Better Lives- Blog 2
From my past work the three themes of better lives: sustainability, social responsibility and diversity have played a role in my creative process but haven’t always been at the forefront of my mind. However now having been further educated on these vital matters I will ensure that I incorporate them into my practice in the future.
One topic that has been something that I have gravitated towards is fast fashion. In my previous unit one of the things I chose to research was this subject matter, it fascinates me and I find it extremely relatable being a consumer of fast fashion myself. Only through the Better lives unit did I realize how it linked so closely to social responsibility and sustainability. The fast fashion model promotes a ‘throwaway’ culture, this was explained in the lecture on Society presented by Katelyn Toth- Fejel it also means that consumers have an increased access to cheap clothing. The environmental impacts of the fast fashion industry are overwhelmingly negative as due to the increase in resources needed this means there is more waste and pollution created, meaning it is not sustainable in the slightest.
‘100 billion garments were produced in 2015 on a planet of only 7 billion people’
‘Worldwide, between 2000- 2014 clothing production doubled’
‘The average person buys 60% more clothing than 15 years ago and keeps them for half as long’
Source: Timeout for fast fashion, Report by Greenpeace, 2016- (From the Society lecture)
These statistics shocked me and made me feel guilty for being a contributor to this serious issue of wastefulness. I want to become more aware of what I am purchasing and if it is necessary. It has also become apparent to me that we need to work together to find sustainable solutions and that this is something that comes under the heading of social responsibility. We are all responsible for what we do as individuals but working together we can find solutions to create a more sustainable industry.
One of the themes that resonates with me personally is that of diversity. I am passionate about the fact that the fashion industry should be diverse in terms of representation of race and gender, but also people who have disabilities which became more apparent to me in the lecture by Laura Salisbury who spoke about Inclusion. This has made me think of how in my practice of hair and makeup that I need to be able to adapt to each individual and any specific needs and requirements they may have. I think it is important to be considerate and mindful of everyone and anything that means you need to adapt your practice. Fashion is a creative outlet that should be a space for all and as practitioners we need to be welcoming and always have that at the forefront of our minds. These three themes are now factors that I will consider in my work and encourage others to do the same as it is beneficial to everyone.
11th May 2020 @ 1:33 am
Reflections on your peers’ work using the Better Lives themes as a framework for analysis.
After finishing the Better Lives online lectures, we came to the last session, where we looked through all our classmate’s character concept designs. Throughout the rest of this week, we were to consider our peers´ works and reading through several blogs from our peers. After reading through several blogs, finding some very insightful opinions, I felt I wanted take a deeper look and review of my class mate Annie Foo´s blogs and design, especially as she presented some strong developments, which in my opinion would make for a more interesting analysis.
Annie’s first blog was surrounding the topic of ‘well-being’, due to her taking interest in the lecture by Jekaterina Rogaten’s lecture she had attended. Going on to explain the two theories of well-being that Rogaten presented to us, Annie showed a great understanding of the theories, breaking both down. I do think she could have raised points on how the topic of well-being and what was spoken about in the lecture related and effected the theme of sustainability, even if it wasn’t explicitly spoken about directly to sustainability, it’s still a completely relevant point. I myself attended Rogaten’s lecture and also wrote my first blog post heavily on the well-being lecture, so it was interesting to see how someone else interpreted all the various lessons taught from Rogaten, which I felt gave me an even further insight on the topic.
The topic of ‘fast fashion’ seemed to interest Annie, I found from reading her second blog post. It was exciting to read as there was a connection to her last blog topic where she had not mentioned the theme of sustainability, showing she had thought over what she had learnt and made even further connections back to the Better Lives themes. Diversity also seemed to interest Annie in Better Lives, something she could support in her own discipline of hair and makeup for fashion by supporting smaller or more diverse brands of makeup such as Fenty Beauty.
Ending the Better Lives project, we were asked to create a character influenced by the three themes for our ‘Developing a character’ project. Due to COVID-19 however, we were unable to physically bring these characters to life using prosthetic makeup techniques, so a sketch with a small annotation was used as a substitute. The character is based on the theme of ‘Ecological Balance’ (sustainability), who is “living in a world where fast fashion has spiralled out of control causing the amount of waste to be at a dangerous level” as Annie described in her annotation. The character had been injured due to the amount of waste in their environment, which could be a foreboding comment on the increasing use and build up of landfill sites, if we were not to change our ways with waste.
Annie’s blogs show that she has had a clear development in her thinking, having considered several lessons from the Better Lives teachings in her reflective blogs and final piece, it is obvious she has learned from the project from the knowledge she has presented.
https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/03/28/better-lives-blog-2/