Course Collaboration
This is a collaborative Fall 2023 project between:
- FASH 3000 – 20th Century Fashion History, taught by Francesca D’Angelo, acting as clients
- BUS 2504 – Web Development, taught by Hanadi Alnawab, acting as service providers
Documentation
- Website: https://fashionhistoryproject.ca/ (Premium expires November 10, 2026, domain expires: November 15, 2024)
- Google Folder: all content will be provided by the FASH 3000 teams
- Project progress
Milestones
| Week | Task | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Week 2 | WP account / website created / initial structure shared with client | Hanadi |
| Week 7 | Website SEO strategies | Hanadi BUS 2504 |
| Week 8 | Navigation and content strategy | Hanadi BUS 2504 |
| Week 9 | Content provided to the web development class | Francesca FASH 3000 |
| Week 11 | First draft of website ready | Kaelani |
| Week 13 Dec 7 | Event / Museum | Francesca FASH 3000 |
About
In the fall of 2023, students in the 20th Century Fashion History class and Web Development class collaborated on their final group project to create a digital fashion museum archive that featured the history students’ personal fashion objects.
To create an authentic, applied, and engaging learning experience for students enrolled in Twentieth Century Fashion History, and to have them acknowledge their own value within the collective social fashion narrative, Francesca D’Angelo devised an assignment where the fashion history presented was their own to make and disseminate. In collaboration with Hanadi Alnawab, we combined the innovative assignment across two classes: Twentieth Century Fashion History and Web Development, to create a website showcasing fashion exhibits the twentieth century fashion students prepared with their personally selected object.
Students in the fashion class were asked to select a meaningful fashion item they own, and to write a personal reflection and description of the object. In their description, and as a pedagogical assessment, they were to provide all the archival details required for cataloguing the piece. Situating their own personal things and stories within the greater fashion history context enabled students to acknowledge that they too are a part of the fashion history discourse, which further resulted in a reimagining of what constitutes fashion’s past, present and future.
With their personal reflections they were randomly assigned to a group of no more than 4 students in total. In their groups, they were then asked to put together an exhibit tying together all the disparate pieces into one cohesive collection. They were required to brainstorm and come up with a catchy exhibit title and theme to bring all those pieces together, including an exhibit description to be showcased on the website. An important feature was that they were not allowed to discuss their pieces amongst the group members until all students submitted their reflections, to retain their personal authenticity when making their individual selections. This part helped them see how fashions of the past, present or future are in fact interconnected in a myriad of ways.
Each group then created posters advertising their exhibit, which was disseminated throughout the college. The project was then presented in a separately booked room on campus where each object and images were put on display, and the entire college community was invited to see all the exhibits.
The Digital Business students enrolled in the BUS 2504 Web Development course acted as the “service providers” to the Fashion students. They developed an information website to support the fashion student museum’s online presence. The website was developed using WordPress.com; an open-source web development platform. This project was used as a “live” case study in the BUS 2504 Web Development course, where students worked on weekly small in-class exercises leading to fully plan and develop the website. This included configuring a modern and new block-based WordPress theme, optimizing the content provided by the fashion students for search engines, developing the information architecture, to ultimately fully developing the website.
The website was used to support the physical museum exhibits. A QR code for each exhibit allowed visitors to further explore the items, including their full catalogue, the student reflection, and the exhibit rationale.
The project aimed to create an innovative assessment where the fashion history students engaged with their own histories and knowledge, while also applying their archival skills. The digital students gained valuable website development skills in creating the custom information fashion history website.
The Digital Hub 