Want To Become a Fashion Teacher? 3 Educators Share Their Advice
Conscious Career Chats Series
by Stella Hertantyo
What is taught in fashion schools and how lessons are taught are vital when it comes to systemically transforming the fashion industry for a more just and sustainable future.
This is because fashion students are the fashion designers and practitioners of the future.
Sustainable fashion educators create safe spaces for students to experiment with new ideas, challenge narratives, imagine new possibilities, and create new practices.
If being an educator feels like your calling, below you can read through the career journeys of 3 sustainable fashion educators — Zoe Hong, Liandra van Staden, and Michelle Taylor — who are challenging the fashion system within their classrooms and beyond.
Zoe Hong
Drawing upon her years as a fashion designer, illustrator, and instructor at one of the world’s most prestigious fashion universities, Zoe Hong has built one of the largest fashion education platforms online.
Falling in love with teaching from the first day in the classroom manifested into a complete career shift. Zoe helps aspiring designers build their knowledge and cultivate their creativity to enter and thrive in the workforce as designers, makers, and entrepreneurs.
How did you get your first job in this field?
I did several fashion and costume internships before and during fashion school, but I got my first job as a fashion designer through my school job board.
What led you to your current position?
A group of friends and I used to organize these massive art and design exhibitions in Oakland. Makers sold their wares, art hung on the walls, food trucks set up in the parking lot, and I organized runway shows to exhibit up-and-coming local fashion talent.
During a conversation with one of the designers preparing to exhibit, he said to me, “Have you ever thought about becoming a teacher? You are good at critiquing my work without making me feel bad about myself.” He set up that first meeting with his alma mater.
I promptly fell in love with teaching and a few years into university teaching, I started my YouTube channel. I wanted to reach more fashion students the world over to become more thoughtful, creative, and ethical fashion professionals.
Did you need a specific degree or qualification to get started? Where would you suggest someone interested in a similar position start looking for work?
I have a BFA in Fashion Design and had over a decade of industry experience before I started teaching at a university. Most universities require a postgraduate degree to teach, but some will accept extensive industry experience in place of a master's degree.
I only taught part-time and continued to work in the industry while teaching. If you want to start a YouTube channel or create educational content, you don’t need a degree. But you do need to educate yourself and build a knowledge and experience base in advance.
I also know that people take what I say more seriously because of my education and experiences in both the fashion industry and academia.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
The biggest misconception about education is that I teach because I can’t make a name for myself as a fashion designer. There is an old saying, “those who can’t do, teach.”
The fact is that designing and teaching require different skill sets. Many designers are better at designing than I am and many are worse designers than I am. But I've discovered my strength is taking complex, long processes and breaking them down into understandable, more easily digestible bites of information. Most importantly, I enjoy this very much.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
The lightbulb moment. When a student has a breakthrough moment, or when someone leaves a comment on one of my videos telling me they learned so much, or they finally understand something they had been struggling with — that is the lightbulb moment.
What are some challenging elements of your job?
Teaching in-person classes comes naturally to me and I do miss it. Teaching online requires a few more considerations outside my natural skillset. As an introvert, it takes some time to gear up the energy to “perform”. I've had to excuse myself from some social occasions so I can conserve some energy for filming.
Learning to navigate social media also proves to be an ongoing learning experience.
If you could give your younger self and those wanting to get into this field some advice, what would it be?
Pursue your joy. It’s going to what keeps you going when your admin dismisses your concerns, or someone leaves a hate parade in your comments, or when your students are struggling with a specific lesson and you have to figure out a different way to teach it.
Pursue mental peace, not what you think looks cool. For example, teaching often isn’t perceived as being as “cool” as a fashion influencer. I don’t get all the cute fashion freebies typical fashion influencers get, but teaching makes me happy and I don’t feel the guilt of encouraging people to overconsume.
Pursue the topics that you can’t shut up about, because as teachers, we have to repeat ourselves constantly. Fashion has such a strong influence on me. I love fashion despite the industry’s many flaws — and that’s what keeps me going.
Liandra van Staden
After years of being a textile designer, joining Fashion Revolution, and then completing a postgraduate in Sustainable Development, Liandra van Staden began lecturing fashion. Based in South Africa, Liandra is a sustainability specialist and lectured fashion for 3 years at the Design Academy of Fashion. Now, she's pivoted into the field of design education, applying it to fashion and beyond.
In this work, she has developed a love for creating learning experiences that have the potential to incite change through creative problem-solving.
How did you get your first job in this field?
I moved into this space mid-career, not as an undergraduate. I had industry experience that was relevant to the job I was applying for — as a lecturer in Higher Education, focusing on Fashion Design — as well as a postgraduate qualification in the field of sustainability.
When I applied, I had been “working” in the intersection of fashion and sustainability as a volunteer and later as a regional coordinator for Fashion Revolution.
I applied for this position with a classic CV submission. When I went for the interview it felt natural and it was clear that the institution and my perspective were in alignment. We had shared visions for teaching and learning programs that are built on the foundations of ethical and sustainable design practice. This enables students to be well-prepared for different ways of being in the world in the future.
After this, I had to do a lecture to the management and lecturing staff as a test run of how I would put together learning experiences. It was lots of fun and I still draw on that presentation at times in my classes!
What led you to your current position?
Now I've moved from the “coal face” of lecturing to a position that is more focused on the coordination of a multi-major BA degree program. I’m still in creative higher education but not specific to fashion. The position came to my attention through shared networks within the education space. It appealed to me because of the strategic nature of opportunities for changemaking in the design education space.
Did you need a specific degree or qualification to get started? Where would you suggest someone interested in a similar position start looking for work?
To lecture in a formal education system, there are some qualification requirements. If you want to teach in a degree program, you will need to have a Post Graduate or an Honors Degree.
But there are more open opportunities for facilitating learning and knowledge sharing that are worth considering when looking outside of the walls of institutions.
In terms of networking and job boards, I would recommend looking at NGOPulse.org.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
I've had to realize that change in mindset — or theoretical understanding about the need for change — versus tangible output and system change work on two completely different timelines. For this reason, interventions and solutions that I thought would have an immediate positive impact generally fall short of my expectations.
I’m sure many people who work in the sustainability space can relate to this, as we can all hear the alarm bells of climate emergency, yet forging change takes a lot of time and patience.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
I enjoy interacting with others, which is rich and diverse. This is within the institution, with students, and an array of colleagues and collaborators all across the globe outside of the institution, inside and outside of academia.
The opportunity for the exploration of ideas, networking, and problem-solving is vast. No two days are the same!
There are also a lot of holidays so I feel good about my work-life balance and have space for more than just work. This includes my artistic practice, as well as my work within social justice spaces.
What are some challenging elements of your job?
It’s easy to underestimate the amount of admin involved in being a lecturer! I mentioned above the benefit of having a lot of leave, which is necessary because facilitating learning is about holding space for others.
This is emotionally intense, so those times for recharge are critical. This can be challenging at times, specifically over the last few years with COVID and the residual fallout which most faculties are still grappling with now.
If you could give your younger self and those wanting to get into this field some advice, what would it be?
I talk to students a lot and always try to encourage them to embrace the non-linear nature of how our lives evolve and to remain open to the unexpected.
Trying to “get into” any field requires persistence and I found it helpful to have had non-formal experiences through volunteering which gave me entry to networks, and in turn, work opportunities in quite organic ways.
Michelle Taylor
Michelle Taylor is a master's instructor in the Fashion Design Program at the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. She believes that fashion educators have a responsibility to educate students on the impacts of fast fashion and how this affects all of us.
She teaches a course on sustainability and prioritizes introducing students to ethical and sustainable fashion practices, such as upcycling, zero-waste design, closed-loop production, natural dyes, natural fibers, and ethical labor practices.
How did you get your first job in this field?
I got my first job through a referral from one of my mentors in the field of fashion design.
What led you to your current position?
My first job was in graphic design. I worked many years as a principal designer, which overlapped with my skill set in fashion design.
I received my MFA in an interdisciplinary degree program — Electronic Studio — at Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. I am also a fashion designer and I create custom fabrics for my clothing line.
All of these experiences led me to become a master’s instructor in the Fashion Design Program at the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
Did you need a specific degree or qualification to get started? Where would you suggest someone interested in a similar position start looking for work?
You need to have an MFA in Design to obtain any position as an instructor in Fashion or Design — whether it is as a lecturer, adjunct lecturer, master instructor, or professor.
AcademicCareers.com and HigherEdJobs.com are great sites to look for work in educational positions in fashion design. LinkedIn is also a valuable resource because you can contact colleges, businesses, and people directly.
If you are interested in a teaching position specifically, you can search the job boards on the sites of various educational institutions.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America is an excellent platform to look out for opportunities, but you have to join and become a member. Sustainability is one of their core pillars.
The best networking and job search tool we have today is social media — many businesses and colleges have Instagram pages as well.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
One misconception is that as an educator, you're already an expert and don’t have to keep learning — this is false. You have to keep learning and stay up to date with what is happening in the ever-changing fashion industry.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is interacting with my students of all ages. Their enthusiasm is contagious.
What are some challenging elements of your job?
There isn't enough time in the day to teach everything I want to teach and do thorough research. I only get a few hours with the students and my preparation and research take a long time.
What is one piece of advice that you wish you could have received?
As an educator, you have to make sure you have a passion for sharing information and supporting your students in having the best learning experience possible.
Also, make sure to network in every sector of fashion — from digital design and social media to manufacturing, retail, marketing, and design. The more you know about the industry, the more insightful your lessons will be.
For more sustainable fashion career resources + networking:
Join us in the Conscious Fashion Collective Membership!
About the Author:
Stella Hertantyo is a slow fashion and slow living enthusiast based in Cape Town, South Africa. Stella finds solace in words as a medium for sharing ideas and encouraging a cultural shift that welcomes systems change and deepens our collective connection to the world around us. She is passionate about encouraging an approach to sustainability, and social and environmental justice, that is inclusive, intersectional, accessible, and fun.
Stella holds a B.A. Multimedia Journalism from the University of Cape Town, and a PGDip in Sustainable Development from the Sustainability Institute. She currently works as a writer, editor, and social media manager. When she is not in front of her laptop, a dip in the ocean, or a walk in the mountains, are the two things that bring her the most peace.
