A space originally used by the Fashion Department at the University of Westminster has been repurposed to create a sustainable fashion area on Harrow Campus: the Conscious Fashion Space. The new hub, which is supported by the University’s Green Fund, uses fashion for change and has sustainability, collaboration, community, entrepreneurship, education and inspiration at its heart.
The flexible, re-designed space acts as a generator for ideas and action, bringing together students and colleagues in an informal, creative space focused on sustainable fashion. Westminster students will have the opportunity to take on roles of responsibility and leadership in the space, running events, dressing the window, learning to merchandise stock, sourcing and hosting guest speakers, managing a clothing recycling bank and developing their own micro fashion businesses.
Student partners in developing the space included Paolo Barbaran, Julia Jasinka, Maria Barini and Xiaowei Xia from the Fashion Business Management with Professional Experience BA Honours course, and academic partners were Denise Francis-Brown, Christine Hammond, Nicola Mansfield and Caroline Curtis. The project also partnered with the London-based non-profit Love not Landfill to provide an on-site recycling unit for clothing.
The project team said: “When it comes to climate change, fashion is guilty: the industry is responsible for 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions. Every second, the equivalent of a rubbish truck load of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill. As a leading educator in fashion, we believe that the University of Westminster can and should play a part in changing the business of fashion for the better. Our Green Fund project demonstrates how fashion can be sustainable & ethical, moving towards a circular, renewable system rather than the current linear, wasteful, damaging one.”
The University of Westminster Green Fund was established by the University’s Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) and Sustainability Team in 2021 and provides students of all courses with the opportunity to carry out sustainability related projects. The purpose of the Fund is to promote understanding, awareness, and behavioural change in the field of environmental leadership and to empower students and colleagues by supporting local sustainable projects.
The Fund supports Westminster’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting understanding, awareness and change in environmental leadership, and by empowering students and staff to design and create sustainable local projects.
Learn more about the Westminster Green Fund.
Learn more about Fashion courses at the University.
