Pedagogical issues in fashion theory Fashion or dress? Pedagogical issues in fashion theory

Abstract

In this article, I plan to reflect on the pedagogical challenges I’ve faced in my
first semester of teaching fashion studies material at Parsons, speaking specifically to the
challenges I’ve overcome in leading my junior seminar, Supermodel: Beauty, Fashion, and
Performance, and in devising a new undergraduate fashion theory elective. In doing so,
I will provide an overview of Fashion Studies as a newly-emerging academic field and
outline the reflections that other scholars have published thus far.
While the aforementioned will serve as a broad foundation for my paper, my primary focus
will be on my own experience. In contributing my perspective as a teacher of undergraduate
MFA students at Parsons to this conversation, I will pose the following questions: What
challenges do my students face in working within a discipline and in a manner that is so
different from their own practice? What is the most effective way to introduce students to
fashion theory and criticism? What issues are students most drawn to? And finally, how might
classes such as mine influence students in reflecting on their own practice as designers? The
purpose of this article will thusly be to foster a dialogue between Fashion Studies scholars as
well as with other academics who work and research in interdisciplinary fields.