Fashion is a great teacher – The fashion education podcast

Renate Stauss & Franziska Schreiber

Fashion is a great teacher because it provides a fantastic lens to learn about the world and its people, about history, politics and culture. Join Renate Stauss and Franziska Schreiber, professors of fashion theory and fashion design in Paris and Berlin to discover the most inspiring voices in fashion education, their take on the how and why of learning and teaching fashion, their doubts and hopes, their lessons from fashion.

  1. 04/04/2025

    Ben Barry on unpicking jackets, instituting justice and remembering the joy of fashion

    In this episode you meet Ben Barry - fashion educator, designer-researcher and academic leader who is devoted to equity, inclusion and social justice in fashion education and the fashion industry.   Ben Barry has been described as an ‘idea machine’ whose work has been lauded as ‘positive, determined action to undo stereotypes and redefine society's idea of beauty. He is Dean and Associate Professor of Equity and Inclusion in the School of Fashion – at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Fashion is a great teacher talks to him about unpicking his suit jackets and inherent notions of masculinity, transformative educational experiences and using ones’ body to navigate the complexities of institutional change. Finding liberatory pockets and fashion utopia in everyday clothing. And how it all started with him playing in his grandmother’s closet.  Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker Graphic by: Studio Regular

    52 min

  2. 01/07/2025

    Multilogue Moments: Colectivo Malvestidas on ‘Decolonising Decolonisation! / A Decolonizar la Decolonización!', Provocation at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023 – De-Fashioning Education, A Critical Thinking and Making Conference

    This episode brings you ‘Decolonising Decolonisation!/ A Decolonizar la Decolonización!'– the bi-lingual spoken part of the performance Provocation by Colectivo Malvestidas, at De-Fashioning Education – A Critical Thinking and Making Conference in Berlin – The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023.  Colectivo Malvestidas was formed in 2016 in Santiago, Chile, by Loreto Martínez (theatre designer, curator and creative producer) and Tamara Poblete (researcher in fashion and dress, curator and cultural manager). The two began to intertwine their interests in dress as a political device. They did this by situating themselves in Latin America and embracing critical theory, feminisms and decolonial practice. They decided to name themselves Colectivo Malvestidas (Poorly dressed Collective) with a focus on the aesthetic and the parodic. Since then, they have developed several projects committed to making visible and developing disruptive and counter-hegemonic discourses in fashion and dress. Editors: Franziska Schreiber & Renate Stauss Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker Graphic by: Studio Regular

    7 min

  3. 02/14/2024

    Multilogue Moments: Otto von Busch & Christina Moon on ‘‘Fashion & Vitality’, Provocation Dialogue at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023 – De-Fashioning Education, A Critical Thinking and Making Conference

    This episode brings you ‘Fashion & Vitality’ – the Provocation Dialogue by Otto von Busch & Christina Moon at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023: De-Fashioning Education – A Critical Thinking and Making Conference in Berlin. Christina Moon is an Associate Professor of Fashion Studies in the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons School of Design, The New School in New York. Her most recent project on the wardrobe explores the interplay of image, clothing, text and textile through diaspora, exile, and longing. Otto von Busch is Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design. In his research he explores how the powers of fashion can be bent to achieve a positive personal and social condition with which the Everyperson is free to grow to their full potential. Editors: Franziska Schreiber & Renate Stauss Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker Graphic by: Studio Regular

    23 min

  4. 02/07/2024

    Multilogue Moments: Anjana Das & Mayank Mansingh Kaul on ‘Rethinking Made in India’’, Provocation Dialogue at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023 – De-Fashioning Education, A Critical Thinking and Making Conference

    This episode brings you ‘Rethinking Made in India’ – the Provocation Dialogue by Anjana Das & Mayank Mansingh Kaul at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023: De-Fashioning Education – A Critical Thinking and Making Conference in Berlin.  Anjana Das heads her clothing label “White Champa” which is operating from a studio in New Delhi. Her expertise lies in bridge-building between India and Europe in the field of textiles and fashion. Mayank Mansingh Kaul is a New Delhi-based independent curator with a focus on post-colonial histories of Indian textiles.   Editors: Franziska Schreiber & Renate Stauss Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker Graphic by: Studio Regular

    18 min

  5. 01/31/2024

    Multilogue Moments: Sunny Dolat on ‘Reconsidering Efficiency as a Priority’, Provocation at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023 – De-Fashioning Education, A Critical Thinking and Making Conference

    This episode brings you ‘Reconsidering Efficiency as a Priority’ – the Provocation by Sunny Dolat, at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023: De-Fashioning Education – A Critical Thinking and Making Conference in Berlin. Sunny Dolat is a cultural producer, creative director, and fashion curator. As the co-founder of the Nest Collective, he actively promotes art and culture in Kenya. He challenges social and political issues and is particularly concerned in his work with Africa’s place in global and cultural debates and dialogues.   Editors: Franziska Schreiber & Renate Stauss  Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker  Graphic by: Studio Regular

    20 min

  6. 01/24/2024

    Multilogue Moments: Sandra Niessen on ‘De-Fashion: From Fossil Fuel Fashion to a Fashion Pluriverse’, Provocation at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023 – De-Fashioning Education, A Critical Thinking and Making Conference

    This episode brings you ‘De-Fashion: From Fossil Fuel Fashion to a Fashion Pluriverse’ – the Provocation by Sandra Niessen, at The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023: De-Fashioning Education – A Critical Thinking and Making Conference in Berlin. Sandra Niessen is an anthropologist and activist who WE interviewed in September 2023 on her perspective of De-Fashion, which informed the conference. Join us now for her passionate provocation in Berlin, her call to action for a fossil-free fashion industry and an understanding of fashion that prioritizes cultural diversity, rejects exploitative practices, and fosters a pluriverse of fashion expressions.   Editors: Franziska Schreiber & Renate Stauss  Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker Graphic by: Studio Regular

    28 min

  7. 08/21/2023

    Sandra Niessen on anthropology, anger and activism

    In this episode you meet Sandra Niessen – anthropologist and activist, who's repeatedly called out both the global western fashion industry for its imperialism and fashion studies for its biases and othering – using her decades of field work among the Batak in Indonesia, to ground her increasingly direct critique. Sandra Niessen recently published a manifesto for Degrowth, which urges a process of De-Fashion. For The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education 2023, we've taken up this term for an exploration of De-Fashioning education, a critical thinking and making conference that wants to champion different fashion educational cultures and explore how to unmake global western fashion education, which has co-opted a fashion system in which so much is wrong, so many are left out, and so few profit – to adapt Halberstan. Fashion is a great teacher talks to her about becoming an activist instructor, and getting angrier with age, the power of connecting the potential and limits of anthropology, addressing the Colonialism in one’s own work and freeing ourselves from the shackles of limitations to our imagination. Interview: Renate Stauss  Editorial assistant: Chantz Norris Sound editor: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker Graphic by: Studio Regular

    58 min

  8. 06/08/2023

    Rahemur Rahman on empathic fashion education, eliminating hurdles and creating a better world through teaching better

    In this episode you meet Rahemur Rahman, artist, designer, filmmaker, and Joint First Year Leader on the BA Fashion at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. He has a strong commitment to social knowledge and community engagement, using his platform to give voice to underrepresented communities. He sees himself as a conduit of hope between grassroots and CEOs. He wants to decolonize craftsmanship and show the whole world what Bangladesh can do. Rahemur radiates empathy and urgency at once, and embodies what Paolo Freire called an education for hope. Fashion is a great teacher talks to him about unlearning taboos and eliminating hurdles, about saving people through care and education, and creating a better world though teaching better, about almost becoming a civil servant instead … and the ambiguity of teaching students for an industry that he thinks is a complete pile of crap. Interview: Renate Stauss Audio editing by: Moritz Bailly Music by: Johannes von Weizsäcker  Graphic by: Studio Regular

    50 min
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Fashion is a great teacher because it provides a fantastic lens to learn about the world and its people, about history, politics and culture. Join Renate Stauss and Franziska Schreiber, professors of fashion theory and fashion design in Paris and Berlin to discover the most inspiring voices in fashion education, their take on the how and why of learning and teaching fashion, their doubts and hopes, their lessons from fashion.

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