blog post 1- lecture reflection

I decided to write about the very first lecture, ‘POWER’ which inspired me massively and made me brainstorm into depth of fashion effects within different society levels and job roles which relate to power. For example, fashion within uniforms such as military power and business, there’s an inflexible attire which has always remained interchangeable. A quote which was also in the lecture that represented the power an individual feels when wearing a uniform ‘….also an industry, a system, an apparatus of visual judgement, a conglomerate of capitalist powers that affects our togetherness.’ Von Busch & Cuba 2014. I had never looked at fashion in that way until this lecture, it made me think how clothing can give an individual such power, for example a person who works in the army, if the public saw them in the street they would be in fear, but if the person wasn’t wearing that uniform then they wouldn’t be scared. However, rightly so as this quote also said in the lecture ‘idealistically power should lie in the origins of creativity. Right now, power in fashion boils down to economic power.’ Vestoj, Issue 4. I feel as if society has lost the mindset of being your own person and lost it to the power of hierarchy of the working world or roles instead of just wearing what you want and feeling empowered in your own outfit. Which is why I’ve chosen to highlight that second quote because creativity in fashion is now blind sited by the working world which revolves around money and media. A lot of people also believe you need money to have the power of fashion, and the media is a massive influence of this because it’s just showing your most expensive possessions or believing the need to show off. This then creates the peer pressure and gives into the power of the rich thinking that’s what you need to be like, or you need to be powerful. I never thought too deeply into this and the effect it has on others until now, on how a piece of clothing can give you so much power, whether that is through the power of media or power of money. This has made me realise, that everyone will feel some sort of pressure to a certain degree, those who possibly don’t have a job in business or services e.g. police or military or a job that requires a uniform that gives you a position of people knowing who you are or how important you are. For some it may feel belittling, or those who don’t have as much money and can’t afford such finer items, they could possibly be comparing themselves to those who are living a wealthier life.