Centre for Sustainable Fashion

Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) explores the field of Design for Sustainability and its application to fashion as both artistic and business practice.

Aims

Centre for Sustainable Fashion contributes to the field of Design for Sustainability in three key intersecting areas: research, education and knowledge exchange with industry. CSF’s work explores vital elements of Better Lives, London College of Fashion’s commitment to use the discipline of fashion to drive change, build a sustainable future and improve the way we live.

Established in 2008 the Centre has developed into a community of cross-disciplinary collaborations and ecology-centred thinking. It is made up of world leading researchers, designers, educators and communicators.

CSF aims to:

create internationally acclaimed research,
set agendas in government, business and public arenas,
pioneer world relevant curriculum.

CSF was conceived to question and challenge reactionary fashion cultures, which reflect and re-enforce patterns of excessive consumption and disconnection, to expand fashion’s ability to connect, delight and identify individual and collective values.

CSF is over 10 years old

2018 marked the 10th anniversary of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion, a UAL centre, which has grown to be a diverse community of world leading researchers, designers, educators and communicators.

Over the course of 2018 we held a host of celebratory events and activities to showcase the work of CSF. These events highlighted the positive steps made towards a more sustainable future as well as focusing on what we need to continue to strive for in the decade to come. Highlights included the exhibition Fashioned from Nature at the V&A, the 5th Kering Talk and What’s Going On? a conference we hosted at LCF in October 2018.

Under the leadership of founder and Director Professor Dilys Williams, CSF has gained a reputation as the UK’s leading authority in fashion and sustainability and has worked with some of the world’s leading organisations including, the UN, Kering, Unilever, Nike, Alexander McQueen, Selfridges and H&M.

Working with and holding the tension between research, industry, and education CSF is a powerful voice for change – championing innovation and empowering the next generation to take the radical steps necessary to secure the future of one of the world’s most creative and inspiring industries.

Awards

CSF members have succeeded in a number of international prize competitions

2018/19 – Sandy Black, Mapping Sustainable Fashion Opportunities for SME from TENDER - DG Grow - £52,000
2018 – Elisa Palomino Perez, FiSH Skin from H2020 (RISE Research Innovation Staff Exchange) - £56,000
2018 – Prof. Sandy Black, Rethinking Fashion Design Entrepreneurship from AHRC - £445,150
2014 – Dilys Williams & Alex McIntosh, Creative Hub from European Regional Development Fund - £100,000
2013 – Prof. Sandy Black, F.I.R.E from AHRC - £249,500
2012 – Dr. Kate Fletcher, Local Wisdom from Leverhulme Trust
2012 – Dilys Williams, Fashioning the Summer School from ERASMUS Intensive Program - €60,000
2011 – Prof. Helen Storey awarded SciArt Award Scheme Wellcome Trust and Primitive Streak Extension by the Wellcome Trust - £30,000
2010/11 – Dilys Williams & Alex McIntosh, London Style from European Regional Development Fund - £300,000
2009 – Dilys Williams, Shared Talent India from Creative Connexions - £94,000
2007 – Prof. Sandy Black, Considerate design for fashion products from EPSRC/AHRC Designing for the 21st Century - £231,190

Current PhD students

Members

Professor Sandy Black | Professor Kate Fletcher | Professor Lucy Orta | Professor Helen Storey | Professor Dilys Williams

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