Green Gown Awards 2016 – Learning and Skills – University of the Arts London – Finalist

The Beauty’s Inside

“The Beauty’s Inside” is a collaborative magazine, co-produced by HM Prison women offenders, London College of Fashion (LCF) tutors, and students, who created content inspired by and relevant for the female prisoner readership.

Besides being a vehicle to explore and hone raw talent, the magazine also features the many positive ways in which women can help themselves during their sentences. Through this project we wanted to promote the idea that each woman can be responsible for creating her own positive route in life through her identity, and show the role fashion and beauty play in this.

In the words of Frances Corner OBE, Pro Vice-Chancellor, “Fashion is often dismissed as trivial by those who see clothes as adornment, rather than an external display of internal thinking. At LCF, while we encourage our students to think the unthinkable as they search for tomorrow’s ideas, we also want to make a social impact.” This is at the heart of LCF’s prison magazine project.

Top 3 learnings

1 We have learnt how ‘fashion’ interventions can be an effective way to engage with and empower diverse audiences and communities

2 This project provides an opportunity to expand viewpoints, challenges perspectives and exchange unique insights and learning in meaningful and positive ways.

3 This project has informed our dialogue and future thinking, and how we may ‘frame’ social innovation and community engagement into our curriculum and academic practice.