Blog post 2: change of work through better lives
When we were first introduced to the better lives unit, I was quite confused on it’s structure and purpose to our current course and in the development of our skills but I was quickly intrigued by all the different themes that the lectures explored and immediately understood the importance and beneficial gain we would draw from this unit. I was familiarised with important topics such as sustainability, technology, culture, power and inclusivity. I immediately gained a better understanding how these themes affect our perspectives on life, not only in connection to the fashion industry but also in other aspects of our lives, like social interaction and our way of thinking. All the themes that were explored are crucial in today’s way of thinking and will affect my perspective and my working ability in the future. For example, the sustainability lecture has not only made me more self-aware in my everyday choices in fashion but has also enabled me to inform others and make them aware of the environmental, cultural and economical impact sustainability can create. It has really inspired me to make a change in dome old habits of mine, and taking the knowledge I gained to make better choices in the future.
With my BA course being fashion styling and production, we had already touched the importance of sustainability in that part of the industry, so when it was time to choose a new course for the better lives unit, I was very intrigued by Make Up Break Down, not just because of my love for make up but mainly because I was curious how that side of the industry could relate to the three main themes of the better lives unit: Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Diversity. During the course, we explored subjects such as fashion mistakes and imperfections. I found the imperfections theme quite interesting because we live in a world where perfection is the norm and it is rare to see flaws and imperfections being highlighted across social media or even in everyday life. With easy access technology and editing tools, imperfect skin and asymmetric features are quite retouched and erased, setting unrealistic beauty standards across every platform. As mentioned in the better lives lectures, technology has a very big impact on our society and in the scheme of social responsibility, it is important that we are reminded that imperfections are normal and people shouldn’t feel ashamed or insecure about them. And that is something that came hand in hand with the Makeup Break Down course and the better lives themes. But retouching and technology tools aren’t always used in a negative context. We had an activity during our course where we contoured our faces using contrasting colours using a professional color wheel, and then edited the photo in black and white to reshape the face and change our view on the different features our face had. In conclusion, in this course I was able to explore different themes of the better lives unit and how they relate to my chosen course for this unit, and how these themes changed my perspective and way to work.
26th April 2020 @ 4:12 pm
I completely agree with your comment about the confusion about how essential Better Lives is going to be and that should have been better communicated before we even started this module. Imperfections have always fascinated me deeply and thus I chose to peer review your blog post. As a makeup artist student I wanted to read about other people’s experience of make up lectures that they experienced during Better lives.
As a Styling and Production student you touched up on the importance of sustainability and how you want to increase awareness around you. I’m really glad to hear that, however you could have elaborated further on how will the theme of sustainability affect the way you work as a stylist in the future. Perhaps supporting collections made with reused fabrics or fabrics that are dyed naturally which is becoming a big trend and perhaps will become even bigger after this pandemic is over. Business of Fashion has a great section purely dedicated to sustainability, which shows how crucial this conversation is going to be in the upcoming years. Definitely worth the read. Additionally, fashion industry professionals are expecting costumers to have bigger interest in sustainable brands, smaller carbon footprint and so on.
The theme of imperfections certainly connects with social responsible, diversity and inclusivity. All creative professionals including stylists and makeup artists have power to put big emphasis on diversity and inclusivity through campaign and editorials. It’s essential we start requiring shoots to scout models with all sizes, genders, ages and races. As recent studies show, costumer is going to be more attracted to a brand or a magazine that is more relatable to them. This has to be noted by every creative practitioner as we need to be aware of what the current and future society wants / requires to see. There is certainly new wave of artists arising who appreciate flaws and imperfections and thus luckily fight against very retouched pictures and unrealistic body images that we see so often online. On the other hand, technology is becoming a great tool in the creative industry. Either used in post-production or in close contact with costumers. It is fascinating that very soon we will be able to try clothes or makeup online and perhaps this type of online consumerism is going to be very popular after this pandemic.
I am not too sure how aware you are of clean and eco beauty but it is definitely worth checking out as even the beauty industry is heading slowly towards more eco friendly approach. Unfortunately there is very small amount of eco conscious makeup artists working in the fashion industry and that is something I really hope to see change.
Overall, your blog post was well written with a good example of what sort of activities you did in class. However, I hoped to see how the Better Lives module altered your way of thinking and working in the future and even perhaps how these lectures helped you to be more aware practitioner in your branch of creative industry.