BLOG: 2 Diversity, Social Responsibility, Sustainability
Before coming to LCF, I was never truly interested in changing the world for the better in terms of Diversity, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability. Now, I feel like whenever we do something, even a small act of throwing away the trash – we must keep this in mind. After this unit, I will even stop buying clothes without meaning, clothes that do not have an impact on society and the surrounding environment. I did Creative Direction and had to work on a brand called Traid. After fully understanding what Traid is all about, I started understanding what life is all about. We need to give and receive, but what happens when we only receive but never give? Ever since I was a little girl, my mom made me give away my old clothes or those I did not wear. I was always proudly selecting which clothes to give away to people that cannot afford them, and which clothes are too bad to give to someone. My mom always took my worn-out clothes to recycling factories and gave away proudly my good ones. To me, it always made sense to give clothes, but I was always under the impression that if I want new ones, I must give up on the old ones. Now I see the point. I have at least 20 T-Shirts in my closet that I don’t even take into consideration when preparing an outfit for the upcoming days. And those are just my T-Shirts. What if some underprivileged girls could get them? Maybe they would start moving the mountains I was too busy moving whilst being concerned about why Miley chose Jesse over Jake. When we buy a garment, we think about what people will say after seeing us wear that particular garment, but who actually thinks about the hard work behind that garment? Who thinks about the underpaid, single mother that had to spend hours and hours on that garment, just to be able to feed her children? Who thinks of the environmental impacts of that garment? Whenever we attend a party, we hope not to see someone wearing the same dress, or shirt, or skirt, or shoes. But has it ever been a concern to anyone why we have this concern? There are at least 5000 other dresses like the one we just bought, half of them ending in landfill – yet we only hope not to see someone looking better wearing it than we do. Change must start within. To have a better future for us, change must happen. Probably after the crisis, the world will reset, and we will all have a new approach to how fashion must look like in terms of diversity, social responsibility, and sustainability. That’s why after this unit I made a promise to myself. From now on, everything I buy will have a meaning, and so I might even start being a better PR, and human altogether. Maybe so I could actually help change this life for the better.
24th April 2020 @ 4:33 pm
The reason I chose to peer review this blog as opposed to many others, is because it takes a different approach than any blog I have read. Rather than name each theme and share how they have directly impacted you, you instead discussed how they are currently impacting you, how you have self reflected on actions that adhere to the themes in the past, and how you aim to change your behaviour and lifestyle. While I did not feel that you have captured the theme of diversity in your blog, you have certainly made up for it through encompassing sustainability and social responsibility in such a well respected and mind altering manner.
What really encouraged me to continue reading your blog was your honest and truth telling introduction, where you admitted something that I can relate to; how prior to coming to LCF, your concerns did not align with that of your social responsibility. You were able to vocalize how you were not as aware of how fashion impacts the environment, yet after learning about the negative impacts of certain fashion brands you have self reflected. You discussed how looking back, you regret being selfish with your clothes and admire your mum for encouraging you to give them away. This is something that I too have felt guilty for after joining LCF and learning about my obligation to the environment as an individual.You also made a connection between how the fashion industry is being affected by the COVID-19 crisis and how now is the perfect time to make a change. I found this interesting because it is very true! Now is the time for us to look into our hoarded closest and donate all the clothes we blindly promise we’ll get around to wearing, but never do!
What really intrigued me about your blog was how rather than discuss the possible ways your work will be altered after the better love unit, you discussed how change must happen from within and in order to make an impact on the world you must allow it to have an impact on you. I commend you for the approach you took in this blog post because I was able to relate to it and get inspired by it, just as I’m sure many other readers would say. I wish you had spoken about how diversity has affected you because I am interested in how creative direction approaches diversity and inclusivity. It would have also been wonderful to hear more about the brand Triad that you worked with and what it was exactly that they did that inspire you and allowed you to reach these heartfelt conclusions that promote change from within. Furthermore, I really enjoyed reading your blog post and I was able to see how the better lives unit has allowed you to self reflect and change to a more observant and considerate individual!
25th April 2020 @ 7:12 pm
I choose to comment on Ioana’s blog is that she showed a deep understanding of what sustainability, social responsibility, and diversity is and practices in her daily life. instead of saying what we should do to change, she talks the talk and walks the walk which had greatly touched me.
Ioana mentioned that after worked in the industry she started to think about what life is about: give and receive. She gave away her old/ good clothes to people who needed or recoiling factory .that moves touched me a lot, first, giving is caring, one old piece may mean nothing to you but may mean a lot to a girl who couldn’t afford new cloth but also wants to be stylish. Sharing and giving is an essential lesson for everyone to learn for lifelong time, we have to care for each other to have a better future.
Secondly, donating old clothing to recycling factories is the practice of sustainable fashion, as we all have listened to the lecture of sustainable fashion, the environmental impacts and waste of fast fashion are enormous. Donating to a recycling factory is the easiest way for everyone to help build a sustainable fashion world.although we all know the negative impacts of fast fashion, but due to its cheap price to get a kind-stylish cloth, it’s still a big temptation to buy fast fashion. we need to work on that.
I have the tradition of donating cloth every six months and I usually giving cloth I wear one or two times to ensure whoever gets this cloth is still a good condition. i realized all these donating clothes usually came from fast fashion brands, and that made me reflect on why would I still buy fast fashion and never wear them, this is a waste already. From that day on I start to saving money on designer brand&vintage cloth and didn’t buy fast fashion anymore. Buy less but better quality clothing is a good way to start for everyone.
when my roommate saw I donating all these clothes, she got confused at the beginning but after I explained what giving could do and the negative impact of fast fashion, she said she would buy less fast fashion since on.
Changes must happen, and that could easily start if everyone has the mind to change, whatever the change is big or small, as long as everyone starts doing it, we’ll have a better future awaiting. just like Ioana mentioned in the blog ‘maybe I could help change this life for the better’
All in all, I think Ioana has a deep understanding of sustainability/social responsibility and make into practices, that’s the thing touched me most and the reasons why we do better live unit: use everything we got to build a better future for the fashion industry and world.