In this class we will examine fashion and the fashion industry through a feminist lens within historical and contemporary, local and global contexts. We will be investigating the effects of the dictates and business of fashion upon people’s lives and delving into questions such as: how does fashion affect our understandings of gender, race and sexuality? What are the messages we receive from visual culture and the media with which we interact constantly? How are sexism, racism, weightism, ableism etc. embedded in these messages and in the industry? We will also examine the development of the industry historically. What have been and what are currently the sites, situations and working conditions from which garments are produced? What are the impacts on people, animals and the environment that the industry has had over time? This course is designed to give students the knowledge and skills to enable engagement with the fashion industry from an active, inquiring and critical position. To facilitate this, we will be working within a very interdisciplinary framework, using a variety of written and visual texts.