Columbia College Chicago

The fashion department of the private, nonprofit college offers students opportunities to travel or study abroad across locations from Athens and Berlin to New York and Los Angeles. BoF sat down with three students to hear about their experiences.

The creative and liberal arts college’s curriculum is rooted in hands-on learning, immersive experiences and their diversity, equity and inclusion mission. The chair of fashion studies shares insights alongside faculty and students.

Having launched a hybrid-educational format designed to cater to the needs of both current and incoming students, faculty members from the creative arts school share their new academic approach to help prepare students for an industry transformed.

BoF meets former and current students to hear how studying fashion in Chicago creates opportunities for experimentation and innovation.

Fashion's future creators and decision-makers are taught a narrow worldview in school, helping to perpetuate racism, fatphobia and other damaging tropes that plague the industry.