Better Lives blog post 1
Vedika Sharma
During my first two weeks of being able to watch the lectures, I was able to understand the better lives unit in further detail and gain vast knowledge from them. The themes that we were given for this unit included: sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. During these lectures I was introduced to many aspects of fashion, which I previously did not have much information or knowledge on. These lectures gave me the chance to go more in depth when understanding the role of fashion in different aspects socially as well as through culture and many other sub-topics.
Having watched the lectures, many of them connected with me, however the one that I connected to the most was on well-being. This lecture was conducted by Jekaterina Rogaten. She emphasized the importance of well being in our daily lives, and how this topic and its meaning is incredibly personal and subjective to each individual. For example my definition of well being might differ tremendously to my peers, this could be due to our upbringing, our culture or even our personal beliefs and ethics.
During this talk, Jekaterina asked us to think in a more psychological way, we were asked if our personal wellbeing and happiness is directly linked to external factors such as the people and physical objects we are attached to, or if true happiness for us comes from within.
Personally speaking I would link my personal happiness to both those factors, however I believe that if an individual isn’t intrinsically happy from within, then exterior factors might not affect them as much. Overall I believe that one should be happy themselves in order to gain happiness from the outside as well.
In terms of fashion and well being, I believe that working environments can be improved on, in order to improve well being for individuals. Having worked and interned for several fashion organizations, I have witnessed as well as experienced the lack of good environments and motivation for individuals. I have seen that many fashion organizations work on a hierarchy basis, so if you are higher up in the organization you will be given more respect, opposed to being an intern or a newcomer. This lecture introduced me to several different theories of well-being, which introduced me to the basis of happiness and how is it either negatively or positively impacted.
This lecture helped me understand the hierarchy of needs more and how it is present in fashion and the relationship to our well-being, sustainability and social responsibility.