Blog 3
Throughout the entirety of ‘Better Lives’ I have been engaged and intrigued by the value of the information the unit has taught me. I have thoroughly enjoyed the key themes surrounding the unit; sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. Other students and I have not only been able to learn about these topics but also put them into practice efficiently which I believe has really helped and expanded my knowledge.
Unfortunately, half of the unit has had to be completed at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this has not restricted my learning in anyway, it has made me think further about the ideas surrounding sportswear Fashion, language and subcultures. Through the masterclasses and learning a small essence of the day in life of a fashion stylist the number one issue surrounding the clothing industry I believe is sustainability.
When asked to complete our first masterclass and being able to have the freedom to be completely experimental with our styling choices the tutors provided us with some old clothing, combined with what our group had gathered from our wardrobes. This masterclass made me realise how important the topic of sustainability is, we did not need the newest and latest clothing to create a really youthful and subcultural 90s look, in fact the older, more second hand and recycled clothing the better.
This idea of sustainability also became significant in my second masterclass which has had to be completed at home; I was completely baffled about how I was going to be able to create a stylish skater subcultural look combined with the essence of sportswear just from my own wardrobe, however this challenge only pushed me further, creatively and experimentally because I wasn’t able to order new clothing or accessories to complete this look, I had to make do with what I had in front of me. I combined pieces of clothing together that I thought would never have worked and saw them in a completely different light, thus only pushing my creative eye. I think that the second masterclass project made me realise that in our society there is a constant cycle of consumerist wasteful attitudes that we all accidentally adhere to whether we believe we are consciously informed of this or not. However, during the better lives masterclasses and lectures I have realised that we can be just as creative and ‘stylish’ with what we already have in the back of our wardrobes or from buying through charity shops or jumble sales to give clothing a new lease of life. There is a constant pressure to be buying the ‘new’ and the ‘latest’ but a lot of the time there is absolutely no need. We as creatives need to be made to stop and think sustainably especially through the sense of fashion and styling, we may even end up creating a look that we thought could never be achieved if we hadn’t worked sustainably.