Better Lives Reflective Writing: Well-being & Representation
Well-being is a prominent issue in today’s fashion industry, and these lectures emphasised the importance of tackling this issue. Although fashion can enhance individual well-being with the freedom of creativity and expression, it can also have a detrimental effect. Mass production has helped to shape the idea that more is better, which leads to higher expectations which are harder to satisfy. Along with this, the spread of Eurocentric mass media has led to misrepresentation and racist values, leaving people feeling undesirable not only in the industry but in everyday life.
The lecture on well-being, presented by Jekaterina Rogaten introduced me to different kinds of well-being: hedonic well-being and eudemonic well-being. According to hedonic well-being, our positive emotions need to be outweighing the negative ones, and over time, it becomes necessary to consume more and more in order to maintain the same level of happiness; however this ideology has been over-exploited by commercial companies in order to maintain and increase growth of their brand. It has also been proven misguided by some trends, such as the practice of minimalism, which takes the ‘less is more’ approach. Social media has brainwashed society to believe that we constantly need more, and this is unsustainable not only to humans but to the environment which we take advantage of. Eudemonic well-being – rather – emphasises the pursuit of meaningful experiences to allow a happier life, which is a more realistic approach to long-term well-being, not only for human kind but the planet too.
Although the fashion industry has made big strides in representing a more diverse community, the media of those not represented, or misrepresented can greatly impact well-being. The lecture on representation presented by Teleica Kirkland helped me understand that the industry really isn’t doing enough, and that global companies are still making backwards mistakes that can easily be avoided. When the industry is still presenting a mono-culturalist ideology, this persuades people that they are not good enough and undesirable, which is why it is so important to represent not only people of colour but people of all shapes and sizes, and if done right, can help construct a more welcoming and diverse space. However outrage-marketing is unfortunately still a tactic that brands are turning to for their own personal growth. Companies have engaged in cultural appropriation without sufficient respect for those cultures. The right way to go about this was evidenced by the video shown to us in the lecture: the ‘Wafrica’ project, which was a perfect example of two cultures coming together as one and connecting with each other, and manifested an outlook that big corporations should be practicing.
Overall, these lectures have helped to shape my understanding of how the industry can do better to improve the lives impacted by the fashion industry, and have directed me towards what I as a student and in my future career can do to improve the well-being of both the average consumer and the many minority and under-represented groups.