Blog Post 1: Lectures Reflection
Attending the Better Lives lectures the past two weeks has taught me information that wouldn’t normally be explained in a fashion school. I have learnt that we are the generation that will change the industry in the future to create improvements in the factors; diversity, sustainability, and social responsibility. Therefore, I wanted to get as much out of it as I could in terms of information and learning, since through our work in fashion we can make a ‘better life’ in these three areas.
The ‘conferences’ that have attracted my attention were the Introduction to Sustainability, Power, Culture and Inclusive fashion where each conference raised some distressing points. From my understanding, sustainability, power, and culture cohere with one another as they all cause social and environmental problems. Having just completed a styling project on sustainability I was quite interested in expanding my theoretical knowledge. The quote that Nina Stevenson shared by Prof. Dilys Williams ‘We need a fashion system that has an ecological heart, a socially conscious mind, a culturally diverse body, and an economy forms the muscle that enables it to move in flow’, made me question the impacts fashion and humans are having on the environment leading me to consider what my values and practices are as a stylist. As I am already exploring my Indian culture within my work I decided to research the global garment recycling capital of the world- Panipat, New Delhi. It is known for the warehouse that recycles textiles where they ‘take in discarded clothes from Western countries and turn them into recycled cloth… heaps of clothes are piled to the ceiling.’ Researching figures and statistics was an eye-opener to see how much waste we all produce, overbuy and dispose of. It has inspired me to create visibility for the issue of overconsumption in the clothing industry through styling and production. To achieve this I need to learn, experience and experiment. It’s hard to think of a solution as there is mass production of clothes globally but instead, we need to turn fashion’s waste back into clothing through up-cycling and recycling- act in a restorative way. Through the lecture ‘Power’ by Julia Crew, I learnt 94% of businesses said influencer marketing on Instagram was an effective campaign strategy. Therefore, designer’s voices can be heard because of the open access and power of social media.
Also, ‘Inclusion’ by Laura Sailsbury educated me that inclusive fashion is clothing that different types of people can use without the need for adaptation or specialised design. Laura used the example of M&S offering an opportunity for disabled children to dress in clothes they wouldn’t have been able to wear because of their disability. Laura made me realise the barriers and issues of inclusive fashion through the way it is marketed as it is towards disabled children suggesting you have to be abnormal to feel normal. It made me question; is an inclusive fashion brand campaign enough to make a brand inclusive? I believe that it is not, it makes a brand inclusive on a surface level but not inclusive- it’s just a marketing tool. To quote Hard Nef, a transgender model ‘Inclusion leads to understanding, demystification, destigmatisation. Fashion has the power to glorify bodies and identities- to include them in a narrative of luxury and beauty’ which I will now consider through my styling and casting models.
To conclude, through the Better Lives lectures I have discovered the different problems in fashion faced by society and the industry. As these lectures have explored different angles of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility raising awareness to our generation so that we can make a change through our practice of work.
References
Stevenson, N (2020) ‘Introduction to Sustainability’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 13 February.
Sailsbury, L (2020) ‘Inclusion’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 12 February.
The Economist, (2017), ‘Panipat, the global centre for recycling textiles, is fading’. [online] Available at: https://www.economist.com/business/2017/09/07/panipat-the-global-centre-for-recycling-textiles-is-fading [Accessed 20 Feb, 2020].