Blog 1: Reflecting on Lectures
During the lecture series, I developed an interest for the issue of mass consumption and the sociological aspect of fast fashion. This was primarily influenced by two lectures: Katelyn Toth-Fejel’s Society and Julia Crew’s Power.
The contemporary retail world can be described as fast fashion; a term used to describe inexpensive clothing produced rapidly, which in turn means they have a short lifetime. An example of such retailers are Boohoo and Misguided, who turned over upwards of £60 million in profits in 2019. As someone who buys clothes to represent my style, with the intention of keeping them for several years, I was astonished to find out that we buy 60% more clothes than 15 years ago and wear them for half as long. This fact made me question why our mindsets have changed.
‘Fashion is very individual, but it’s a manifestation of the culture that we live in, and often of who we want to be, how we want to be seen by the rest of the world; and that is its power.’
Orsola de Castro, founder of Fashion Revolution.
I found the discussion of how clothes feed our materialistic nature and need for identity the most influential topic. When Katelyn Toth-Fejel talked about our need to continuously re-establish who we are, I wondered if social media has a role to play. With the ability to connect to more people than ever before, it reveals similarities between ourselves; could this be the reason for our identity crises? Furthermore, it could be because we want to fit in with a certain look or group of people which we see online, so we copy their style. For example, influencers who create an idealistic depiction of their life whilst promoting products. Lastly, trends and internet-hype could play a role as we feel pressured to conform to a particular brand or look. In a world governed by likes and comments, we may find ourselves using this to value our identity.
Although cheap clothes democratized fashion, it has also encouraged consumers to view it as short-term and throwaway (Arnold, R. 2009). Part of the issue lies with our consumerist nature as we gain satisfaction from each purchase we make, and due to the low cost with have less commitment to the item. The ‘Local Wisdom’ project as my favorite response to this issue, as family members shared a dress to get more use out of it. The women found they had memories attached to the dress, which I found very inspirational as it gives clothes the meaning they once had.
Bibliography:
Arnold, R. (2009) Fashion: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP.