Blog 1 – Reflection – William Byrne
During the first two weeks of the better lives unit, I attended an array of different lectures, but the lecture that resonated with me the most was the lecture on power presented by lecturer of fashion and sustainability, and course leader of MA Fashion Futures, Julia Crew.
I found this lecture very insightful, and shocking, especially when she mentioned that sixty-two people have the wealth of half of the world’s population, and according to Oxfam it takes four days for a CEO from one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her lifetime. Factories around the world are being pushed to deliver ever-larger quantities of clothing at a higher rate, but with a smaller profit margin, forcing workers to work unpaid overtime whilst being subjected to harassment, injury, and intimidation in cruel conditions, so next time you are out shopping in fast fashion stores, who are owned by the mega-rich, ask yourself who is being exploited for you to be able to buy clothing items so cheap? Is it worth spending a little more money for an item of quality, that will not only last longer, but the workers who made the items are treated fairly and with respect, as any human being so rightly should be?
In the US, it takes slightly over one working day for a CEO to earn what an ordinary worker makes in a year. The rich are continuing to get richer, whilst the poor are continuing to get poorer. In the world, and more specifically the fashion industry, money plays a huge roll in the work that is created and fashion has been a medium to visually communicate power for centuries including royalty, military power, politics, business, media and music.
“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Malcolm X, Human Rights Activist
For the past three decades, digital marketing has had a great influence on our consumerism, and according to Forbes American’s are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements every single day. Advertising is quick, cumulative and mostly subconscious, with only 8 percent of an advertisement’s message being received by the conscious mind, and the rest of the message is worked deeply within the brain. As consumers, we have a lot of power. We are the driver of trends, and every time we buy something, we’re unknowingly voting with our wallet. Whenever we use our voices, and our wallets, brands listen. We can create real change just by changing where we shop, or you can be more radical and join activist groups such as Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion, Fashion Revolution Week, Peta and many more. We have to make a change not only for ourselves, but for all future lives on this earth. We need to do better than the generations before us, and we all need to take accountability.
26th March 2020 @ 3:18 pm
I agree on the lecture being extremely important and insightful and it was useful to re-read the facts I did not catch during the lecture. This unit I indulge mostly into sustainability because of my personal project being based on climate change, and I found this review about the crisis of fast fashion having good fact-based information for me to engage with. The writer seemingly had some after thoughts which would be impactful for his perception and potential actions. However, the task requires to reflect on lectures and his blog missed an accurate personal contemplation about the problem and its possible outcome on how you have changed your approach. You talked about how the humankind has to change its attitude towards unfair fashion by making more thoughtful decisions and how should we as buyers pursue an impact of the whole industry by dictating for what we stand for. The reflection itself seemed more of an exhortation of awareness for the readership rather than product of self-consideration. On the other hand this reflection is convincing and influential. By choosing this tone of voice you gave me as a reader some food for my own perception and I believe it is a positive occurrence since this unit was created on the possibility for us not only learn during lectures, but to learn from one another. I think that comparing with the word count we were given the topic itself was delivered well and all stated facts were relevant. The crisis of fast fashion is intimidating and makes me as well as you wonder how we are going to solve this problem in the future. I am sure that we all want fair and transparent future and activities like these help us to go forward to pursue this goal.