Fashion forms part of a society’s rich tapestry and can serve as an entry point into contemplating how marginalized and racialized communities understand themselves and their place in the world. Fashion & Justice is a daylong workshop that examines the role of fashion in challenging inequality through sartorial ingenuity. The schedule includes an analysis of artwork and artistic projects, partial film screenings, review of relevant literature, conversations with guest speakers, and a look at designers, artists, journalists, curators, photographers, and academics who explore the fashion system through a critical lens. Participants leave the workshop with a syllabus equipping them with tools to understand how marginalized communities harness fashion to negotiate the complexities of power and visibility (and the lack thereof), proposing substantive solutions for a more just fashion system.

Produced and hosted by Kimberly Jenkins and Dr. Jonathan M. Square at Columbia College Chicago, 2019.

Today’s feminists are unstoppable – raising their voices for equality, diversity and inclusion. Fashion brands are following suit. Rebecca Minkoff has taken initiative with politics, supporting candidate Catalina Cruz, dubbed “the legislative middle finger to Trump” by NY Mag. Architectural swimwear brand Chromat changed the face of the catwalk and advertising, featuring people of all shapes, sizes, abilities and identifiers.

As brands walk on eggshells to be politically correct, these women-led brands are busting through barriers, and agencies like Berlin Cameron and its Girl Brands Do It Better division are facilitating the charge and attracting customers along the way.

The session closes with a powerful, inclusive pop-up fashion show featuring an exclusive collection for SXSW.

From the Brooklyn Public Library:

How can clothing act as a tool for social justice and political self-expression? Kim Jenkins, lecturer at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design will draw upon fashion history and theory to show the role that clothing and styling has played in guiding self-determination in the face of oppression as well as ingenuity when we are presented with limited resources.

This event is part of the "Democracy Lab at the Spacebuster,” which is free and open to the public.

Fashion forms part of a society’s rich tapestry and can serve as an entry point into contemplating how marginalized and racialized communities understand themselves and their place in the world. Fashion & Justice is a daylong workshop that examines the role of fashion in challenging inequality through sartorial ingenuity. This iteration, which will be held at The Phluid Project, will focus on the way in which sexual and gender identities are expressed and challenged through fashion.

The schedule will include analyses of artwork and artistic projects, partial film screenings, review of relevant literature, and conversations with photographer Lola Flash and designer Rae Tutera. Participants will leave the workshop with a Fashion & Justice syllabus equipping them with tools to understand how marginalized communities harness fashion to negotiate the complexities of power and visibility (and the lack thereof), proposing substantive solutions for a more just fashion system.

Produced and hosted by Kimberly Jenkins and Dr. Jonathan M. Square at the Phluid Project, 2018.

Who makes your clothes? This used to be an easy question to answer: it was the seamstress next door, or the tailor on the high street - or you made them yourself. Today we rarely know the origins of the clothes hanging in our closets. The local shoemaker, dressmaker and milliner are long gone, replaced by a globalised fashion industry worth $1.5 trillion a year.

In Wardrobe Crisis, fashion journalist Clare Press explores the history and ethics behind what we wear. Putting her insider status to good use, Press examines the entire fashion ecosystem, from sweatshops to haute couture, unearthing the roots of today’s buy-and-discard culture. She traces the origins of icons like Chanel, Dior and Hermès; charts the rise and fall of the department store; and follows the thread that led us from Marie Antoinette to Carrie Bradshaw.

From a time when Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein were just two boys from the Bronx, to the world of the global fashion juggernaut, where Zara’s parent company produces more than 900 million garments annually, Press takes us on an insider’s journey of discovery and revelation.

Wardrobe Crisis is a witty and persuasive argument for a fashion revolution that will empower you to feel good about your wardrobe again.

Talk by Clare Press in conversation with Kim Jenkins, Part-Time Lecturer at Parsons School of Fashion, with introduction by Michelle DePass, Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at the New School, 2018.

The Fashion and Justice Workshop in collaboration with IMMEDIATE Fashion School, at The Contemporary, Austin, Texas, 2018.

Fashion forms part of a society’s rich tapestry and can serve as an entry point into contemplating how marginalized and racialized communities understand themselves and their place in the world. Fashion & Justiceis a daylong scholarly workshop that examines the role of fashion in challenging inequality through sartorial ingenuity. The schedule includes an analysis of artwork and artistic projects, partial film screenings, and review of relevant literature. Visiting instructors Dr. Jonathan Michael Square (Harvard University) and Kimberly M. Jenkins (Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design) designed this workshop that looks at designers, artists, journalists, curators, photographers, and academics who explore the fashion system through a critical lens, and invited guest speaker Dr. Lyndon Gill (The University of Texas at Austin, African and African Diaspora Studies) to join the conversation.

"Fashion Talks: Exploring Fashion and Culture with Kim Jenkins" presents the second talk of the 2017 season, continuing to explore the dramatic shifts in globalized fashion culture. We pursue the following questions: “How can fashion continue to sustain itself? What needs to change effectively in the fashion system?” Kim Jenkins, Visiting Assistant Professor of Fashion, will sit down with Rebecca Van Bergen, founder of Nest and Kolade Adeyemo and Akin Adebowale, founders of Oxosi, to show new ways of producing fashion that commit to economic change and elevate the work of global designers, respectively. This event is free and open to the public.

School of Fashion at Pratt Institute, 2017.