Tanveer Ahmed (Royal College of Art & The Open University) & Cathy Johns (Royal College of Art)

Inspired by Yinka Shonibare’s installation at Brighton Museum’s Old Reference Library which makes visible the cultural influences of colonisation, this project questioned the role of coloniality in design history, focusing on fashion history.  Through the actions of re-curating and ‘decolonising’ fashion histories, the aim of this project was to reflect on and evaluate attitudes to coloniality in fashion history. How could design students re-imagine new critical fashion herstories/histories viewed from an intersectional perspective?

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Working with first year students on the MA Design History, the project focused on deconstructing prevailing narratives in fashion history with the aim of curating a new and possibly ‘decolonised’ fashion history section within the RCA library.

Following an introduction to the history of library classification by RCA librarian Cathy Johns, visiting tutor Tanveer Ahmed led students in an activity to analyse how fashion history is presented in the library: to what extent does race, gender and class influence which fashion histories are and are not told?

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The activity has prompted library staff to question the content and narrative of fashion history, among other disciplines, presented in academic Library collections, and a consideration of how librarians might work to challenge this colonialising canon in our collections.

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Tanveer Ahmed is an AHRC PhD candidate at The Open University and a visiting lecturer in critical and historical studies for fashion and textiles at The Royal College of Art. Tanveer’s research aims are to devise anti-racist, anti-capitalist and culturally progressive fashion design agendas.

Cathy Johns has been a librarian at the Royal College of Art since 2002, organising user education and supporting both PhD student research and the needs of a range of schools and programmes, including Fashion and Textiles, in the Library. Cathy’s experience includes, art and design research, writing and editing for publishers and galleries and professional roles in public libraries; her interests include feminism in the arts and textile practice.