The Best Way to Teach Sustainability in Fashion School? Listen to Students

In the anonymous-looking entrance of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute deserted on a Thursday evening, a makeshift banner is draped on the staircase leading up to the classrooms. “Fashion shouldn’t cost the earth,” it reads in handpainted capital letters. “I think I know which student is behind this,” said Peter Leferink, principal lecturer for the fashion and design department of the Dutch design school. “He’s probably struggling with the same questions a lot of other students are dealing with: Why am I here? What’s the value of fashion today?” Fashion students are having a crisis of faith. “Today’s generation of students are ecological-natives,” said Ashley Adé, a consultant at trend forecasting agency Peclers Paris. “They were born into a world battling with an ecological crisis. For this reason, sustainability is a given for them, an automatic factor weighing into any of their decisions.” After breaking boundaries surrounding gender, these Gen-Zers are reshaping their role within society in relation to environmental issues. “They are leading climate marches and refusing to go to school to protest for more environmental policies,” continued Adé. “These kids were brought up with the idea that the job market is saturated, so they are creating their own jobs on their own terms,

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