Blog 2

We are all becoming increasingly familiar with the themes of Sustainability, Diversity and Social Responsibility and the lectures gave a greater insight into areas of these subjects to really inform and teach us more. There is no doubt that the fashion industry is putting extreme pressure on the planet and learning more about these themes has given me new knowledge to utilise within my practise. This Better Lives teaching has made me think that as a fashion stylist, one way to incorporate sustainability into the work would be to only work with brands which are ethical and sustainable – this is something many stylists are already doing. Sustainability and Social Responsibility both relate and has made me consider how it could be possible to reduce the amounts of packaging used and the journeys required for sending garments/accessories backwards and forwards for photoshoots. Taking measures to reduce these elements to stylist practise would create a more sustainable environment. If we do not accept that the fashion industry has to change, the world will see even more detrimental effects than what we already see and so it is essential for all fashion industry people to take on this challenge of becoming more sustainable. The fashion industry is not known for being particularly diverse and yet it is ever increasing its diversity and representation through race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. The lectures on diversity were particularly interesting to me because as a fashion stylist, the role is to be a visual storyteller and a cultural translator and so the representation of all humans is particularly vital to my practise. The fact is that humans are diverse beings in all senses of the word and so there should be nothing but diverse fashion. What the stylist presents in the editorials is looked at by a huge range of people and so it would be wrong to only represent one minority of people. If fashion stylists worked to create different and diverse editorials then actual diversity would become more apparent in peoples everyday lives and therefore in turn would become more accepted in fashion. The lectures have brought to life the reality of what the impact could be if everyone were to be more socially responsible in fashion and in everyday life. Social responsibility comes hand in hand with sustainability and diversity and I think that if we all became more understanding, empathetic and open towards inclusivity, diversity, sustainability, we would see a great result in bettering the fashion industry. I think that if you play any role within the fashion industry you have to be socially responsible for every action that you take whether that be doing gestures such as not buying plastic water bottles for your team or only working with people who support sustainability and diversity.