Blog Post 1
Julia Crew’s lecture really opened up my mindset in terms of the ways in which cultural and social aspects has affected fashion. It reminded me that fashion, in a way, is also run by the power of consumption and a lot of other socioeconomic factors. This to me, is very important as a fashion journalist.
It can be viewed that fashion is powered by the influence of the public and also gives power to the people as well. Once utilized properly, fashion actually can enable us to communicate meaningful messages to the world. By choosing what to wear and considering what we buy, we are able to tackle several social issues that appear in the fashion industry. For example, when purchasing products that are unsustainable or come from unethical labor work, it may be adding on to those issues and can be viewed as a way of supporting the problem. But if we choose to not support these products/brands we are able to stop people from producing them, thus reducing the amount of energy that is being put towards that.
One issue to that is the trends that are being publicized on social media by celebrities, social influencers and high profile individuals who are being paid to advertise specific brands every single day. This puts pressure on the target audience and makes people want to consume more products, which is why the problem is becoming a never-ending cycle. If we somehow manage to fight back the urge to join the bandwagon and feel accepted by societal norms of always being on trend and catching up to the latest products, we may be one step further to do what’s more ethical for the community. By refusing to support unethical fashion financially, it will be a big step towards ethical fashion.
This links back the topic of power and how we can use power to empower people to make the right choices in terms of fashion and support brands that are doing things that will make the community a healthier and safer environment to live in. As a journalist, it is important to communicate what is happening around us and the problems that continue to revolve in society, but it is more important to encourage people to take action. By using our voice and urging people to join in, these problems will be a much easier to solve.