Blog 3 – Reflecting on how the B.L themes influenced my development and final outcome
The Better Lives themes covered diversity, social responsibility and sustainability, all of which had an influence upon my project outcome and personal development. We explored these themes in class using many different methods such as engaging in group discussions, creating mind-maps, researching historical references, watching documentary clips and further on – all with the addition of our independent research.
The Better Lives themes appear to be increasingly more important given the pandemic our world is currently facing; this global crisis is encouraging us to look at the bigger picture, by opening our eyes to see the failures within our societal structures and thus pushing us to strive for a change that would benefit the world as whole (rather than just those at the top). For example, we witnessed a rapid decrease in CO2 emissions as a result of nations in quarantine. This extraordinary occurrence forced us to acknowledge humanity’s impact upon climate change, by proving that we have the power to reverse the damage we’ve caused if we collectively prioritise shifting towards more sustainable and considerate lifestyles. Therefore, In response to the theme of sustainability and social responsibility, I ensured to create my second look using mostly second-hand garments. Second-hand / vintage clothing are perfect examples of how we can reuse garments that once belonged to someone else, in order to reduce the waste created by the production of new clothing, by contributing less towards the demand for these new goods.
My final outcome of the second masterclass had been inspired by a combination of the 90s rave and grunge subcultures, which was a concept my group had discussed previously in class that i wanted to expand on myself. Some popular trends in the 90s rave style that i had referenced in this look included fishnet, super cropped tops, chunky trainers and bright colours. On the other hand, the inspiration taken from 90s grunge trends included pleated skirts and the shade of black. As well as this, the look also incorporated references to sportswear, particularly inspired by the traditional tennis-player kit worn by female players; these references included the pleated tennis skirt, high knee socks, button up vest and trainers.
The theme surrounding diversity had also influenced my decision making throughout this project, in regards to both my development and final outcome. The first masterclass consisted of us engaging in a group task, in which we had to style looks relating to our research on sportswear and youth subcultures. The concept of diversity held great importance within this styling task, as we strived to ensure that our looks were considerate towards various body types, in order to demonstrate the representation of different people in every shape and size. For example, we had created some looks which accentuated the models curves while others were suited to frame a more rectangular figure.