relevance of All Walks into the projects we do.

Sarah Clark | ED Fashion & Clothing 
Gloucestershire College

 

Caryn came to talk to our first year students last year. They are very excited to be working on the Diversity NOW! competition and they all stuck their hands up yesterday when I asked who had been to the lecture last year!

I also attended the talk at Graduate Fashion Week too. This was great because I was really inspired by all the other academics engaging with All Walks. This has led me to embed the whole ethos more into my current module.

Sarah Lewington BA(Hons) Fashion, Communication and Promotion. Nottingham Trent University

 

This presentation gently provokes and questions the prevailing paradigms associated with the framework through which we view and receive fashion. It is very relevant if the fashion system is to evolve

Jinny Stephen Cran, Head of Department Fashion and Textiles - Glasgow School of Art

 

The BA ( Hons) Fashion Studies Course here at the Arts University College has been a supporter of the All Walks philosophy for over 2 years. We have had the opportunity to rewrite the Course Curriculum and make ” All Walks” integral to the content of what we do. This year has been our most successful with a ‘ LIVE Project’ which will conclude with a professional photo shoot working with mature model Valerie Pain.

The students are truly engaged with the opportunity to question existing practices in the Fashion Industry and to celebrate beauty in all it’s forms. It’s now much more than them having ‘ permission’ to design for a more diverse market… they are choosing to lead the way with confidence and commitment.

Finally, the All Walks philosophy is not a trend or passing phase, be sure it is here for good!’

Anne Chaisty, Course Leader, Womenswear - Arts University College, Bournemouth

 

This was one of the best lectures that I have ever heard. Caryn and her colleagues Debra Bourne and Erin O’Connor are all highly respected professionals in the fashion industry, and what was particularly inspiring about Caryn was the ease with which she moved from design, to image-making, to marketing and advertising and extending all beyond the conventional remit into the broader area of culture - and the way we are presented and the way we see ourselves.

It is sadly all too rare for fashion students now to look into the specifics of representation and the language that it can speak. Her exploration of body image, size, age and colour, each intelligently illustrated with images, connected with the students in a way that they have not experienced before. Rather than working within the framework of received opinions, Caryn encouraged the students to challenge them, to find their own voice and to change the status quo. Open-minded, fair and brilliantly controversial, All Walks Beyond the Catwalk should be prescribed not only to students but many players in the fashion industry, many of whom who are lazy, unoriginal and sticking to the eternal bottom-line in terms of sizing, imagery, colour and age. The last person to challenge this in the fashion world was Lee Alexander McQueen, who constantly questioned conventional ideas of beauty. He won British Designer of the Year three times …

Judith Watt, Course Director, MA Fashion Journalism - Kingston University Design School

 

The UCA Fashion Journalism students were so inspired by the All Walks project, they’re already planning to take the campaign to LFW later this year, and want to continue to promote diversity online. They even mentioned the possibility of going into schools to talk to younger girls about the pressures they face.