Decolonising Fashion and Textiles - Design for Cultural Sustainability with Refugee Communities

到目前为止，少数民族的纺织品遗产往往是时尚品牌滥用文化侵占做法的对象，或者被系统地掩盖或低估为“他者”生产的“非时尚”。随着(由于全球和当地的政治、经济和环境问题)人们大规模流离失所的情况增加，我们显然需要重新考虑和解决移民少数群体的需求和愿望，并找到尊重他们多样化文化的方法。此外，为了避免目前设计师被“空降”到被边缘化或处于不利地位的社区，认为带来他们的知识和专业知识就是答案的情况，有必要将这种占主导地位的方法“去殖民化”，将设计从殖民思想的遗产中解放出来，同时利用多样性、包容性和可持续发展的价值观。这项研究旨在通过文化可持续发展的视角，深入了解非殖民主义的时装和纺织品设计实践。除了公认的可持续发展的三大支柱(即环境、经济和社会)外，这项研究还认为有必要考虑文化层面，即不同的文化体系、价值观、行为和规范。这项研究采用整体的方法，将重点放在“不同当地人”社区开展的纺织和时尚手工艺实践，这意味着难民，尽管他们经历了痛苦的旅程，但仍保留了他们的文化、习俗和信仰，以及各种宝贵的手工艺遗产技能。这项研究旨在通过关注难民社区在文化可持续性、社区复原力和社会企业家精神方面可以教给我们的东西来填补知识空白。将对居住在伦敦东部的难民社区进行参与性行动研究，采用嵌入和情境的方法进行设计。研究参与者将根据他们过去在本国纺织和时装业工作的经验，从不同的文化背景中挑选出来，以利用他们尚未开发的技能和知识，并促进他们潜在地融入当地经济和社会。将收集与社区物质文化有关的口述历史，以便了解他们的文化遗产，举办旨在发展社会创业模式以增强难民复原力的共同创造讲习班，并概述可持续复兴的政策建议。预计这项研究将有助于提高项目参与者、设计从业者和研究人员对文化可持续性问题的认识，促进非殖民化的时尚实践，并认识到超出全球北方传统标准的多种形式的创业。这项研究还将通过扩大参与社区的声音和机构，提高他们的时尚和纺织品制造技能以及创业能力，并为可持续再生政策的制定提供信息，从而使他们受益。此外，还将共同创作和出售一系列嵌入参与社区文化遗产的时装和纺织品艺术品，以筹集资金支持正在进行的社区领导的与时尚有关的创业活动。最后，虽然实地工作将与伦敦东部的社区一起进行，但研究结果将为制定文化可持续性、社会企业家精神和可持续再生的设计框架提供参考，该框架往往在整个英国具有更广泛的适用性和可复制性。

Until now, the textile heritage of minorities has often been the object of abusive cultural appropriation practices undertaken by fashion brands or has been systematically obscured or undervalued as 'non-fashion' produced by 'the other'. With the mass displacement of people on the rise (due to global and local political, economic, and environmental issues), it is clear that we need to rethink and address the needs and aspirations of migrant minority communities and find ways to honour their diverse cultures. Furthermore, to avoid the current situation where designers are 'parachuted' into marginalised or disadvantaged communities with the assumption that bringing their knowledge and expertise is the answer, there is a need to 'decolonise' such dominant approaches, liberating design from its legacies of colonial thought, whilst leveraging the values of diversity, inclusivity and sustainability. This research aims to provide an in-depth understanding of decolonised fashion and textile design practices through the lens of cultural sustainability. Besides the three commonly recognised pillars of sustainability (i.e. environmental, economic, and social), this research argues for a need to consider also a cultural dimension, meaning diverse cultural systems, values, behaviours, and norms. Adopting a holistic approach, this research will focus on textile and fashion artisanal practice carried out by communities of 'diverse locals', meaning refugees who, despite their traumatic journeys, retain their culture, customs and faiths, as well as a variety of invaluable craft heritage skills. This research intends to fill a gap in knowledge through its focus on what refugee communities can teach us, in terms of cultural sustainability, community resilience, and social entrepreneurship. Adopting an embedded and situated approach to designing, participatory action research will be undertaken with communities of refugees living in East London. The research participants will be selected from a variety of cultural backgrounds in light of their past experience working in the textile and fashion industry in their home countries, to leverage their untapped skills and knowledge and facilitate their potential integration in the local economy and society. Oral histories will be collected in relation to the communities' material culture, in order to make sense of their cultural heritage, conduct co-creation workshops aimed at developing social entrepreneurship models to enhance the resilience of the refugees, and outline policy recommendations for sustainable regeneration. It is expected that the research will contribute to raising project participants, design practitioners and researchers' awareness of issues of cultural sustainability, promoting decolonised fashion practice, and recognising diverse forms of entrepreneurship that go beyond traditional standards from the Global North. The research will also benefit the participating communities through amplifying their voice and agency, enhancing their fashion and textile making skills as well as entrepreneurial capabilities, and informing the development of sustainable regeneration policies. Moreover, a collection of fashion and textile artefacts embedding the cultural heritage of the participating communities will be co-created and sold in order to raise funding to support on-going community-led fashion-related entrepreneurial activities. Finally, although the field work will be undertaken with communities in east London, findings from the research will inform the development of a framework for designing for cultural sustainability, social entrepreneurship and sustainable regeneration that is apt to have broader applicability and replicability across the UK.