BPeer review

Response to Selena Denvir-Jones

Finding a blog post to review was very tough for me to choose as they’re all extremely interesting and with a different point of view. After careful considering, I stumbled across Selena Denvir-Jones blog posts and I felt very connected to the things she touched upon. I believe that she successfully reflected on the better lives themes by looking into the concept of well-being and “the importance of well-being in fashion”. She touched upon Ethical issues within the fashion industry and how it effects the world. She does a lot of unpacking and self-reflection when it comes to looking at the ways that the hierarchy of needs in life is also present in her own. Selena brought up very interesting points that were very close to home for me and made me also reflect on my ways of life. 

 It was very interesting to find that I am not the only person that has been upcycling fabrics, especially during this time. That gave a great sense of comfort, knowing that my peers are also engaging in different ways to create new garments and promote sustainability. She was very homiest in her approach, we as a nation do find it hard to stay consistent with our values, it has been especially difficult during the pandemic as people are more concerned about their mental states and making themselves happy instead of thinking about the greater good. She demonstrated that one alone is not enough, we can all benefit from a wider base of motivation when it comes to putting the better lives themes into practise.

I learnt that many people now have the time to come up with such wonderful ideas of how to avoid fast fashion. Being stripped of work/university has helped society to be more grateful for the little things, including innovative ways to showcase fashion. Selena touched upon social responsibility and sustainability, However, she did not necessarily touch upon diversity as a whole. She has clearly expressed her own person frustrations and illnesses. I am well connected with her peer responses because I too felt like a had the virus. Despite self diagnosing, onlin shopping for clothes and sorting through which has will go to charity definitely paves the way for a better way of lives.

She incorporated psychological standpoints into her reasonings and turn her thoughts and ideas into actions. Her posts are great because She outlines all the benefits of sustainability. Her posts could’ve been better if she was more open to the idea of challenging representation within the fashion world and her diversity can contribute to a better world. Selena openly expresses the way she feels about fashion waste by pushing her idea of reselling her own cloths.

Ultimately, I learnt that other stylists also feel deeply about the disadvantages that come along with keeping up with trends and using fashion as a way of fulfilling happiness. There is a fine line between retail therapy and being fashionable in an unhealthy way. She constantly refers back to how societal expectations and events can have positive/negative effect on the direction and progression of the better lives’ themes in the real world. She does not sugar coat and she is raw in her approach to giving awareness, that is what I loved about her posts the most.

Project outcomes and personal development

My moving image is all about my experiences during quarantine. It is a very short sequence of events from different parts of my isolation experience. I’ve decided to create a short clip as the shortness gives a real sense of how we a society haven’t been able to do much. My concept Is “being still” as you will see what life has been like for me the past 2 months, my balcony and being bare foot on the balcony has become my definition of outside. Walks to the shops/ park have become my daily runway. I’ve tried to incorporate some of the better lives’ themes into my day to day life by re-wearing garments/ ordering clothes online to model in for Instagram and returning them once done with them. The culture of “borrowing clothes” has been an advantage as it allows me to temporarily enjoy trends whilst not having to spend money trying to keep up. 

Fashion styling during this time has become a way of expression as woman are getting dressed indoors, this gives a sense of being rebellious and it also shows that fashion activism during quarantine is being used as a means of social change. People are at ends wits with the current pandemic and are expressing it through fashion which is very inspiring for me.

My initial idea was inspired by Ade Hassan who is the founder of the brand Nubian Skin. A UK underwear brand that focuses on diversity by redefining the term “nude”. I loved the idea of interpretation and birthing art out of frustration. I decided that I would create a sequence of random events from my quarantined life when I’m feeling the most frustrated. Although some may interpret the moving image as peaceful, I want my audience to connect with me and my sense of feeling trapped indoors. 

Nubian skin is inspired by personal struggles and low representation. A brand dedicated to all women worldwide by offering a wide range of nude/ skin tone hosiery. “Empowering women, embracing our colour”. A world where black woman are included in the skin tone choices. Little things like finding the correct shade of foundation, lingerie, Etc…  gives a feel of familiarity. It Is no secret that common retail beauty supply stores have a bigger supply of tones for Fairer skin women. However, Brands like Nubian skin helps to kick start the revolution. No one should have to go through the frustrations of feeling excluded in the fashion community.

I personally can relate to the brands values. She is a positive advocate for the word “nude” establishing a brand-new meaning. Deflecting from the sexual meaning of the word and focusing on the many different tones of nudes that the nations create. A very clever concept. An undergarment can make or break a lot. It can create a silhouette and help blend in garments seamlessly.

The Aesthetics of the brand is very thorough, clear and unapologetically black. A very classy and soft feel. A breakthrough in the fashion industry. Engaging with the audience and listening to the needs/demands within fashion. “Relevant, variety & luxury”.

I’ve heavily reflected on how my fashion footprint effects my mental state and how it could also uplift others and give a sense of hope.

Themes reflection

The better lives project has really opened me up to the different ways that themes might change how I work in the future. Social responsibility, diversity and sustainability are all aspects that play important roles in the world of fashion. I am most certainly reflecting on how I can experiment with these themes. Social stability is all about “the range of life structure and reliable routine that is protective against further situational hazards” I engage with social stability by being more careful with my retail therapy, being more environmentally friendly with my choice of materials. Investing in higher quality clothes so that the life span of my clothes will be longer. Avoiding trends is also a great way of being socially responsible, by consistently conforming to the expectations of society and fashion can save unnecessary waste and not to mention money. 

As I reflect on my own styling, it’s always a great to try and get multiple wears out of outfits. There are at least 5 ways that a top can be transformed into, it’s all about unlocking your inner creations. In the current society, there is pressure to be the next best thing. There is a culture of posting on Instagram and not being able to wear the outfit again because repeating clothes is very frowned upon. There are ways to turn knowledge of the better lives’ themes into creative practice. In terms of sustainability, opening my friends up to the idea of sharing clothes every month is a great way of recycling. There are online websites such as Depop that enable people from all over the world to sell clothe that they’ve worn once, never worn before or that have lost their value. Not to mention that shopping and giving clothes away to charity shops is always an act of goodwill. Second-hand clothes /vintage shops “assists in keeping the recycling system in place as people who can otherwise not afford these garments are able to wear them”. 

Rihanna has recently turned into a very inspirational fashionista who advocates for diversity in the world of styling. Her campaigns always consist of woman from all over the world, different shapes, sizes and ethnicities. ’Savage x Fenty’ is a brand that celebrates the beauty in what is seen ‘uncommon’. For a long time, the face of fashion was very cliché. Rihanna has helped me rethink my choice of casting when looking for models for a project. Diversity is an important way of showing different social economical backgrounds of people through styling.

Even through a world-wide pandemic there are still ways that stylists try to engage with themes that change how they work. For example, a brand called ADKN advocates for animal free / eco- friendly designs. They’ve also recently invested in reusable fabric masks that are made from bamboo masks. It makes me rethink about whether using disposable masks are sustainable, by using washable material it allows us to flatten the curve in a more environmentally friendly way. To conclude, the better lives themes have definitely provoked thoughts of how I can change my work practically.

References

2011 Dec 1st
Social Stability and Health: Exploring Multidimensional Social Disadvantage
Danielle german & Carl A. Latkin

2018 Jul 2nd
What are the environment benefits of buying pre-owned clothes?
Dheril Dsouza

ADKN
https://adkn.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwk6P2BRAIEiwAfVJ0rGo2wBUNb7wXlsKOs4or7Yedm7uAC2STSfwqXy2aRPafiSv7xnsaGBoC4TwQAvD_BwE

Lecture reflection 

By Julia Crew 

Power

The reason why Julia’s lecture on power stood out to me amongst the rest is because I am new to the world of fashion styling and I felt like the best way to gain a deeper understanding about the roots of fashion and styling Is to understand the culture, power  and real impact that it has on the world. Throughout the lecture, Julia looked at the topic of power from a number of perspectives. This ignited loads of thoughts from the question of “who holds the power in fashion”. I was drawn to her lecture because she acknowledged the positive sides alongside the dark sides of fashion. Julia challenged many ideologies by using examples to back up her points. For example, how royalty hold the power in fashion, the military and symbolism, hierarchy and leadership.

I think the most fundamental way the lecture has influenced my thinking is that power can also be seen in a more systemic point of view. The power in fashion not only boils down to politics, it can boil down to economic power. Statistically, there has always been a huge divide between those at the top in comparison to those at the bottom in terms of inequality and that also plays an important role in fashion. who holds the power in fashion? Provokes thoughts and challenges the hierarchy of fashion. Is it the consumer? The media? Cultures? society?One important thing I learned is the representations within the fashion industry and media have a huge influence on advertising.  The new culture of Instagram fashion accounts now known as ‘influencer marketing’ proves that anyone can have a voice in fashion. People are able to follow along with people that represent who they are whether its body shape or skin colour. Resulting in people being most likely to purchase an outfit even if they’re not familiar with the person. That in itself is enough to kick start thoughts on how I plan to approach how fashion shapes the industry.  

I believe that the power in fashion starts with us, being sustainable has been an ongoing battle of mine. In a world of overconsumption and fast fashion, it can be very challenging. We recognise that if people do not truly understand the power of fashion, the global footprint and its over influence especially in fast fashion could be very unsustainable in the long run. 

Fashion can create better lives with the notion of us all coming together and creating a sustainable future. For example, sharing clothes amongst clothes/ investing in second-hand materials/clothes. These thoughts of mine have definitely been shaped by the impacts of some of these lectures. As much as waste is a global issue, by recognising that we all hold the power in fashion, we can begin to take responsibility for some of the effects just by being more aware.

References

Von Busch & cuba. 2014

Vestoj, issue 4: ‘On Power’

Orsola de Castro, fashion revolution

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25.1

Within this final blog post, I will review a peer’s blog, to see how they interpreted and explored the Better Live themes throughout this unit. I found it to be insightful looking through the different posts and realising not only did everyone consider the themes in regard to the wider fashion industry, but also how they were able to adapt and implement them into their practice. The ideas and concepts people explored under the bracket of these themes were vast, and I found it extremely interesting to learn about many different designers, projects, causes etc. in line with these three topics — sustainability, social responsibility and diversity. 
People’s final outcomes of this project were vastly different and often personal. After reading many posts I decided to review Lynn Nwosu’s as I felt their writing was informative, insightful and responsible in regard to their outcome. 

I initially was interested in Lynn’s blog as they stated how the exploration of Messaging Fashion was a new and unknown venture, how they admire “ the business side of the industry” and felt having this knowledge was essential. This concept of learning about a new facet of the fashion industry you had no prior experience with, can make for an interesting journey, something I believe Lynn successfully documented in a clear and informative structure. 

The journey throughout this project was interesting to follow, it felt like an honest progression of research and outcome, with diversity and social responsibility at its core. I was particularly interested to learn about the brand Patta who base much of their work around, in Lynn’s words “initiate(ing) projects in aim to inspire youth to entrepreneurship, to be the role models of the next generation.” After an unsure start in regard to the integrity of the brand, Lynn’s proactive first hand research in the soho store proved to inspire and fuel the project.

For me the most interesting part of this blog post was to learn about the way in which Lynn and group copped with the changing times of COVID-19. The adjustment of working methods and final presentation format was key in ensuring this project was carried out to the best possible standard in this difficult time. It was with resilience and compromise Lynn and group were able to finalise an outcome that had the three themes at its core, whilst being socially responsive in a state of emergency, adapting using collaborative methods such as “Instagram live conversations”. 

The final outcome of the project was, as Lynn states “far from what we first intended” however with the final idea being “a fundraiser enabling us to give back to the NHS” – where in “the idea was to organise a mini-festival” to combat loneliness in this disparate time, fully embodied the ideas of inclusivity and being socially responsible whilst also noting the importance of a “diverse and inclusive lineup” shows a journey of development throughout this project.

One thing I would perhaps like to know more about, is the way in which Lynn would implement these practices learnt through the overcoming of many obstacles within this project into their future work, as well as how the better lives themes could be considered in everyday life and further practice.

Over the course of my project, I have noticed a great deal of personal development in my ideas regarding the three main themes. Within this project my own growth has also been realised in regard to refining techniques and processes in an illustration based medium. 
The tutorials have transformed the way I view a body, and the taught mark making and stylistic techniques have enabled me to refine my illustration style in order to better tell a story and portray a scene.
Encouraged by my tutor, I researched into creatives, whose work focuses around one or more of the better lives themes. After the lecture series the themes I was most interested in were sustainability and social responsibility, how they worked together and how they can be considered in the wider fashion industry. 
After carrying out research into several designers, artists and brands who vitalised these topics in their work, I decided to narrow it down and focus on two brands which I thought explored sustainability and social responsibility in innovative ways. 

As previously mentioned (in blog post 2) the fashion and textiles industry have a great impact on the world’s water consumption and contamination – this often is a direct effect of material dying and chemical waste dumping. This prompted my research into forms of natural dying as a more ethical and sustainable alternative. Cara Marie Piazza – a Brooklyn based artist – uses waste flowers from florists or personal occasions to dye vintage one off silk pieces. Her ethos is to create beautiful garments which are sustainable, ethical and timeless, that can be kept and treasured. 
To better explore this form of natural dying and further illustrate this story of sustainable water consumption, I wanted to experiment with this process myself.

The process itself was very simple and effective – steaming the silk wrapped flowers over salt water. It used only waste products, as the flowers were from a dying bouquet and the silk was  off cuts from a vintage dress I altered. The only new materials were the water and salt but even this can be reused after in cooking etc. The overall effect was very magical and unexpected, illustrating a journey of sustainable process through abstract mark making. 

After considering material further, I looked at the brand Vin and Omi whose colourful shows use innovative sustainable materials to create fun and playful looks. Specifically they have developed a material called rPET bonded silk. Their collection of their rPET textiles are made from waste plastics collected from “existing clean up projects, or (they) initiate (their) own projects to clean up rivers or areas of ocean or beaches”. I wanted to illustrate and take inspiration from their “A/W RESIST” show, using the online tutorial guides to capture figure and form as well as draping and shape, in combination with the fabric I created, through digital manipulation. 

I read through Yanyu Pan’s blog post on fashion illustration and I enjoyed reading through how she really researched into the designer’s work, relating it to the better lives themes and finding reason to decide upon one of the designs for her final illustration. Within her blog, she focuses mostly on sustainability out of the main themes, looking into nature and environment themes of some of Alexander McQueen’s collections. Although she faced some difficulty with the drawing practice, it’s good how she learnt how the material she painted on is affected by her choice of painting medium. You can see how she has become more aware of her use of products and using recycled material, making her work more sustainable as she practices the illustrations.
Although for illustrations you’d normally want a clear paper to work on, I like the effect of the recycled paper underneath her piece. The writing and images showing through the negative spaces and areas of lighter paint creates an interesting effect to the piece, making it fuller and adding to the shading of the piece. It was nice to see her include photos of the work as it allows the readers to see and understand what is being described. This made me think that it could’ve been something for myself to have added within my blog post.

As somebody who isn’t as familiar with McQueen’s as others in this institution, it was interesting to read into her analysis of the designs. The theme of the dress strongly links to modern questions of environment and the ecosystem, and Yanyu has related this to the recent Earth Day. She also mentions the fashion industry and how people are working towards sustainability and social responsibility. This part was fairly brief and I would have liked to read some examples of how this is progressing. Additionally, with mentions to vogue interviewing women on challenges of fashion moving towards sustainable development, I was very intrigued and would have liked to read about examples of this too.

Her final illustration depicted the shape and body of the dress well, including the height and style of hair in the photo. In all of the photos you can see how watercolour has been the main medium with tissue paper in one of the practices. The blend of colours is smooth and suits the theme of water in the piece, but with watercolour being a very soft medium, it would be interesting to see how she could go about adding more texture to her illustrations, especially within the skirt element of the dress as it shows lots of volume and folds of overlapping material. Either with physical materials like the tissue paper, or with more practice into developing techniques to create different textures with the watercolours, it could really help to push the illustration forward. Overall, Yanyu has done a great job into reflecting upon her work in this Better Lives unit and has put a lot of research and thought into her creation.

After watching the Better Lives lectures, it has inspired my way of thinking even more when it comes to how I want to pursue work in hair, makeup and prosthetics.

Even before watching the lectures, diversity has been something of interest to me but now, my interest has become even stronger. Diversity has been a strong topic in the fashion industry in the recent years and has come a long way from where it began, yet there is still so much to do and improve upon. Having worked as a supporting artist, I have seen how some hair and makeup artists have struggled with working on people of colour (unless they themselves are poc). Moreover, in one of the lectures, it was shown how for one fashion show, a model showed how they avoided styling her as no one knew how to work with her hair type. This has sparked me even more to want to learn how to work with Afro-Caribbean hair as it’s often something people without this hair type struggle immensely with. I think it’s important to make everyone feel included and not to feel as if their being is something that’s difficult to work with.
Similarly, this is the case with skin colour too as people will tend to be comfortable and know how to work within a certain range of tones and then struggle with shades lighter or darker. In the recent years, makeup brands have been making more foundation shades to suit a wider audience as those on the ends of the scale – whether it be extremely light or extremely dark – struggle to find makeup that matches their colour well. This has already gained so much positivity as brands work towards creating products to be more inclusive.

Many industries, including the fashion industry, are also working towards becoming more and more sustainable in the way products are made, used and recycled. As a makeup artist, I want as many of the products to be vegan and not tested on animals but there are some things that aren’t vegan that could be considered more sustainable. For example, using gelatin for prosthetics as they give a closer to realistic finish, it can be frozen to last longer, it’s a cheaper option and it can also be remelted down and used again. This material could be considered to be more sustainable because of its ability to be used again and again, whilst products such as silicon cannot be reused.
In aims to be more sustainable in my practice, I think it’s very important to be conscious of the products I choose and how I use them so I don’t have large amounts of unnecessary waste. Before the Easter break, in Jeanette’s wig making classes, she mentioned how over time and practice, you’ll learn how to cut terylene in a way to produce less and less waste with the product. Small things like this can go a long way to make the way you use things more sustainable.

For the final blog, we’ve been tasked with writing a review on one of our peer’s blog posts and reflect on how they have interpreted the better live themes. After scrolling through a variety of posts I’ve realised that the majority have gained contrasting understandings behind these themes and everyone has had differed experiences in their allocated projects. 

The blog I have chosen to reflect on for this is written by Alicia Chana Escapa – BLOG 3: Project outcomes and personal development reflection task. The reason for this is that I found the content extremely relevant with today’s circumstances in mind. Her attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic certainly moved me with its sincerity while at the same time keeping an open-minded approach to the personal issues it had raised. Alicia mentioned her opinion rightly so at the very beginning of the blog that ‘right now more than ever we need to be socially responsible, not just in fashion, but in our everyday life’. Then on developing her outcome for hair and makeup she has structured the blog in a flowing form reflecting on how she has personally adapted to life while respecting government advice with responsibility, protecting herself and others and avoiding none essential travel to collect make up tools. The fact this has inspired her to think outside of the box is something I can relate to as a person also in the creative industry that would usually rely on typical tools and devices. During my time in Isolation, I analysed the opportunities within my art of image making, coming to the conclusion I should turn to self portraiture. Of course this idea is the first solution when human contact and face to face collaboration is forbidden, but without any studio lighting, film process equipment and only a suit case of casual clothing, capturing something in my style became almost impossible. With mindful choice of natural and domestic lighting, all too familiar location and my own wardrobe I had been forced to change the way I work; an experience of my own and Alicia’s prove it can still pan out as a really compelling piece of art, often more so with the impact of sympathy and relation viewers may feel when looking at these lockdown alterations. Alicia responded similarly by replacing her makeup pallets with aspects of nature, surrounding materials and additional accessories such as PPE that bring together the series suitably by resembling realism and context.

To a T, Alicia has made [Image 3] a combination of virtual, literal and metaphorical visuals of the way in which she perceives health care workers at this point in time; a motive that came from an unfortunate sighting that moved her in an opposing way. Her response is somewhat negative with such draining makeup, but uplifting at the same time with use of wings resembling their angelic behaviour and care. 

This student has clearly demonstrated progression in trail of thought and experience with unusual materials. She has shown awareness of her surroundings and given evidence of her passion towards social responsibility with sincerity and touching art.

Representation has a long way to go in the global scenario. It is important to understand why we need representation for a diverse group of cultures at all. This is because there are different cultures that stay in a location as different countries open their borders for ethnic and cultural groups to settle in, hence the world becoming a global village. But that rushes the need for representation of all those communities in the media and the fashion world.

I, as a person of colour, have always looked forward to working for inclusion of diversity in every project I have done so far and aim to consider colour diversity making its appearance and open acceptance very vivid in all my professional projects. It can be very beneficial for brands and companies in fashion to present themselves as sensitive and tolerant to other cultures. As a student in PR, it is my responsibility to bring about this evolution with my communication skills that diversity in the global scenario is respected as well as represented. It is very important for me that all the connections and relationships I build in the industry feel included in what I offer them and all the brands I might work for work towards the diverse cultural representation. It is about putting in those efforts, even when I see it from a third point where the question is why do we have to put in effort in the first place? I think this disparity of cultures and their status should not have been created in the first place.

A question for Plus Size Models also arises that why are such sized models considered plus size? This question affects me personally hence putting a great impact on my work. I believe that it should not have been necessary to give bigger sized people a certain category name like ‘plus size’. Everybody should be called a normal size because someone’s normal is a size 8 and for the other it could be size 22. Now another dilemma for a mid-sized person arises, that size 14 comes under none of those categories (Czerniawski A., 2015), so it doesn’t seem necessary to give in and categorise oneself.

I chose Makeup Breakdown for my Better Lives unit and in the sessions, I created looks with imperfections as there is hardly any representation of highlighted scars, acne, and numerous other imperfections that are sometimes the result of birth or other times underlying tensions in life. These tensions and pressures are also unseen when it comes to media and fashion industry’s face. Another aspect in makeup that was included in my research and the project was that makeup is very genderised even after such drastic changes in the society about genders that have lead to enough acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and how makeup is something every person can use to express themselves. But even after that in many countries, why is it that only women can and should wear makeup. Is it that women need to cover their imperfections and men do not? Or the unacceptance of men wearing makeup because of how genderised it is. It is this kind of openness that I wish to bring in the society through my work.

Reference:
Czerniawski A. (2015). Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling. NYU Press. Available at: www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1287jjg (Accessed on: 24 May 2020)