Collaborative Challenge

This 20-credit unit helps to develop professional networks and working practices, in order to become successful and agile in the cultural and creative industries.

It is student led and requires students to be motivated and proactive drawing on teamwork, design thinking, problem solving, project planning and negotiation. It is also a professional platform and offers engagement within industry working and practices in the realm of Sustainability, Diversity and Social Responsibility.

The Collaborative Challenge is a revalidated unit following the success of the LCF Collaborative Unit at London College of Fashion.

The Collaborative Unit 2014-20 was a unique, first of its kind opportunity for London College of Fashion postgraduate students to collaborate across disciplines and work with industry partners. It was set up in 2014 in response to demand from the fashion industry and students themselves, wanting to connect with industry partners.

Case study podcasts 2021

A collection of conversations that highlight the benefits of working collaboratively. Featuring LCF staff, industry, academic partners and students.

BACKWORDS is a high-end print centric lifestyle brand delivering unique redesigned heirloom prints and objects for interiors and clothing. Crafted from treasures that have fallen out of vogue or lay unused. Each design reflects an individual life narrative by offering a selection of modular transformable and reversible garments that work with the body through the normal fluctuations of life.

UCL, Barclays Eagle Labs and Disability Rights UK: “How can we design create adaptive clothing that will help reduce pressure sores for the disabled community that we can bring to market?” East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone (ELIEZ) is one of the first accessible entrepreneurship communities that features a specially designed programme, for start-up and design thinkers who are disabled or whose work focuses on accessibility.

Students and their supervisor discuss their experiences of undertaking the AMFI Ginger project, working with a peer student at Amsterdam Fashion Institute.

Traces is a long-term social engagement research-practice project led by Professor Lucy Orta, Chair of Art and the Environment, UAL, that explores the fundamental conditions relating to migration experiences, protection, and shelter. Students were presented with a unique opportunity to find innovative ways to interpret stories and the textile responses of these stories, produced by BA Textiles students and to share with wider audiences.

“The only truly sustainable option is to go naked... The next best solution is to dress digitally.” (Brooke Roberts-Islam, 2019).
The Fashion Innovation Agency uses emerging technologies to disrupt existing practices in the fashion and retail industries.
Our remit is to demonstrate how these technologies can change the way that fashion brands and retailers make, show and sell their collections.

Explore the opportunities of what ‘digital growth’ could be in the context of community, landscape, and nature with Digital Anthropology Lab, London College of Fashion. Student teams were asked to consider how can digital enter this human equation; to understand the role of time in the digital, and to re-imagine how to ‘make’ digitally with discovered tools.

Catherine Fuller is a former Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fashion Contour this encompass lingerie, intimate apparel, underwear, swimwear and structured bodywear. Here Catherine discusses her role as a Collaborative Challenge supervisor.

Case study podcasts 2019/20