Because of the nature of the course, the Final Project for Cultural Connections to Fashion accounts for a high percentage of the final grade, and students are expected to work on this over a period of weeks. The term project instructions are as follows:
Students are required to make THIRTY ‘cultural connections’ between the Past and the Present, demonstrating their analytical understanding of the political/economic/cultural and/or psychological impetus behind them. At least TEN of their ‘cultural connections’ must be based on fashion, while others may include songs, movies, books, commercials, celebrities, etc. Both the ‘then’ and ‘now’ must have an accompanying illustration. Students are not allowed to re-use contemporary examples of ‘cultural connections’ to the past already covered or discussed in class. Students are required to identify and describe both items/images, followed by a personal analysis of why they believe this ‘connection’ is being made. Below are two examples of how the work is to be presented.