blog 2 – diversity
The three focused themes in Better Lives, sustainability, social responsibility and diversity have always been topics that I wanted to take a look at; as these issues can’t be changed by one person only, I thought this opportunity would allow me to think of what impact that these ideas could bring in the society and also the changes that could be made together when small yet continuous movement occurs in fashion industry. I believe that these three main concepts are such powerful and important topics that should be addressed and be taught in the future as well.
The one theme that I was particularly interested was diversity. The reason for this is because as I am a university student in London studying fashion public relations and communications, I have never seen this many people from such diverse backgrounds in London. Living in South Korea nor America has not given me this opportunity to explore different opinions and stories. However, one thing that I was surprised was that diversity in the fashion industry was still lying in an indefinite boundary, where the improvement for diversity was often taken as tokenism. From this unit, I was able to take away lots of informative information, but most importantly it has been a huge turning point for me to really think about what creative I would want to become in the future.
One of the changes that I had personally during and after Better Lives was that I wanted to challenge myself and think about how I, as an individual, could encourage diversity as a young creative- make positive changes for future generations that will be facing these issues.
Also, as a student that comes from a diverse background, I was always into looking at different perspectives and opinions made by the fashion brands and by media platforms. I believe that it is extremely important to respect and understand “diversity” as there were numerous cases in fashion that showed lack of diversity and respect towards minority. Even though there are continuous effort put in towards the idea of diversity in recent years, I believe that we still have a long way to go. It is vital for me to understand the different perspectives that people have, challenge myself to understand those differences, seek for positive changes that are still being made by minorities and the effort that are being put in in order to make such changes. Also, instead of having to only understand these ideas, I want to encourage these conversations between people and keep the industry going to the right direction.
Potter, Cher. (2020) “Perspectives” [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 14 February.
9th May 2020 @ 12:12 pm
In my final blog post, I shall be reflecting on a peer’s blog, stating whether they have reflected on the three Better Lives themes that are: social responsibility, diversity, and sustainability. It was difficult to find someone to write about as there are so many great blogs that I have looked through.
However, there was one that caught my attention as it is something that I haven’t personally thought of myself. The blog is about Diversity, by Seung Oh, they have reflected on one of the Better Lives themes in-depth and related it back to themselves which thought was great as it gives the blog a personal feel. I thought this was a good take on writing the blog as I wasn’t something that I did in as much detail as she has shown. Seung states the importance of diversity within the fashion industry, displaying diverse people within fashion, allows others to relate it back to themselves which is important to her and her background. Stating that diversity in fashion still as a long way to go but Is slowly introducing it in more recent years is something that I completely agree with, there still isn’t enough diversity in fashion and is something that needs progress on.
What I loved about Seung’s blog post was how she said she is going to be enforcing the themes in her daily life, thinking about this theme on a deeper level. Being a creative it’s a great way of showcasing your work in a different way which can reach a larger audience. She stated that whilst living in Korea and America, it did not give opportunities to explore different cultures and stories, but London is a city that contains diverse people and cultures. This statement is something that I can relate to, where I live, there isn’t a lot of diverse people, everyone looks the same and when I moved to London it was so refreshing seeing people from all different backgrounds. I think this is why it’s important for fashion brands to include more diverse people as it will show others that not everyone looks the same and that it’s good to be different. Although there are small changes in fashion that involve diversity, companies are using plus-sized models and ethic people just so they can fit in the social standards rather using them for the idea of diversity. In reflection to her point, it doesn’t just take one person to make these changes, by making small adjustments in your life it will help out in the grand scheme of things. I think that this was a perfect point to raise as it informs others to apply small changes to their lives that can make a large impact.
On a whole I found it really informative and an enjoyable piece of writing to read. It included her thoughts on the three themes and how she is going to enforce the ideas in her creative work and in doing so, she also wants to encourage these types of conversations between people which will keep the industry going in the right direction.