How the better lives themes will change how I work in the future.

The themes of the better lives unit are important to think about in conjunction with discussions about our future careers because this change and focus will be evolving our industry in the years to come.

I wanted to start off with how sustainability will be changing how we work in the future of fashion. As we know, the world is going to end sooner than we want it if we don’t make significant normalised changes within our daily lives which includes fashion. Whether you’re a fashion buff or not we all wear clothes at the end of the day. As a generation, and collective as people we are becoming more aware of this issue with upcycling and thrift shopping becoming a trend. With more hands-on fashion approaches such as designing collections we need to think about abandoning the idea of seasonal refresh within brands or re- purposing previous collections. How I think we will tackle the issue of traditional publication distribution is through more digitalised content and productions that reduces the amount of natural resources we are consuming, for example paper. By doing this we will also be using less plastic and non-bio degradable resources used in manufacturing therefore, also producing less emissions and pollutant waste.

Regarding the issues of social responsibility, as a fashion student wanting to embark on a career in this industry we have to acknowledge our privilege of education and practice. I would like to think that more fashion companies make use of their power with providing better working conditions and the end to sweat shop culture that fast fashion brands use. Aiming to focus more on creating better living and working environments for those not as privileged with education and means of work. This can be achieved through collaborations with charities and transparency between brand and consumer.

And finally, I believe diversity will change how I work in the future through more dynamic and open discussions upon issues like tokenism and how to avoid these problems by creating an inclusive tone and attitude within my work. I hope to radiate this message through our community as a whole instead of separate markets based on race, culture, disability and size. It is important to recognise the massive changes taken even as recent as the last five years. I am hopeful that the future of the fashion industry is more about fashion for the many and not the few guiding us to be more focussed on the evolution and content of what we’re giving out to the fashion world instead of excluding certain ‘groups’.