reEngage DL2021

Everyone has a story to tell. Learn how students can use fashion + technology to tell their stories. From design to runway show, participants will experience the process that enables students to view fashion-tech as a means of design, creation, expression and demonstration. A hands-on opportunity for all levels of tech expertise to be fashion innovators.
Fashion is an easy entry point to engage all students as it is important to many young people. When combined with accessible technologies, it attracts students that otherwise have a hard time engaging in STEM topics or students that have an affinity towards STEM but not design. Fashion tech can be a gateway, especially for girls, to a future of technology, engineering, and design.
This being said, the purpose of the session is not really about fashion nor technology in and of itself. The mission is for teachers, communities and adults, to invite students to see another way to create and express, to learn new skills, strategies/processes and a platform to present their work.
During the first part of the workshop, we will work in teams to go through a design thinking process (based on Stanford D-School) that begins with making decisions about the story and message we want to convey with our fashion products. The ideation phase includes using tech to help tell the story, while during the building time teams are able to try-out various levels of technology, from plug and play lights to using sensors and microcontrollers to present the story. Revisions are made based on self-critique and feedback from peers. Sharing happens during the process and at the Runway event.
After pieces are completed, we will use the MakeFashion Edu approach to organizing a runway event to showcase fashion tech pieces that tell our stories to a public audience.Together we will create an event that frames each piece and its backstory and learn about logistical and financial issues that come with an event like this. As Covid has put pause on live events, we will show you how we have adapted this to an accessible virtual reality platform called Mozilla Hubs.
Our finale will be the gallery of our builds in VR to share with the public as well as a ready to share fashion lookbook. And as with any runway event, we will mingle and share our experience in the virtual space we have created together!