Blog Post 1
Julia Crew, ‘Power’
‘Power’ was one of the first lectures I watched and it continued to stick with me even after watching other lectures. When thinking of the fashion industry I’ve never really considered how power is a concept that is prevalent and can be seen in many aspects related to fashion itself. Watching the lecture reminded me of how powerful the industry is and how I myself have been overlooking many of the elements that have been mentioned in the slides. Fashion is such a powerful medium and can be used to show status and establishing a social hierarchy. It is a medium to visually communicate social status and class. The industry itself also has the power to produce large sums of money, however its not been evenly distributed towards everyone, only towards those with upper class status-mainly being pale, stale, males. The industry has helped put people -tiny minorities at the top- however the wealth isn’t being evenly distributed. The media also is powerful for brands, as it has a lot of power in promoting the brands to a large audience. Influencers with large followings have the power to reach a large audience without having to do much.
After this lecture I think that one way in which it has shaped my thinking on how fashion can create better lives is the fact that fashion is a powerful medium that can be highly impactful, on both large and small scales. As consumers, we have the power to decide what items we choose to buy and what brands we choose to support. As a PR student, we have the power to choose how we would like to communicate towards others, including the message we would like to have come across to others. For me as an individual I think that something I should aim on doing is being a more conscious consumer and being more selective when deciding what to buy and what brands to support. I can choose to support brands which awards decent work with fair pay, as that is a fundamental human right and as labourers in many countries aren’t receiving legal minimum wages, if I as a consumer started doing more research and being more critical of brands and products I want to buy and support, brands will acknowledge us when they see our actions and listen when we speak.