This course is part of the Sustainable Fashion: Current Systems and Future of Fashion ExpertTrack
The Web of Sustainable Fashion: Relationships in the Fashion Industry
Investigate sustainable business practices and relationships within the fashion industry to create a more balanced fashion system.

Duration
3 weeksWeekly study
4 hours100% online
How it worksIncluded in an ExpertTrack
Course 3 of 3
The Web of Sustainable Fashion: Relationships in the Fashion Industry
Explore how the fashion system can utilise sustainable practices
Addressing the three pillars in the fashion system – economic, social, and environmental – is crucial if we want to achieve sustainability.
On this three-week course, you’ll explore these pillars and learn how we can create a balance between them to work towards sustainable goals.
Learn to define your role within the fashion industry
As an individual wearer of fashion, you’ll explore your role and responsibilities within the fashion industry and analyse the tensions within this relationship.
With this understanding, you’ll determine how you can create a more responsible relationship between you and the fashion industry.
This knowledge will also help you explore the industry on a broader scale and how we can build dynamic relationships in sustainable fashion.
Explore concepts such as circular fashion
You’ll finish the course by thinking about different kinds of models, and how that affects relationships within the fashion system. From active to passive, linear to circular, these models all play an important role in redesigning a sustainable fashion system, and you’ll explore exactly how this can be done.
By the end of the course, you’ll have the confidence to define your role in the fashion industry and understand how relationships affect the outcomes of sustainability goals.
Guided by the experts at Parsons School of Design, you’ll gain insider knowledge of fashion systems to help you feel empowered to tackle the challenges the industry faces today.
Syllabus
Week 1
Forging New Connections within the Fashion Ecosystems
Introduction
Welcome to Week 1
Sustainability Models
Sustainability Models
Inputs to the Fashion System
Inputs to the Fashion System
Wrap Up
Week 1 Wrap Up
Week 2
Relationship Between the Wearer and the Fashion Industry
Welcome to Week 2
Welcome to Week 2
Defining the Relationship
Defining the relationship between wearers and the fashion industry
Impacts of your relationship with the fashion industry
Impacts of your relationship with the fashion industry
Future Relationship Scenarios
Future Relationship Scenarios
Wrap Up
Wrap Up
Week 3
Building Dynamic Relationships
Welcome to Week 3
Welcome to Week 3
Fashion Ecologies in Terms of Relationships
Fashion Ecologies in Terms of Relationships
Active to Passive Relationships
Active to Passive Relationships
Moving toward circular relationships
Moving toward circular relationships
Course Conclusion
Course Conclusion
Prove you're job ready
Highlight the new, job-relevant skills you’ve gained and supplement existing qualifications with a hard-earned, industry-specific digital certificate – plus one for every course within your ExpertTrack.
- Learn the latest in your chosen industry or subject.
- Complete each course and pass assessments.
- Receive certificates validated by the educating organisation.
- Impress employers with learning outcomes you can add to your CV.
- Make your career dreams a reality.
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Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Explore the context and connections of the various fashion ecosystems.
- Evaluate the relationship between the fashion wearer and the fashion industry.
- Classify the different types of relationships within the fashion system and their relevance to sustainability.
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone interested in sustainable fashion.
You may be a student or pursuing a career in fashion or sustainability.
Who will you learn with?
I am a sustainable systems educator, researcher, and designer. I work on developing new mindsets, models, and systems for alternative ecologies of fashion practice for social and environmental justice
Who developed the course?
Parsons School of Design
For more than a century, Parsons School of Design has been inspired by the transformative potential of design. Today, the school’s groundbreaking academic programs carry forward that mission, making Parsons the number one design school in the U.S. and among the top three globally. At the heart of a comprehensive university — The New School — Parsons draws on a range of academic fields to deliver a uniquely interdisciplinary education enriched by the resources of its home in New York City
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