Engaged Fashion Design

Description

From an interview by Zoe Romano.

Otto Von Busch:

"What I call classic fashion design, what is still mainly taught at fashion schools and what we meet in media, is still very much based on the cult of the genius, or the divine creator. In this sense fashion is still a true believer in “intelligent design”, defying any notion of evolution. Fashion generally refuses to see that every part of the industry and every new look is built upon and refers to someone else’s work, in very specific details. This, together with the self-centered personality cultivated at fashion school, creates a system with very little social awareness.

Engaged fashion design tries to break this isolation and self-centeredness. Here the idea is rather to use fashion as a tool to spread agency to consumers, rather than the designer retaining agency to him/herself. The designer can use fashion to help participants become empowered and use fashion as an arena for co-authorship, rather than only stand “downstream” and only choose from and buy what the system provides. The role of the designer becomes more of a community builder and facilitator spreading agency and skills rather than an exclusive artist." (http://openwear.org/blog/?p=959)