Blog post 1: A reflection
‘Fashion touches our everyday lives and we cannot underestimate its influence within society. It connects people from all backgrounds, crossing social and educational boundaries’ (Claire Swift, 2020) The past two weeks of Lectures have made me think differently about how I approach the fashion industry. I now realise that in order to solve the many issues surrounding power, culture and sustainability for which I’ve consequently gained more of an understanding, I need to accept my own social responsibility as a designer, embracing it as a tool to help stand out and change people’s lives for the better. Claire Swift’s lecture on Social Responsibility and Laura Salisbury’s on Inclusion, have made me realise how fashion has the power to stimulate positive emotional and physical change for people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
For example, Swift talked about ‘Making for change’ a community design project that has the capacity for improving female prison inmate’s mental health, chances for success and overall quality of life, by giving them recognition and offering them the possibility to redirect their future by learning how to construct garments for the fashion industry whilst sharing their personal stories on the actual clothes through embroidery. I learnt how the positives of an empowerment design project such as this one, benefit everyone involved, from the women in prison being offered an emotional outlet and chance at change, to those teaching and sharing their knowledge, who experience the fulfilment of impacting someone else’s life for the better. After learning that other social projects such as this, have been so hugely successful, I felt inspired to continue to set up and expand my own female empowerment fashion design project based in Africa working with widows, arming them with garment construction skills in order to fight the present issue of polygamy. The project celebrates Maasai culture whilst acknowledging their heritage within the designs, another factor of importance expressed by Cher Potter in the ‘Perspectives’ lecture that I learnt more about.
As well as designing and using my creativity to help those from all walks of life, I now feel so much more aware of making sure my designs are inclusive to all, despite any disabilities or impairments. In her lecture, Salisbury introduced me to Cute Circuit’s ‘SoundShirt’, a new smart top designed to enable the deaf community to feel the vibrating sensation of live music. What’s so fantastic about this example is that it has the capability of being truly inclusive because even people who can hear, are expressing the desire to test the product as a result of the entirely new experience it’s offering as a piece of smart textiles. The growth of smart textiles is something that really interests me, as does the idea of how we can use it to further improve the fashion industry, making it more inclusive to a broader market. As a costume and Haute Couture practitioner, it has made me curious how new upcoming smart technologies could enhance the world of performance, allowing everyone to be apart of the magic. Although this lecture series broadened my knowledge of issues we need to solve in the fashion industry presently, it also reminded me of why I love fashion and its immense power for positive change.
References
Swift, C. (2020) ‘Introduction to Social Responsibility’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 14th February.