The guest lecturer’s project, 'Dead White Man,' exposed students to the devastating impact of the second-hand clothing trade on the Global South and helped them understand this complex issue through an interactive workshop.
The BA (Hons) Fashion Styling and Production course encourages students to engage in co-creation and use styling as a form of storytelling. “We saw parallels in how Jeremy communicates the message of overconsumption and how he uses impactful creative imagery,” says lecturer Sarah May, explaining why she invited Hutchison as a guest lecturer. “We really felt that he would bring a wealth of knowledge and valuable learning experiences to our students.”
Collaborating with a fine artist also allowed students to broaden their understanding of fashion’s impact. “We talk about fashion as a verb a lot, what can fashion do, and working with a conceptual artist is an interesting approach to take in this respect,” May explains. “Although he isn't directly situated within the fashion landscape, he approaches it with a unique angle and knowledge that helps our students consider the role of social purpose in their projects.”
For Danny Treacy, Course Leader, working with Jeremy is just one of the initiatives implemented on the course to encourage our students to consider the local and global impact of their work.
"My priority is to invite practitioners who are value focused, with positive change at the forefront of their practice," he says. "In doing this, we want to inspire and empower our students to become changemakers, utilising their styling and production specialisms to put into practice the social, racial and climate justice principles of UAL."
This project was not only a collaboration with the School of Design and Technology but also involved the wood workshop at LCF to access their offcuts. In this way, the project became entirely circular, with no waste or unnecessary purchasing of materials.
For Hutchison, the main reason for visiting London College of Fashion (LCF) was not to provide clear answers but to share his passion with students. “I'm an artist. I'm not a fashion designer or a stylist. I'm dealing with something that concerns all of us —consumer culture and fashion,” he says. “I want my work to have an effect, and these students are training to be the next generation in that industry, where they can create that impact.”
The artist believes that the role of a fashion institution today is to instil optimism in the next generation. “They need to encourage people to think about big questions and then explore how those ideas can become a practical reality,” he explains. “It’s easy to speak in broad conceptual terms and then leave people to figure it out on their own, but I think that approach misses the the whole vital bit of the bridge.”
Hutchison believes that crises can create the conditions for remarkable cultural production. “There’s nothing like it to push us to do amazing things and become better, bigger people,” he says. “People connect with one another—that’s what I hold onto.”
Under Hutchison’s guidance, students created a series of small-scale effigies using materials provided by local textile waste companies LMB and Reskinned, along with wood sourced from LCF’s wood workshop.
"Jeremy has an ability to articulate very overwhelming ideas in a way that makes them understandable," reflects May. She believes that crafting the effigies was an important step in helping students begin to process these complex ideas.
During the workshop, students shared their reflections:
The first day of Hutchison’s visit concluded with a performative lecture in which he used his Instagram page to correspond with Mark Zuckerberg about the Dead White Man project. This "correspondence" involved Hutchison sending Zuckerberg messages to raise awareness of fashion waste and overconsumption while also inviting him to art openings, events, and more.
"He sent him messages via Instagram and then, in the presentation for the students, used the speech-to-text function on his laptop to read them aloud," Sarah explains.
The small mistakes that appeared on the screen added to the absurdity and dark humour of the lecture. “It mirrored his practice, and that’s what made it impactful,” Sarah adds. “The students who attended really enjoyed it.”
Hutchison’s practice often involves taking his waste zombie to London Fashion Week and various other high street shopping locations around London and New York. During the second part of his visit, students brought their effigies to Westfield shopping centre in Stratford.
"We wanted students to think about Westfield as a location and consider its context — the complex ideas surrounding the fashion system, fast fashion, waste, and overconsumption — and how they could use Westfield to tell a story about their effigies," May explains. The students were tasked with using the visual display techniques employed by fast fashion stores and disrupting those styled spaces with their effigies.
Milly Wingate was one of the students participating in the activation. “The last part of Jeremy’s process is to situate his art within the public, so it was important to put ourselves in his shoes to fully understand his vision,” she says. “I wanted to challenge myself because I knew if I didn’t do it, I’d regret it.”
"My whole perception of this space, which I’ve visited many times, has changed by thinking through an artist’s eyes". - Milly Wingate
After walking together to Westfield, the students split into small groups to capture photos and videos of their sculptures. “People were guided by how they felt in the space and whether they had the confidence to take ownership of it,” says Wingate. “What was special about it was that you couldn’t plan the exact outcome—you had to go with the flow.”
At first, Wingate admits the activation felt slightly strange. “I wasn’t shopping, just walking around — you almost feel guilty even though you’re not doing anything wrong,” she recalls.
However, she found it refreshing to take her styling work outside the traditional fashion environment and place it within a commercial setting. “My whole perception of this space, which I’ve visited many times, has changed by thinking through an artist’s eyes,” Wingate says.
May shared that the students enjoyed the unusual experience. “It was a playful afternoon,” she says. “We invited them to take photographs or create moving image pieces of their effigies in situ at Westfield, and the result was not just aesthetically impactful images, but ones infused with purpose and storytelling.”
Inviting Hutchison is one of the many ways the course embraces climate justice. “We want to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice and consider what activism means to them,” says May. “That word is quite loaded, so we ask: How can we be active in our community? How can we raise awareness? How can we change the story?” She emphasises the core values of the course.
"It was a wonderful full-circle project," May reflects. She is proud not only of the circularity of the materials used to make the effigies but also of the way the teaching week was designed. “There was a great synergy between all of these elements,” she adds.
May hopes students took away a sense of agency and hope. “They’ve learned about a complex global issue and translated that knowledge into small-scale, handheld material effigies,” she explains, noting that the tangible outcome is a method to empower the students in taking small steps towards change.
She also highlights the intersections of climate and racial justice. “Climate justice means taking responsibility, and we want to consider: What can we do from where we are? What can the students do from where they are?” May says, looking forward to seeing the impact of Hutchison’s visit reflected in the students’ research and final projects.