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Lord Amherst's diplomatic mission to the Qing Court in 1816 was the second British embassy to China. The first led by Lord Macartney in 1793 had failed to achieve its goals. It was thought that Amherst had better prospects of success, but the intense diplomatic encounter that greeted his arrival ended badly. Amherst never appeared before the Jiaqing emperor and his embassy was expelled from Peking on the day it arrived. Historians have blamed Amherst for this outcome, citing his over-reliance on the advice of his Second Commissioner, Sir George Thomas Staunton, not to kowtow before the emperor. Detailed analysis of British sources reveal that Amherst was well informed on the kowtow issue and made his own decision for which he took full responsibility. Success was always unlikely because of irreconcilable differences in approach. China's conduct of foreign relations based on the tributary system required submission to the emperor, thus relegating all foreign emissaries and the rulers they represented to vassal status, whereas British diplomatic practice was centred on negotiation and Westphalian principles of equality between nations. The Amherst embassy's failure revised British assessments of China and led some observers to believe that force, rather than diplomacy, might be required in future to achieve British goals. The Opium War of 1840 that followed set a precedent for foreign interference in China, resulting in a century of 'humiliation'. This resonates today in President Xi Jinping's call for 'National Rejuvenation' to restore China's historic place at the centre of a new Sino-centric global order.

Fashion education is caught in a moment of intense transformation. While the fashion industry continues along a reckless path of social and environmental destruction, a new generation of students are activating our educational institutions, demanding real and radical change. Meanwhile, the theoretical field of Fashion Studies has rapidly taken a central position in imagining a new vision of fashion in a global context, re-writing problematic histories, challenging Eurocentric dominance and dismantling prevailing ideologies. This article, in the form of a manifesto for educators, calls for a return to the origins of fashion scholarship within the discipline of British Cultural Studies. It asks what we might learn from Cultural Studies' intersection with Critical Pedagogy as a way to "do" fashion politics within our classrooms. By drawing on initiatives pioneered by the Cultural and Historical Studies Department at London College of Fashion, this manifesto explores how British Cultural Studies can be re-articulated for our current times, in order to forge new alliances between theory and practice, and enact radical action beyond the walls of our academic institutions.

MODUS is a platform for expanded fashion practice through Onomatopee Projects, initiated and led by Caroline Stevenson and Ruby Hoette in collaboration with Roland Brauchli. modus: a mode of procedure: a way of doing something Contemporary fashion culture is seeing creative practitioners actively seeking to challenge traditional practices and question the very definition of their discipline. While the mainstream fashion industry continues to uphold commercial boundaries, there are emergent practices that propose alternate value systems and thus different ways of thinking, doing and being fashion. These are expanded fashion practices: experimental methods, curiosity and criticality that have the ability to interrogate the social, cultural, political and environmental impacts of fashion and point to a future that transcends the current capitalist paradigm. MODUS brings together and maps these diverse and rich practices, providing a platform to bridge the divide between theory and practice in fashion. It will facilitate conversations between the practitioners working in this expanded field and writers/theorists from a range of disciplines including sociology, cultural and critical theory, politics and economics to help formulate new perspectives on fashion. MODUS will take various forms from publications to events and workshops – all with the aim to establish an international research network that represents and supports this community of expanded practice.

The past few years have seen a more politicised approach to scholarship in the field of Fashion Studies. This has occurred in dialogue with the recent resurgence of feminist activism, calls to decolonize the curriculum, and the increasingly urgent discourse on sustainability. It therefore seems an opportune moment to reflect on the shape of the field as it stands, and explore some of its key ideological concerns and principles as we move into a new decade. Fashion Politics is a series of seminars/workshops, hosted by faculty from Parsons Paris and London College of Fashion, to explore fashion politics through the idea of praxis. Coming from the Greek term for 'doing', the term praxis seems a fruitful term for thinking through what it means to do Fashion Studies today. The term has evolved from its origins in Greek philosophy to critical theory via Marx and later Sartre, Arendt and Gramsci. A means of reflecting on our activity and engagement in the world, based on a person's will, intention or aim. It has also been used to critique theory for its own sake and has recently been employed to contextualize and legitimize the role of practice-based research and pedagogy in fashion and design. That said the outcome of praxis is not always predictable; it can take one to a space of not knowing, uncertainty, and to the edges of discourse. Praxis does not necessarily apply only in a studio context; it expands to include political activism and interventions in the world. We therefore seek to reflect on the role we as educators and researchers have in terms of the politics of teaching fashion in the contemporary context.