Better Lives Blog Post 1
Sustainability, diversity and social responsibility are vital concepts that should be considered within every industry. Although they are not ideologies that are easily grasped, the Better Lives unit successfully discusses these three concepts in relation to the fashion industry. Specifically, the lecture about power addressed major points revolving around the fashion industry, not only today but throughout history as well. The lecture discusses the evolution of fashion in relation to social roles such as politicians, musicians and even royalties. Whilst listening to the lecture, there was one predominant question in my mind: How can we make the fashion industry more equitable?
It is no secret that the fashion industry is massive due to the fact that fashion is a tool used by people to define themselves and their identity. It is a powerful tool used to influence people and is believed to encourage people to express themselves and show their individuality and uniqueness. However, after viewing the lecture, it became evident that the extent to which the fashion industry plays a role in shaping our identity, rather than allowing us to create our own identity, is thought-provoking. The lecture discusses the influence of social media influencers as well as advertisements. Jullia portrays the extent to which consumers are affected by what is exhibited around them by marketing powers. The fashion industry is able to unconsciously affect societies worldwide into disregarding our true identities, thus conforming to the restrictions they place for us.
Moreover, it is mind blowing to think about how wealth is distributed within the fashion industry. They are the CEO’s of massive companies that are presented to the world in order to deceive consumers into thinking that the majority of the people who are involved in the fashion industry earn a good amount of money ever year.
However, with the knowledge gained by extensive research displayed in the lecture, it is evident that this is not necessarily true and that a concealed issue lies behind the false façade. An example mentioned in the lecture revolves around Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand and how she shut it down after boycotts from consumers due to the workers in the factories being paid a poverty wage and women’s rights were violated. This example connotes to how wealth is not being shared equally. Only a tiny minority at the top are actually benefiting from the system that produces goods. Furthermore, throughout the lecture, the huge gap between the people at the top and the people at the bottom is shown.
I really enjoyed the lecture and the points discussed throughout, I found them fascinating as they allow an individual to take a deeper look into the fashion industry and to question what could be changed. Better Lives allows us to educate ourselves about the issues within the industry in order to create an improved version. The revelation about the details in the industry revolving around the power distributed alerts us as fashion students and shows us the need to create change.
11th May 2020 @ 11:36 am
I have found the Better Lives blogging platform a useful tool over the unit to gain an insight into how students from other courses think and work. I think this is particularly important as it has taught me to not be restrictive in my way of working and to always be open to exploring new ideas and methods of creativity. In terms of the diversity aspect to the Better Lives unit, I think the ability to read other students work – who have different life experiences and identities – has been particularly beneficial as it is possible to directly face a variety of opinions which I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to encounter and to allow these experiences to positively influence my own work.
I read Zain Ammar (Moh’D Nour) Balkar’s ‘Better Lives Blog Post 1’ which discussed the lecture on ‘Power’ delivered by Julia Crew and found it particularly interesting. Zain discussed how the “vital concepts” of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility are not “easily grasped” but that they “should be considered within every industry”. I found I resonated with this viewpoint as I at first found it was hard to include all three of these concepts in a balanced way in our Better Lives group project. However, as Zain states in this blog post, the Better Lives unit “successfully” explored these concepts and allowed me to better incorporate them into my work. It was reassuring to see that other students, such as Zain, related to this experience too.
In the blog post, Zain discusses how she previously viewed the fashion industry as “a tool used by people to define themselves and their identity”. She depicts in the blog how it can be used to show “individuality and uniqueness”. I attended the lecture on ‘Power’ as well and also entered this lecture with the viewpoint that individuals used fashion to express themselves. However, we were exposed to the idea that social media and influencers are used by marketing teams to alter our identities and how we express ourselves. Zain stated how this can lead to us “conforming to the restrictions” of the industry. Although I agree that brands and magazines can have a great deal of influence and ‘power’ over the choices of a customer, I also like to maintain the idea that as a consumer, we are still able to express our personalities through clothing free from the pressures of advertisement.
One point in her blog post that I particularly agree with is the notion that in industry, there is a “huge gap between the people at the top and the people at the bottom”. This unfair distribution of wealth in the industry links directly to the social responsibility aspect of the Better Lives unit as “wealth is not being shared equally”. I think it is positive to see that we both agree that the “false facade” which exploits workers needs to be changed. The fact that we both agreed on moral topics such as this emphasised to me how important it is to ensure that I maintain the strong values of sustainability, social responsibility and diversity in my own creative practice in order to “create change”.
Interacting with other students during this unit and reading their opinions and experiences, highlighted the seriousness of questioning the ethics of the fashion industry in order to create a positive future for those who work in it.