Fashion Fictions: a greater sense of possibility
World 90 prototype: visualisation of a world where clothing is used to demarcate personal space, creating a culture of equality and respect. Created by NTU students Scarlet Taylor, Maisie Spooner, Namira Tanzim and Celina Kingston-Nielsen, based on a fiction contributed by Sarah Cheang.
“The climate crisis is a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination,” wrote anthropologist Amitav Ghosh, in his seminal work The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a searing indictment of humanity’s inability to grasp the scale and violence of climate change - or to imagine anything better. Into this space steps Fashion Fictions, an ongoing global research project by Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd and a direct attempt to address that crisis. Bridging the gap between fiction and reality, Fashion Fictions offers a myriad of responses to Holroyd’s opening question: “If you could imagine an entirely new fashion system, what would you dream up?”
The responses, collated in an online resource as 100-word outlines or ‘worlds’, present a kaleidoscope of possibility. Each world differs immensely. Some are playful - “in which clothes and ornaments are living beings” - whilst others are pragmatic. In one, all brands produce garments within their postal code. In another, “Africa was never colonised”. In World 65, “consumers spend time working in agricultural fibre production”; in World 91, “a Sewing, Theatre, Ecology, and Mindfulness curriculum guides learning”. ‘Dandy grannies’ are key fashion influencers in World 89. There are currently over 260 ‘worlds’ in total (and counting!), with entries from every corner of the globe.
Whether mercurial, challenging or still a little bit practical, each world offers a subtle retort to injustices in the status quo: to the devastation of global trade, to the exploitation of other peoples, to disconnection between modern societies and where their clothes are made; the paucity of educational responses; the marginalising of different groups. And each world hints at the broad societal shifts that would make its vision possible. Which progressive government has mandated that shoppers must work on farms or mandated a Sewing, Theatre, Ecology, and Mindfulness curriculum? What skills might we learn if grannies were influencers - and how might that change the way we see the elderly in our communities? And where did the living garments of World 224 emerge from? I feel happy just typing this.
Grannies as influencers; bans on advertising
“When I created the original structure, it was definitely as something that people in different settings could engage with,” reflects Twigger Holroyd, Associate Professor of Fashion and Sustainability at Nottingham Trent University’s School of Art and Design. Twigger Holroyd spent decades as a designer, maker, researcher and writer in fashion and sustainability before beginning to explore ideas around imagination as a radical tool for future-building. Since then, Fashion Fictions’ evolution has been community-led and organic. “It’s a continual process,” nods Twigger Holroyd. “I learn from the wisdom of the crowd,’ she says.
Today, the project suggests a three stage structure. The online outlines represent the first stage before participants are invited to generating visual and material protopyes for their specific World. sWhen students at Falmouth University chose to work with World 72, ‘in which wild one-night-only rented assemblages are worn at speakeasy clubs’, they devised a character for that world, a costumier called Sherri. Their artefact was a calico matchbox. The caption: “During the prohibition of newly made garments, many speak-easy goers would use contraband items such as sewing needles, threads and various illegal fabrics to create, amend and alter their party attire. Inconspicuous receptacles were used and created to conceal these forbidden items. This matchbox was confiscated from famous fashion designer Sherri Chauvin, during the raid of the notorious speakeasy World 72.”
World 62 prototype: receipts showing the creative use of language in a world where the distribution of imagery depicting people and garments is banned. Created by NTU students Finn Barker-Flower, Pierce Bacon and two anonymised contributors, based on a fiction contributed by Talia Hussain.
Starting with World 62, “in which strict legislation controls the distribution of images”, a group from Nottingham Trent University explored ways in which clothes could be marketed using only written description. Shoppers develop alternative complex vocabularies based around colour, fibre, fabrics. The prototype - three receipts from distinct brands - show how different graphics, composition and syntax reflect the hierarchy and value of each brand. “In developing their work, the group thought deeply about the world, discussing the impact of this system not only on fashion consumption but also the wider culture,” wrote Twigger Holroyd, in a 2024 report on the project. “They speculated on the implications of the elimination of seductive imagery.”
She quotes the team: ‘We all know of body image issues … through social media and advertisement. We’ve seen the impact it’s had on people’s personalities … how it shapes people. … Maybe body positivity problems … could be eliminated, because you’re not being constantly bombarded with that imagery and stuff.’” In project after project, students demonstrate ‘expanded thinking about fashion, design and sustainability, ‘a sense of agency’ and ‘thinking beyond the fashion system’. Students sound enthusiastic - and liberated: “When you think about the future … it can be like a fresh start. I quite liked creating something that I had control of, to some extent.” Another student for whom speculative design is a novelty, says: ‘This was the first time I’ve ever done something like this … you have to go into a different thought process from what we usually do’.
From conceptual to concrete
The third stage of projects involve the physical, immersive experience of an alternative fashion system. “I like the idea of seeing ourselves as embodied creatures because I don't think we're going to rationally think our way to a sustainable future,” she muses. “I think we're going to get there in a funny, sideways, unexpected, tricksy kind of way. There's a book called Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age by a media theorist called Nicole Seymour, in which she talks about environmentalism being serious, dour, rational, heavy … “ continues Twigger Holroyd. “What she argues is that [by doing that] we draw on a really narrow spectrum of human thinking and of ways of being in the world, as if there are only limited ways to approach a problem. I'm motivated by the idea that playfulness and lightness are actually the best way of dealing with the heaviest stuff, in the way that you can say things as a joke that you couldn't with a straight face. It taps into a wider range of affective modes. And I’m interested in creating spaces that might be generative in creating new ways of thinking. We don't have many good settings in society to do that.” Thousands of students, teachers and professionals have now taken part in Fashion Fictions-based activities, challenging norms, using passion and creativity.
The project continues to expand. Late last year, Twigger Holroyd launched a Fashion Fictions for Children. In a pilot project at Moorlands Primary School, Huddersfield, UK, teachers and students explored World 127, in which inhabitants decide to create a local industry of recycled umbrellas, working with local artists to create flamboyant umbrellas, using recycled materials from local partners, to celebrate the Coronation. “The children en masse took part in a huge celebration, parading around the playground and making lots of noise in a carnival-style atmosphere,” said teacher Becky Freeman.
The format has even been used to explore different topics. Twigger Holroyd recently ran a workshop on food with Nottingham University students: “I asked them first to identify a specific aspect of the real world food system that frustrates them - and then to reverse it. So, if somebody's frustrated by food poverty, they wouldn't just imagine that there was no food poverty; they would imagine a system in which there was always abundance and every person was taken care of, and there was never hunger. There’s this idea that underlies Fashion Fictions that there are infinite parallel worlds,” she continues. “I created the website with the intention of offering resources which are not specific to fashion. The methodology can be adapted. One of the things we’re trying to do is create a greater sense of possibility, because if we think nothing is possible, we won’t change it. You have to imagine something before you can build it.”
