Bridging Cultures: Using Culturally Inclusive Case Studies to Engage and Empower Graduate Students in Fashion Education

Abstract

As inclusivity becomes both a strategic priority and a contested ideal within the global fashion industry, educators face an urgent mandate to prepare future professionals to navigate and challenge entrenched inequities. This paper explores the use of culturally inclusive case studies as a pedagogical intervention to advance equity, engagement, and applied learning in graduate-level fashion education. Drawing from graduate curricula of the subject institution, a New York City-based private college focused on the business of fashion and lifestyle, it highlights case studies featuring brands led by individuals from historically underrepresented groups. These cases are embedded in project-based learning across disciplines such as marketing, sustainability, and global supply chain strategy, offering students complex, real-world examples of how identity intersects with power and business decisions. Grounded in theories of culturally responsive teaching and case-based learning, this study analyzes student reflections and classroom outcomes to demonstrate how inclusive case materials foster empathy, critical analysis, and cross-cultural fluency. Ultimately, the paper argues that inclusivity in fashion education should move beyond mere representation to a reimagining of curricular frameworks centering intersectional identities and lived experience as sources of innovation, not exceptions to it.