BLOG 3: FASHION JOURNALISM & MY PROJECT TASK REFLECTION (Diversity)
Within my chosen project, Fashion Journalism, we were asked to complete a 500-word feature, adhering to an audience of our choice. As part of our feature, we were required to discuss an issue, of course concerning the fashion industry, as well as linking it back to one or more of the Better Lives themes, of diversity, sustainability or social responsibility.
As part of this Better Lives module, we were required to attend lectures for the first two weeks. Amongst these presentations, lecturers covered a range of topics regarding the fashion industry, one of which was diversity and its effect on the industry itself. This chosen area interested me the most, as I believe that there is still room for improvement in regard to how brands approach this concept. Due to my interest in this theme, I thought I would use this as a starting point on writing my feature for my project task.
Within our project lectures, Liz Miller, talked us through skills such as how to structure a feature, the difference between a news article and a feature and many other helpful pointers to start us up when it came to us beginning our project task. Aswell as this, Miller also discussed with us the power journalists hold, due to their role to convey information. This linked back to my previous blog post where I discussed the social responsibility held by fashion journalists, to not deliver ‘fake news’ and use only reliable and credible sources.
Miller also discussed the issues around Fashion Journalism, and the potential difficulties of which could be faced when covering the three Better Lives themes, due to the fact they are very broad subjects resulting in potential controversy because of this. Miller concluded this ideal with the fact that ‘journalists have the power to speak, so therefore have the power to call out morally wrong behaviour acted out by brands.’. However, despite this, it is very easy for a journalist to receive backlash from their readers, depending on how they approached their feature or story.
In relation to how the Better Lives themes influenced my project task and personal development, I feel as though they have really helped enlighten me top the issues that are still in need of development within the fashion industry and their delivery of content.
For example, in my feature, I discussed the issues focussed on diversity within the fashion industry. My main focus was on Gucci’s 2019 release of the black fold-neck jumper which people argued, resembled similarly to a ‘blackface’ caricature (Ferrier, 2019). As my conclusion, I stated that I believed the change lied within the production and development team of such brands, and the fact that I thought it would be beneficial for brands to involve more people of diverse background to contribute to this process. Therefore, more knowledge will be passed down through teams (and hopefully generation) for less mistakes to be made in the future, and for there to be more understanding around the matter of diversity.
Citations:
Ferrier, M., 2019. Gucci Withdraws $890 Jumper After Blackface Backlash. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/feb/07/gucci-withdraws-jumper-blackface-balaclava> [Accessed 27 April 2020].