Dir. Mal Burkinshaw on the Centre of Diversity’s First Year
Since the Centre of Diversity launched at Edinburgh College of Art last year, we have achieved much recognition for our work, both nationally and internationally. I was fortunate enough to have a paper selected for the 2012 International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) conference, about the educational delivery of ‘emotionally considerate design’ at ECA, which I presented in person at the Pearl Academy in Jaipur, India.
During ECA's Innovative Learning Week we were delighted to work with UCA Epsom Journalism students. The combined student group took to the streets, and to the Scottish Parliament, protesting for more diversity in fashion design and imagery. The students demonstrated a level of passion for the All Walks philosophy which far surpassed my expectations.
Our 2nd year students collaborated with the Scottish National Galleries to develop a design project which gave historical context to body and beauty diversity. They applied this knowledge to their ‘Fashion and the Muse' project, creating a contemporary collection for models representing a diverse range of body shapes, ages and beauty ideals. The project was showcased during our Edinburgh College of Art Fashion Shows at the university's Playfair Library, Edinburgh.
I am also delighted to be launching a major new academic research project. Academic researchers within the broad discipline of fashion design will work in collaboration with the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS), All Walks Beyond the Catwalk and multi-disciplinary University research programmes to inspire, educate and celebrate diverse body and beauty ideals through innovation-led design and visionary craft skills. Working closely with gallery educators, curators and historians, the project will extract vital research and inspiration from the Reformation to Revolution gallery at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) and the World Class Renaissance collections at the Scottish National Gallery. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has confirmed approval for the research to be exhibited in a creative showcase, opening at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh from October 2014 – January 2015.
We have demonstrated that not only should educators be developing the creative brains of our future designers, but they should also be leading new methods of teaching students about the end contexts for their work: the diverse customer. Vitally, the students have embraced the philosophy of designing for diversity and have now started to catalyse these ideas as part of the natural creative process underpinning all of their design work.
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Mal Burkinshaw Director of the All Walks' Centre for Diversity, Edinburgh College of Art See Mal's profile on the Academic Team page. |
Students’ Marching Mannequins bring the All Walks’ message to Edinburgh
When fashion students at Edinburgh College of Art were faced with a ‘flatpack’ mannequin and a group of Fashion Journalists from UCA Epsom, as part of the University of Edinburgh’s “Innovative Learning Week”, it’s safe to say we felt slightly dubious about what lay ahead. Despite this, Course Director of Fashion at ECA, Mal Burkinshaw, reassured students that there was method, at least some, to his madness.
Students working to construct the pattern for their mannequins
The project brief was to promote the “All Walks Beyond The Catwalk” campaign using the self-assemble model of a 1950s cardboard mannequin, an object that symbolised the ‘make-do-and-mend’ era, when amateur dressmaking was at its most prominent. Our task was to assemble the mannequin and then use it as a ‘blank canvas’ to create an inspired “All Walks” campaign message of diversity within the fashion industry. Little did we know these would later be pushed into the public eye, literally, on the streets of Edinburgh.
Students working on their Renaissance inspired mannequin, which sought to highlight society’s changing opinion of beauty and the body
Not only did this project offer us a chance to creatively convey the important messages of the “All Walks” campaign - celebrating diversity in ethnicity, age, shape and size, and the need to communicate these to the public - but, by constructing the mannequins, it allowed us to manipulate body sizes - a hands on way for us, as fashion students, to really explore and understand the contours of the body and how much bodies can differ.
Realising that, in emotionally considerate design, we should always refer back to the insight that the human body is unique by nature, we were more fired up than ever to project our belief to the public that we don’t have to be constrained by one prescribed image of ‘beauty.’
The march begins!
Now, it could just have been that the ‘march’ through the streets of Edinburgh offered us a chance to take part in a student demonstration, but I know it meant far more than that to both ECA and UCA Epsom students. We all chose to be a part of the project because we passionately believe that the “All Walks” campaign is so relevant to today’s diverse society and that the public should hear about it and know that people within the industry are really striving to change the images produced by the world of fashion for the better.
Outside the Scottish Parliament
Outside The Scotsman, campaigning to get All Walks into the local press
Shocked at the Harvey Nichols windows, showcasing extremely skinny models, crying and disheveled – is this a positive image of fashion?
Our march took us to Princes Street, the main shopping high street in Edinburgh to educate the consumer directly
After marching around Edinburgh for two and a half hours, from the Scottish Parliament to Primark on Princes Street, handing out flyers and chanting loudly, a sore throat was a small price to pay for what I saw as an extremely worthwhile day of education and of broadcasting our important message.
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Words by Heather Dooley, Fashion Student at Edinburgh College of Art
Images courtesy of Mal Burkinshaw, Dir. 'All Walks Centre for Diversity,' ECA
Editor Charlotte Gush, on Twitter @CavaCharlotte