MBO Toolkit – The Circular Fashion Programme
[THIS CURRICULUM IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH AND DUTCH]
The Circular Fashion Programme has been developed to place more emphasis on circularity and sustainable practices within (Dutch) fashion-focused higher education. It has been designed for and with students in Dutch MBO-education (practical higher education).
The programme is intended to reach a broad audience but specifically to inform, inspire, and activate future fashion professionals by sharing specialised knowledge about creative innovations in the circular fashion industry. The programme focuses on fashion-focused education because the majority of the workforce in the fashion sector (In the Netherlands) has an MBO education, while the circular economy receives insufficient attention there. We have noticed that teachers often lack expertise in this area, which is why we have engaged ROC Amsterdam, Zadkine Rotterdam and the Summa College in Eindhoven as partners in this project, to develop a programme that suits their needs.
This programme is structured as a six-week course, with one lesson per week lasting 45 minutes to 1 hour. Over the course of six weeks, students will be introduced to circular fashion production, learn about themes such as traceability and end-of-use, and become familiar with innovative solutions to social and environmental issues in the clothing industry.
For example, students will analyse their own clothing to gain a better understanding of the journey of a garment before it reaches the store, and they will consider what small, positive actions that they can implement in their daily routines. Finally, students will learn about innovators who positively influence the fashion sector and they will be challenged to apply their newly acquired knowledge by designing a future-forward garment themselves. Themes covered during the lessons and assignments include traceability, production processes, working conditions, sustainable design thinking, cradle-to-cradle, and fashion consumption.
Contents of the programme:
- Teacher’s handbook: this includes a ‘how-to’ overview with frequently asked questions and suggestions to personalise the programme, and six lesson plans, one for each lesson of the programme.
- A set of slides as visual aids, videos, images, and visual summaries of the programme content.
- A workbook with assignments for the students, including a glossary and a list of research sources and tools to support students in their learning process.
- An extensive glossary and a list of sources for further learning.
Acknowledgements:
The Circular Fashion Programme was made possible thanks to the support of the VSB Fonds and the Cultuurfonds.
Download the toolkit here.
Other Education Programmes
MBO/HBO Toolkit – Classroom of the Future: the stories behind cotton
[AVAILABLE IN DUTCH LANGUAGE ONLY]
Educational toolkit Classroom of the Future: the stories behind cotton takes students on a six session journey exploring the impact of cotton on people and our planet. Simultaneously, students are encouraged to follow, recognise and map their own learning and design process. They also gain understanding of how history and stories around a material can have impact on the present and the future as the next generation of makers. This toolkit is adaptable and suitable for MBO and HBO education students with a focus on creative studies like fashion, art and design. Teachers are also encouraged to use the tools as a base to apply in their own contexts.
Kids Birthday Party
Celebrate your birthday in the Fashion for Good Museum! During your party celebration you will go on The Journey of a T-shirt. The workshop will start with a short tour explaining how a T-shirt is made. After the introduction, the design workshop will start where you will decorate your own sustainable, fashion-forward T-shirt with natural dyes made from avocados, coffee and turmeric, as well as fun fabric markers and ‘off-cut’ embellishments!
Kids Corner
Visiting the Fashion for Good Museum is also a fun activity for kids and families.
For curious young minds there’s the Fashion for Good Kids Corner! This is a special space in the museum where kids can get creative and dream up their own version of the future of fashion, right here in the museum.
We have a few activities available that are designed to be as fun and interactive as possible for 8-12 year olds and are available in Dutch and English. Here the kids – or innovators and designers of the future as we’d like to call them – can celebrate their birthdays, attend workshops or join educational programmes.
