California College of the Arts

Undergraduate:

Design 3: Sustainability

The class is taught by Lynda Grose who has been involved with sustainable textiles and fashion and education for a number of years since co -founding ESPRIT'S ecollection in the early nineties. It is a 6 hour class, 15 weeks long and receives 3 credits in the US system. The class is a required element for all CCA's undergraduate students and covers:

• the ecological crisis,
• a brief history of sustainable design,
• sustainable design strategies and tools,
• research methodologies from industrial design applied to fashion,
• consumption,
• social justice models emerging,
• new business models emerging,
• balances and tradeoffs working in the field.

The class combines lecture and studio and emphasizes ecological/social issues as a point for innovation and problem solving.

The image shown is student's work from 2007, which resulted from researching consumer attitudes and behaviors. The student identified that consumers buy clothes for a need for change and variety.  The garment is modular, with a snapping system allowing for moving the panels up and down to vary the neckline, easy repair, replacing with additional colored/patterned and textured panels etc.

Visit the CCA Fashion website.