1.Lecture reflection by Violet Wood
Discussing fashion in the context of bettering the world around us presents many challenges. As one of the top polluters, the fashion industry demands significant improvement in regard to sustainability. One lecture that I felt really explored this in detail was ‘Nature in Fashion’ with Kate Fletcher. Quoting Oscar Wilde, as nature being “a place where birds fly uncooked”, Fletcher presented a clear link between the problem with sustainability in the fashion industry and how both creators and consumers alike have become detached from the natural world surrounding us. Fletcher discussed this in the scientific context of the Anthropocene or “the epoch of human destruction” (1). Undoubtedly this idea of human destruction is intrinsically linked with the industry that we all strive to become a part of. Like with many of the Better Lives lectures, the focus is on how we as students can better ourselves and the understanding, we have of the problems the industry faces in order to become responsible future players in fashion. Sustainability is a topic much discussed in fashion, but I believe Kate Fletcher explored this in the context of science and history, emphasising on our lack of connection with the natural world.
One key idea that this lecture explored was the idea of balance. As we all learn very early on, energy can neither be created nor destroyed and a certain balance must be maintained. The same, as Fletcher discussed, goes for what we create and consume on our planet. A fine balance of natural resource and human intervention must be maintained. Fletcher referred to the idea of planetary boundaries, in which there are 9 of these boundaries that must not be surpassed on order to maintain a workable balance on our planet. As it stands now, 3 of these have already been surpassed: human intervention in nitrogen levels, the rate of climate change and the rate of biodiversity loss. Studying and living in London, one may not notice how quickly or how impactful these surpassed boundaries are as biodiversity and climate change are not that noticeable in city life. But as future players in the fashion industry, it is something we simply cannot ignore. I believe that the way in which Fletcher personalised the argument for sustainability allowed it to become much more understandable, while the scientific aspects of the discussion really allowed me to understand the real nature of the impact we are having.
Fletcher also briefly discussed an interesting concept which was the Legacy of Descartes (2), and the idea of the head being ‘superior’ to the body. In the lecture, this translated to the idea of humans being ‘above’ ecology. I found this concept extremely interesting, as it can easily be recognised in many industries and particularly in fashion as a popular belief. However, Fletcher encouraged us to see that this is not the case and that we have a responsibility to disperse this consumerist belief in order to assure the future of our planet.
References:
- Fletcher, K. (2020) ‘Nature’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 12 February.
- Wozniak, R.H. (2002) Mind and Body: René Descartes to William James. Available at: http://www.blutner.de/philom/mindbody/mindbody.pdf (Accessed: 15/04/2020).
27th April 2020 @ 4:28 pm
In her reflection on the Better Lives lectures, Violet Wood largely discusses Katie Fletcher’s Nature. In doing so, sustainability is the main focus of her blog post. What Wood does very well is look at the themes of the lecture intellectually and connect it to her pre-existing knowledge of the fashion industry and the destructive role it plays in nature. An example of this is when she writes:
“Fletcher referred to the idea of planetary boundaries, in which there are 9 of these boundaries that must not be surpassed on order to maintain a workable balance on our planet. As it stands now, 3 of these have already been surpassed: human intervention in nitrogen levels, the rate of climate change and the rate of biodiversity loss. Studying and living in London, one may not notice how quickly or how impactful these surpassed boundaries are as biodiversity and climate change are not that noticeable in city life. But as future players in the fashion industry, it is something we simply cannot ignore.”
Wood clearly references and idea that was brought to light by Fletcher and then acknowledges the connection that the idea makes to fashion, and what we all already know about fashion – in that it is irreversibly damaging to the environment, and as future fashion industry players we must acknowledge this in our work.
One thing that Wood could have focussed more in her blog post was her own thoughts and/or opinions on the ideas discussed. Throughout the post she seems to maintain an essay like pattern of referring to something Fletcher discussed and using her own knowledge to analyse what it means, which I’ll say again, she does really well. However, it seems that she does this without really expanding and allowing room for me, the reader, to see how the lecture shaped her thinking on how fashion can create better lives. One idea of how she could have done this is possibly by providing her own ideas for how as fashion industry players we can have a positive effect on nature and change the way the industry functions presently, and how Fletchers lecture helped her to come up with these ideas.
Overall, Wood did a really good job of describing her learning about sustainability in fashion. However, the themes of diversity and social responsibility were not discussed in as much depth. To think about these themes in her post, Wood might have included her thoughts on some of the other lectures which she attended. Although the instructions for blog post 1 do say that reflecting on just one lecture is acceptable, it may have been difficult for Wood to have incorporated all three Better Lives themes into her reflection due to the more specified ideas which Katie Fletcher discussed. Bringing one or two more lectures into her blog post so as to touch base with all of the Better Lives themes would have been beneficial to better describing her overall learning.