ABSTRACT
Fashion provision inside the art schools underwent significant changes in the 1960s. This was a decade of tremendous upheaval for the whole sector. The first Coldstream Report was published in 1960 and its main recommendation was the replacement of the old National Diploma by a Diploma in Art and Design which would be of degree standard, not necessarily vocational but providing instead a ‘liberal education in art’ (Coldstream 1960, quoted in Ashwin 1975:98). This report was considered long overdue by those who had been calling for the introduction of higher academic standards in art education, including a component of art history. The report specified four areas of specialism, one of which was Textiles and Fashion (the others being Fine Art, including painting and drawing, and sculpture and drawing; Graphic Design; and Three Dimensional Design). All four areas were to include fine art. Coldstream thus consolidated the principle that art education meant, first and foremost, an education in the fine arts.
