Perspectives

After reflecting back on the lectures over the past two weeks, the one that stood out for me the most was ‘Perspectives’ lead by Cher Potter.

In the perspectives lecture I learnt about the Fashion collaborators ‘Sartists’ they use ‘style to tell contemporary stories of African youth and reframe narratives’ as well as being inspired by ‘black excellence and how often brands, agencies… often neglect and choose to undervalue the contribution of black people, artists and culture’ – Wanda Lephoto (Dazed, 2017, Joburg’s best dressed crew.) The Sartists have collaborated with the likes of Adidas, Levi’s and one of my personal favourites the Stussy ‘Our Tribe’ collection. This collection was inspired from African culture and was a mix between both cultural and contemporary street wear. The information I have gained from this lecture has made me aware about the lack of our cultural history that is not incorporated into our modern fashion design, culture has been lost through generation and time. However due to the likes of the Sartists who are tackling the importance of culture through Fashion has led me to believe that Fashion could play a massive roll in keeping our cultural roots alive whether this be Western, Asian, African etc. I believe that through fashion we can work towards better lives by raising awareness of this gap in the market of collaboration between modern and contemporary clothing we wear every day and our own cultural legacy. We can begin to expose overlooked design history and the importance of not forgetting this. Through fashion we can also tackle the fact that particular cultures feel undermined, such as raising awareness towards black culture and its lack of collaboration and justification within multinational brands, companies and organisations. We can press the importance of inclusivity and to have a broader range of collections exploring each other’s cultures, which can lead to an understanding between one another’s roots and history and leading to a more diverse modern-day Fashion culture. It is our social responsibility to be educated of different backgrounds and ethnicities making sure we move forward with a more rounded and inclusive portrayal of this through fashion. This also ties in with the ‘Inclusion’ lecture where I learnt about designing for those that are often also undermined within the fashion industry such as being disabled or old aged. Inclusive fashion is about enabling choice and enhancing people’s lives, but this can only be similarly achieved through education and understanding that certain proportions of our society feel unthought of. We can create better lives through fashion by understanding that the particular needs of our ‘general population’ do not fit everybody and it should be mandatory to think of alternate ways of dressing such as magnets instead of buttons or zips. Account for the needs of ALL people and the value this can have on a person’s wellbeing.