In fashion design, pedagogy balancing a strong technical foundation with a more disruptive attitude during the ideation and development procedures provides the potential for diverse, emergent, aesthetically and critically poignant outputs. The ultimate goal in this is to offer a learning environment that is inclusive and accesses dormant design curiosity, also, as a teacher, to devise methods that will lead to discovering a personal and distinct aesthetic vocabulary. 'Ratio', 'resize', 'repeat', 'reduce', 'remix' and 'rearrange' are the 6Rs that can challenge the creative design process and reprogramme the design brain into unearthing radical new forms, concepts and aesthetics. This article will address the established literature on the ways of nurturing creative thinking as it supports the methodology of serious play directed by the 6R terms to exercise ideation generation in fashion education. This discussion will be evidenced with a case study to show that the 6Rs can successfully introduce and/or expand creative thinking in fashion design processes. The aim of this is to provide students with tools, habits and tasks that empower a creative mindset when approaching the early conceptual and compositional stages of garment development, while also addressing the tutor's role in establishing and exemplifying a creative ethos that is integral to initiating these methods and pedagogy. Most importantly, this approach is fundamentally driven by the need to invest in a more diverse student body to potentially reach unnoticed and less privileged fashion talent.