Methods of organising

Invent a new world (Stage 1)

A Stage 1 world-writing workshop takes participants through the process of creating their own 100-word fictions. It’s best to give a couple of hours for this activity, which works well both online and in person.

We recommend that each participant creates their own world, but has the opportunity to discuss their ideas with others in small groups. Completed fictions can be submitted for display on the Worlds page.

Examples

The Fashion Fictions team have organised several Stage 1 world-writing workshops (see the invitation for the first one we ran, back in 2020).

University of the West of England ran a world-writing workshop during Green fortnight for staff and students:

Other organisers of Stage 1 world-writing workshops include:

• Elgin Community College and EDU Africa
• London College of Fashion
• University of Brighton

Workshop plan

• Stage 1 workshop plan (2 hours + optional 30 minutes for reflection activity – Option A: using generator / Option B: create your own)
• Accompanying slides

Resources and handy links

• The online Contribute a World guide runs through the Stage 1 process, without timings
• The interactive World generator is a useful tool for helping people to get started

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Generate a world quickly (Stage 1)

If you want to give your participants a very quick taste of Fashion Fictions, the interactive World generator is a great option. In just a few clicks you can explore diverse ideas for alternative worlds.

By clicking each area of blue text, different options appear. There are many thousands of combinations! When you’re happy with your outline, you can copy and paste the text for sharing or further editing and development.

Examples

Amy used the generator in a five-minute activity as part of an online lecture in 2021. Watch the relevant section:

The generator was also used as a drop-in activity at a Fashion Fictions workshop day. Pens and paper were supplied for those who wanted to develop their fictions further:

Resources and handy links

• The interactive World generator – see it in action below:

• Part of the online Contribute a World guide includes an explanation of the generator and questions that can be used to further develop the fiction
• Guidance for creating a bespoke version of the generator
• Printed instructions for a drop-in World-writing activity (editable version). Pdf version below:

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Remix an existing world (Stage 1)

An interesting way of creating a Stage 1 fiction is to remix an existing fiction, selected from the Worlds page. The benefit of this approach is that you are not starting with a blank sheet of paper – instead, you can respond to text already written by another project contributor.

The remix process is open: you might make only minor changes, do a complete rewrite, or something in between. You might even combine elements of more than one World together. If you submit the resulting fiction for showcase on the website, the form will prompt you to identify the fiction(s) that you built on, so we can credit the author’s contribution to the new fiction.

Examples

Sustainable Fashion Scotland organised an online remix workshop, which they told us about in a case study video:

Sebastiane Hegarty at Solent University facilitated a hands-on remix workshop using existing Worlds, with intriguing results:

Resources and handy links

• In this 3-minute video, Amy talks through one example of a remixed world:

• Part of the online Contribute a World guide explains how to remix a world and gives prompts for things to think about
• Examples of remixed Worlds

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Take time to invent and prototype a world (Stages 1 & 2)

If you have more time and want the experience of both writing and prototyping, you can combine Stage 1 and Stage 2 activities together.

This would involve writing 100-word fictions and then building on these fictions to create visual or material prototypes to represent life in the fictional worlds.

To use the plans on the right, you’ll need at least 9 hours. If you want a much quicker version of a Stage 1 & 2 activity, you could combine guidance for the Stage 1 method ‘generate a world quickly’ and the first part of Stage 2 method ‘experience a quick taster of prototyping and enacting’.

Examples

Students at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore created Stage 1 Worlds and Stage 2 Explorations in a semester-long Fashion Fictions project. Here are a few examples of their work:

World 190, Exploration A

in which the Earth Day movement gives rise to an eco-anarchist subculture

World 200, Exploration A

in which a five-piece mandatory wardrobe is issued by the government

World 201, Exploration A

in which Syonan Island is influenced by Japanese culture

Other organisers of combined Stage 1 & Stage 2 activities include:

• Dubai Institute of Design & Innovation
• Solent University
• Centre for Sustainable Fashion (as a quicker activity in their Fashion Values: Cultures course on FutureLearn)

Workshop plans

Stage 1 workshop plan (2 hours + optional 30 minutes for reflection activity – Option A: using generator / Option B: create your own)

• Stage 1 workshop plan
• slides

Stage 2 Extended workshop plan (Option A: 6 hours / Option B: 12 hours)

• Stage 2 Extended workshop plan
• slides

Resources and handy links

• The online Contribute a World and Contribute an Exploration guides run through the Stage 1 and Stage 2 processes respectively, without timings

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Create an object or image to represent life in a fictional world (Stage 2)

A Stage 2 prototyping workshop invites participants to pick up a Stage 1 world and develop it, first by ‘fleshing out’ the 100-word fiction through world-building activities and then by creating a visual or material prototype to represent life in the fictional world.

You could give participants a free choice of worlds, select a few for them to choose from, or specify one particular world for them to work with.

You could leave the choice of what to make up to the participants, or you might find it helpful to ask them to create a particular type of prototype, such as a poster for an important event; a diary entry; a tool; a magazine cover or newspaper front page.

Participants can work individually or in groups, in person or online. Completed prototypes can be submitted for display on the Explorations page.

Examples

Sanem Odabaşı organised a Stage 2 project at Eskişehir Teknik Üniversitesi and told us about it in a case study video:

Stage 2 workshops have also been run by the Fashion Fictions team and by colleagues at Nottingham Trent University (over two days or three 2-hour sessions – see the invitation for an online workshop series we ran in 2022).

Here are a few examples of the outcomes:

World 120, Exploration B

in which clothing libraries foster an appreciation of ‘wearing stories’

World 54, Exploration A

in which adults can own only 10 items of clothing at any time

World 3, Exploration A

in which community laundries are thriving social hubs

Workshop plan

• Stage 2 Extended workshop plan (Option A: 6 hours / Option B: 12 hours)
• Accompanying slides

Resources and handy links

• The online Contribute an Exploration guide runs through the Stage 2 process, without timings
• Explore the Worlds to see which world you might like to share with your participants. Note that some are easier to understand than others! Because every submission has a Creative Commons licence, if needed you can edit the text of the worlds to make them easier for your group to understand.
• Formatted sheet for sharing specific worlds with participants (download to edit for your selected world/s)

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Experience a quick taster of prototyping and enacting (Stage 2 + optional Stage 3)

If you have limited time and want to dive straight into the prototyping process, you could run a taster workshop. To keep things simple, you can provide limited materials; even just paper, pens, scissors and tape can be used to produce ingenious prototypes.

The workshop plan provided actually runs through Stage 2 and Stage 3 in just 90 minutes! It can easily be adapted to focus on Stage 2 only, if required.

Examples

The Fashion Fictions team has run taster workshops with various groups, including researchers, students and primary school teachers, pictured here:

Here’s an example of a simple but effective paper-based prototype:

Workshop plan

• Stage 2 & 3 Taster workshop plan (90 minutes + optional 30 minutes)
• Accompanying slides

Resources and handy links

• The online Contribute an Exploration guide runs through the Stage 2 process, without timings
• Explore the Worlds to see which you might like to share with your participants. Note that some are easier to understand than others! Because every submission has a Creative Commons licence, if needed you can edit the text of the worlds to make them easier for your group to understand.
• Formatted sheet for sharing specific worlds with participants (download to edit for your selected world/s)

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Respond to a ‘what if’ prompt (Stage 2)

Another quick and accessible Fashion Fictions activity makes use of a set of ‘what if’ cards that summarise the core ideas of eight varied fictional worlds.

The cards can be used to prompt discussions and world-building activities – the ‘fleshing out’ part of Stage 2. What would these worlds be like? Which would you prefer, and why?

Examples

Jo Teague uses the cards as discussion prompts in her adult sewing and dressmaking evening classes at Gloucester College: ‘It’s thought provoking but in a low key way, allowing me to get over some key sustainable ideas without it feeling preachy.’

Lucy Robertson used them as part of a speculative design workshop with her MA Fashion & Textiles students at Heriot-Watt University:

And we loved this use of the cards with a primary school class, shared on Twitter:

Resources and handy links

• The ‘what if’ cards ready for printing (we recommend printing on A3 card):

• Images of each postcard as jpeg images or as pdf:

• Alternatively, you could select your own worlds to summarise as ‘what if’ questions.

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Get to know a fictional world through visual exploration (Stage 2)

Yet another way of running a Fashion Fictions activity is to focus just on the world-building activities – without actually creating prototypes of images or objects that would belong in the fictional world.

The exploratory world-building activities ‘flesh out’ the world using the 100-word Stage 1 text as a starting point. These activities could be based on discussion or writing, but could also include an element of visual exploration: creating a moodboard to create a visual impression of the world’s aesthetic and culture.

Example

Anikó Gál ran visual exploration activities with 17/18-year-old students at high schools in Italy. Here, she shares her experiences::

This moodboard was created by Gaia Zamboni to that illustrate the perfumed yarns of World 108:

These images were compiled by Francesco Ori to represent the subterranean environments of World 114:

Resources and handy links

• Explore the Worlds to see which you might like to share with your participants. Note that some are easier to understand than others! Because every submission has a Creative Commons licence, if needed you can edit the text of the worlds to make them easier for your group to understand.
• Formatted sheet for sharing specific worlds with participants (download to edit for your selected world/s)
• World-building matrix, which prompts participants to consider what is abundant or scare and celebrated or stigmatised in the world

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Step into a fictional world as an in-person group (Stage 3)

At Stage 3, we find ways to enact a key practice or event from a fictional fashion world. A great way of doing this is to organise an in-person group workshop where participants are invited to step straight into the fiction.

The workshop activities might be tightly planned or more flexible, but should enable the participants to experience life in the fictional world in an embodied way.

You might, for example, perform a special ritual from the world or act out an everyday scenario from the world.

Examples

These two films showcase enactments organised by the Fashion Fictions team, focusing on Worlds 27 and 54:

Students at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá enacted World 91 and World 54 as the introduction to a course in which they went on to create their own enactments. Here, tutor Eliana Sanchez-Aldana tells us about the World 91 activity:

Recipes

Here are the adaptable instructions we’ve put together to help you run these activities yourself:

World 27, Enactment i: recipe

How to enact a ritual clothing exchange

World 54, Enactment i: recipe

Instructions (and equipment available to borrow) for the dressing-up enactment activity

World 91, Enactment i: recipe

Step-by-step guide for enacting a fungi-centric world

Resources and handy links

• If you want to dream up your own Enactment, explore the Worlds and Explorations for inspiration. Which would you like to enact? How could you bring it to life?

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Enact a fictional world through hands-on making (Stage 3)

If you are keen to integrate hands-on making to your Fashion Fictions activity, you could use making as the basis of a Stage 3 enactment workshop.

You would invite participants to make something that would be handmade in the fictional world and encourage them to engage in the activity as parallel-world versions of themselves. In the process, you might support your participants to develop a particular skill that would be needed in the world. 

Examples

Lauren Callis, director of Curiosity Studio in Minneapolis, organised a screen-printing and embroidery workshop to enact the fictional World 131. She told us about it in a case study video:

Moorlands Primary School in Huddersfield organised a large-scale making-based enactment, with over 600 children decorating umbrellas as a taste of life in World 127. Hear the story in their case study video:

Resources and handy links

• Although there aren’t any ‘recipes’ for Enactments in this category yet, you could adapt the activities described in the examples for your own setting.
• If you want to dream up your own Enactment, explore the Worlds and Explorations for inspiration. Which would you like to enact? How could you bring it to life?

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Join a slow enactment woven into everyday life (Stage 3)

While some enactments bring people together for a specific event, they can also be structured as much slower activities that extend over days, weeks or months and are integrated into everyday life.

You might, for example, perform an everyday practice from the world, dress as if living in the world or even try to live by the superstitions or beliefs of the world.

Such activities work well for participants who are geographically dispersed; they can share their experiences through online platforms such as WhatsApp or Instagram – or even snail mail!

Examples

We’ve run quite a few of these slow enactments. Here are the reports:

World 45, Enactment i: report

Our first open wardrobe challenge, Material Mindfulness

World 91, Enactment i: report

What happened when a geographically dispersed group visited ‘Mushroom World’

World 91, Enactment ii: report

The second open wardrobe challenge, Meet the Mushrooms

World 62, Enactment i: report

Report of a round-robin garment description activity – using words, not images

Recipes

Here are the adaptable instructions we’ve put together to help you run these activities yourself:

World 45, Enactment i: recipe

Instructions for organising your own Material Mindfulness challenge

World 91, Enactment i: recipe

Step-by-step guide for enacting a fungi-centric world

World 62, Enactment i: recipe

Guide and resources for organising your own collaborative garment-description game

Resources and handy links

• If you want to dream up your own Enactment, explore the Worlds and Explorations for inspiration. Which would you like to enact? How could you bring it to life?

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!

Take part in a drop-in activity (Stage 3)

An enactment run as a drop-in activity can be a way of opening up the ideas and practices of Fashion Fictions to participants who might not be able to commit to a longer workshop or project.

Plan the activity so people can get stuck in quickly, but provide information about the fictional world for those who want to delve deeper into the concept. The reports below include examples of the signs we created to do this.

Examples

Here are some drop-in activities that we have organised:

World 27, Enactment ii: report

A drop-in activity that invited people to draw garment stories

World 54, Enactment ii: report

A drop-in version of the dressing-up activity, open to all

World 43, Enactment i: report

An interactive exhibition installation that invited people to exchange and mend blue clothes

Resources and handy links

• You could adapt the activities described in the examples for your own setting, perhaps drawing on the ‘recipes’ that they themselves adapted (the enactment reports include links to the relevant enactment recipes, where they are available).
• If you want to dream up your own Enactment, explore the Worlds and Explorations for inspiration. Which would you like to enact? How could you bring it to life?

Sharing your activity

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to tell us about your activity!