Why I’m Doing an MA in Sustainable Fashion

If you’d asked me a few years ago whether I’d go back to being a student, let alone back to university, I may well have laughed in your face. My life was already full, (fuller than I could actually cope with, as it turned out) - with running a business, managing people, teaching workshops, designing patterns. . .  I could go on. As well as wanting to share my decades of experience with people who wanted to make clothes that truly fit - and truly felt like them.

Now that has quietened down and I have space back in my life again. Something has kept nudging at me. A quiet little voice at the back of my brain was getting louder and louder until I could no longer ignore the desperate cry of “We cannot keep going as we are.”

I’ve worked in fashion and textiles for over 30 years. I’ve seen how much joy sewing can bring, how empowering it is to make your own clothes, and how deeply creative the process can be. I’ve also seen how extractive, wasteful, and disconnected the wider fashion industry is, which is one of the reasons I left it.  And I’ve felt that conflicting more sharply with each passing year - between the beauty of craft and the damage of mass production.

So I made a decision.

I enrolled in an MA in Sustainable Fashion because I want to be part of the change. Not just for me, or even for my business - but for the whole system we’re part of. Because we cannot 'recycle' our way out of this. 

Stitching Together My Past and Future

The journey here hasn’t been linear. I’ve taught sewing and pattern cutting for most of my working life. I’ve written higher education courses, run physical shops, created online courses, taught workshops, and built communities of makers who care about what they wear and how it’s made.

But alongside that, I’ve also been asking difficult questions.

• Why do we keep churning out clothes we don’t need?
  

• Why is it so hard to find beautiful, ethical fabrics that don’t cost the earth - literally and financially?
  

• What would it take to grow and process textiles locally again?
  

• How do we create a truly circular system where nothing is wasted, and people are valued at every stage?
  
  

These aren’t just academic questions. They’re practical, urgent, and deeply personal. And I knew I needed time and space to really explore them, not just through intuition and experience, but with research, new frameworks, and access to thinkers and makers who are equally committed to reimagining fashion.

That’s what led me to this MA.

A Different Kind of Fashion Future

Fashion is so often portrayed as frivolous or superficial. But what we wear is anything but. Clothes shape how we move through the world. They tell stories about who we are, what we value, and how connected we feel - to ourselves, to each other, and to the planet.

The current system tells a story of disconnection: fast, disposable, anonymous. But what if fashion could tell a different story? One of care, skill, joy, and responsibility?

My vision is rooted in that possibility.

I believe in clothes that fit your real body and real life. Clothes that last, that can be repaired and refashioned. Materials that are grown and processed with integrity. Systems that support makers - not exploit them. And above all, a shift in mindset: from consumption to connection.

The MA gives me a chance to deepen that vision, to test it, to collaborate and critique and learn. It gives me a framework to think bigger, beyond what I can do in my studio or my business, and contribute to wider conversations and innovations in sustainable practice.

Re-rooting Fashion in Local Soil

One of the areas I’m especially drawn to is textile production. For all the talk of “sustainable fashion,” we still import the vast majority of our fibres and fabrics, often from countries with poor labour protections and high environmental tolls. Even “eco” fibres come with hidden costs when you zoom out.

What if we didn’t have to import?

What if we could grow, spin, weave and sew within a 50-mile radius? What if linen flax fields returned to the English countryside? What if small designers and makers had access to truly local supply chains?

This isn’t just nostalgia - it’s regeneration.

Through my MA, I’m exploring the feasibility of reviving linen production in the UK. I’m researching the infrastructure, policies, partnerships and community networks it would take to make that possible. It’s a big idea, and I know it won’t happen overnight. But I believe we need big ideas, grounded in knowledge and lived experience, to guide the transformation we so urgently need.

Learning, Unlearning, and Listening

Doing an MA as a mature student is a humbling thing. I’m not the same person I was in my twenties, and that’s a good thing. I’ve come to this course with a full career behind me, but also a willingness to unlearn, to be challenged, and to ask for help.

I’m learning to speak the language of policy and systems, not just sewing and pattern drafting. I’m listening more carefully to voices outside my usual circles, from indigenous textile workers to young activists to regenerative farmers. And I’m looking forward to finding ways to join the dots between theory and action, between big picture thinking and practical, local change.

It’s not always comfortable - in fact, I think it will get incredibly uncomfortable in the not too distant future - but it is incredibly necessary.

From Studio to System Change

Friends and family have asked me “What will you do when you finish?” and to be honest I have no idea where my place in this system-change that is so badly needed, will actually be. But for me, this isn’t about a destination - it’s a continuation. The MA is giving shape and structure to ideas I’ve held for a long time, and connecting me to others who are walking a similar path.

I still believe in the power of small-scale sewing. I still love teaching people how to make clothes they feel good in. But now, I see those small stitches as part of something even bigger.

Because when we slow down, make with intention, and ask where our materials come from - we’re not just sewing clothes. We’re mending the fabric of fashion itself.

This is why I’m doing the MA.
Because fashion can be different.
Because it has to be.

And because I want to play my part,  with a needle in one hand and a research paper in the other.

Jules x