Reflection upon project outcomes and personal development.
Throughout this project I have had time to reflect upon what the themes mean no only for my future in the industry and societal change we can bring but also what my practice can reflect in my own self in the present.
When discussing my thoughts on sustainability during this unit in conjunction with the styling practices it is interesting to discover the importance of re-working/ re-using old garments with the brief being to do with fashion cultures of the past. It urges us to go back in time and evaluate trends and styles of the past which has given me an understanding and urge of importance to stop looking into the ‘next trend’ or ‘new aesthetic’ when many sub-culture and fashion groups have already existed. The beauty of fashion especially when it comes to styling is to be able to look back and reintroduce old styles and re-work them into something that is a new trend. I demonstrated this within this project by focusing on the 90’s sports chic aesthetic and pairing it with items that are ‘trending’ right now.
Reflecting upon the theme of diversity within this unit it was eye opening to recognise the way that clothes represented and actually grouped people together in a way I never would’ve thought of. For example, when we looked at the football hooligan aesthetic and sub-culture it represented a certain group of people with the clothes that also had pre-existing opinions tied to them. For example, the football tracksuit came along with the stigma of aggressiveness or hooligan behaviour and people who wore this style were usually seen as ‘chavs’. As time has gone on, the idea of this subculture has been diversified and expanded into a universal look with people of all cultures/ backgrounds, with the connotations being slowly pushed out as this style has been more glamourised especially within high fashion with the likes of Burberry and Off White influencing this change.
Social responsibility within this unit has been the most difficult for me to expand on, however when researching this through the unit of styling and what clothes represent I have learnt that power, authority and privilege come along with the clothes that we wear and how we chose to represent ourselves. Looking at the idea of unofficial uniforms such as business suits and ‘power suits’ it distinguishes a certain power and idea before a person meets you based off ingrained social requisites and existing ideas of the suit. We have the privilege to choose what aesthetic we have and expression through our clothes and I feel as though a lot of us don’t recognise this enough. Though this module I have learnt a lot about this topic and how much I took this creative expression for granted.