Curiosity Saved the Clothes
So, here we are, starting Week 2 of our ‘Who Made My Clothes?’ MOOC (Massive Open Online Course – for those stumped by the odd acronym)! We are Jemma, Beth and Zahra, your course mentors and fellow learners, taking you behind the scenes of the course last week.
Well, what a week it’s been… We’re blown away by the record numbers of participants who started this journey alongside us. 7,000 people from all over the world, from more countries than there are involved in the World Cup! This is something we’re incredibly proud to be a part of, so thank you all!
The ‘Who Made My Clothes?’ course was created with Fashion Revolution and aims to lift the lid on the global fashion industry and to show its learners how they can answer this question for themselves. We’ve got our own investigative community going on.
The course is run on the FutureLearn platform. We log in every day to answer more and more of our learners’ questions on the parts of the course that they might be finding hard, but also the stuff that they are liking too. It has been great to see so many learners interacting with each other (and with us) in the discussion sections. And – wow! – our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook channels are buzzing. We have particularly enjoyed the original artwork we’ve been tagged in. Like these… Keep it up!
Do you guys know that another free mooc by @fash_rev just started? I am taking part obviously (again), because I believe there is never too much information if you are really into some topic. If you wanna join me, go to @fash_rev_mooc (have I mentioned it’s free?) ❤️ and my question is, what do you believe is more effective for changing fashion industry for the best: changing the consumers behavior or or changes at legislation level? #whomademyclothes #fashionrevolution #ezrawsmith #illustration #drawing #art #sustainablefadhion #fashfashionindustry #fashionindustry
Curiosity. That’s what Week 1 was all about. Being curious about our clothes and trying to learn more about their origins. We have been getting in contact with our clothing brands to discover/uncover these stories. Although some of us have received, lets just say ‘frosty’ responses from companies, it is important to persevere. Keep on asking these questions. Did you know that 1 email can represent the voices of 500 others who are thinking the same thing?? So send that email, ask that question on Twitter and don’t be shy to get the conversation going.
Week 1 came to an end with the filming of a Q&A session at the Sanchos store here in Exeter. We had an amazing guest panel comprising of Debbie Luffman (product director for Finisterre), Joss Whipple (country coordinator for Fashion Revolution) and Agatha Lintott (founder of curated online shop Antibad). We got the chance to ask them four burning questions that were re-occurring on our discussion boards and social media. They covered topics such as the sustainability potential of fast fashion and whether or not we can really trust our clothing labels.
It’s clear from the discussion boards that many of our learners are fully embracing the course and in doing so, are questioning your shopping choices. Should we feel regretful? Should we feel guilty? Whatever we feel, this is part of the process! As the course continues, we will reflect on these feelings and what we can do about them in the future. It’s less about changing our shopping habits, and more about changing mindsets!
Now we’re in week two of the course, the detective work begins. We will be taking our curiosity a step further, digging deeper into the investigation to uncover the hidden human stories behind our clothes. Zahra will be wondering who made her Wonder Woman PJs… Jemma will be stitching together the story of her embroidered jumpsuit… and hopefully Beth won’t get too distressed over who distressed her skirt.
So, if you haven’t yet signed up, please join us. Who made your clothes?
Beth, Jemma and Zahra.
