Blog 3 – Project Outcomes and Personal Reflection
Throughout the project stage of the Better Lives unit, I participated in two styling masterclasses on the ‘Sportswear: Inside and Outside Fashion’ course. The first was done physically in person before the Easter break, and the second took place over Microsoft Teams.
The two styling masterclass experiences were very different from one another considering the circumstances. In the physical masterclass, we created three different looks which related to the Better Lives themes of diversity; social responsibility; and sustainability. We were also asked to focus on a specific sub-culture and our group chose to go with the 90s rave scene. Therefore, in our styled looks, we used a lot of bright colours and exaggerated silhouettes to evoke a vintage ravey feel. By working with other students, we reached a finalised look by using all of our ideas and garments combined. This made the styled looks very diverse and exciting in my opinion.
However, after the Easter break due to coronavirus lockdown, we had to conduct the second masterclass over the internet on Microsoft Teams. We were given a brief and then two hours to create our looks that related to exercising at home during the lockdown. It was a great experience to be able to use my own clothes that have personal significance to me to create a whole new look. Using this free rein, I decided to focus my mind on the idea of emulating a football casual, but with a more active twist. This allowed me to respond personally to my lockdown experience through the use of styling.
Personally, I enjoyed the physical masterclass more as the atmosphere of the studio allowed all of us to be more creative together. Whilst I did enjoy the freedom to make a look that was one hundred percent my own in the digital masterclass, the physicality of the first one made the whole experience feel more professional, allowing me to see what a stylist’s life might actually look like.
I was glad to be able to experience both, however, as it has given me another faucet of communication through styling to consider. Throughout both masterclasses, I learnt a lot from my lecturers’ expertise on how to style fashioned bodies and how to use ordinary clothes in extraordinary and unorthodox ways.
Over the past four weeks, I have realised wholeheartedly the social responsibility that stylists and journalists carry on their shoulders in both the fashion industry and the media world alike. In using our styled looks to think about the Better Lives themes, I noticed that many barriers still exist in the representation of diverse genders in the media, and also the lack of sustainable materials being used or favoured by producers and consumers. Stylists and journalists have the ability to make anything fashionable and desirable, giving them immense power. For this reason, we have to take more care with our communication, whether it be in clothes or in words, because we can change the fashion industry as the new up-and-coming professionals. I think that Better Lives has taught me to shift the focus of my future career from success in the capitalist notion to success in terms of social and moral responsibility.
4th May 2020 @ 2:49 am
Peer review (blog 4)
https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/02/blog-3-project-outcomes-and-personal-reflection/
Upon reading a wide range of blog posts, there was one which caught my eye, it was Emma Bell’s project outcome and personal reflection post. What caught my attention initially was the fact that she participated in the course I chose as one of my three options; ‘Sportswear: Inside and Outside Fashion’.
Throughout the whole blog Emma’s words got me interested in what she learnt from this course. She’s also highlighted all three pillars of the better lives’ themes, how she’s incorporated it in her projects and what was learned.
Emma wrote about her experience both in the physical classes and switching online due to the pandemic. The contrast between both gave me a good sense of what she was doing for the course without actually being physically there. Emma did this by first analyzing and describing the work she would create in the physical class and then continued to show what kind of work she was assigned digitally. Emma stated the advantages of creating “looks that related to exercising at home during the lockdown”, which were; that she was able to use her own clothes for the project as well as allow her to express herself through the use of styling. However, she still enjoyed the physical classes more for a number of reasons, one being that she was able to experience styling as a profession (which I agree the physical classes did have a more professional feel to them). Emma also expressed how in both experiencing the virtual and physical classes, she learned styling from the lecturer’s expertise.
Emma wrote a lot about the importance of communication both in clothes and in words and how it’s especially important for people to use it in a time like this (where communication is agreeably the key to expressing one’s ideas and thoughts), she’s also proven to have learned from this and will apply it for the future. Emma has also acknowledged “the social responsibility that stylists and journalists carry on their shoulders in both the fashion industry and the media world alike” which I thought was a great revelation that I myself didn’t realize the importance of.
Emma went on to show how her projects have helped her think about the better lives’ themes; diversity barriers between genders in the media, which I would really like to understand more of, she’s also found “lack of sustainable materials being used or favored by producers and consumers”. Emma has also expressed how she will apply the theme ‘social responsibility’ into her future career.
As I read through Emma’s project outcomes and personal reflections I was impressed with what she’s learned, I found that she lightly touched on each theme as well as showing what she has come to find from completing this course, however id be really interested to know more about how she’s used all three themes for her work completed at home. Overall, I see that Emma gas really benefitted from this course and completed a successful post from it.