Better Lives: Peer Review Task
Blog 3: Styling and Sportswear Project Outcomes
Peer review of Elanka Jiang’s third blog post
I enjoyed reading your blog post as I can tell taking an active role in your project has lead to a lot of development personally for you and you have successfully reflected on the better lives themes of Sustainability, Diversity, and Social Responsibility while talking about your experience. You chose a project that was completely different from your field of creative illustrating because you wanted to experiment and combine your passions. I find this extremely commendable especially since you managed to learn new things about different subcultures and have a successful outcome even after being anxious initially.
I found it interesting when you mentioned learning about designers that worked using recycled materials. One such designer who stood out to me does something similar to this, her name is Bethany Williams. She is a London based menswear designer and all her clothes are sustainable. She even collaborated with a model agency that helps support homeless youth in London for one of her collections, I think this is a good example of two of the better lives themes Sustainability and Social Responsibility and how they are so much more effective when they are interlinked. My Fashion Journalism project’s outcome was closely linked to proving the importance of the interconnectivity of these two themes. A large number of designers have started adding sustainable clothes to their collections including big names such as Adidas, Stella McCartney, and H&M. While this is a big victory for sustainability in the fashion industry I still think there is a long way to go as many brands still need to follow in their footsteps.
It was nice to read that during one of your masterclasses you had to style looks using your own clothes, scrap materials, and second-hand clothing. This is an effectual way of representing the better lives theme of Sustainability. Even though you were nervous and felt like you didn’t have the right materials to contribute to the task, instead of stepping back into the background you volunteered to be a model because no one else stepped up. Not only do I think that this was incredibly brave but this action also displayed a sense of Social Responsibility. This is because by doing this I believe you made the whole class’s experience better as some of your peers may not have felt comfortable enough to model so no one had to forcefully do something they didn’t want to do just to complete the task.
The looks you styled depicted diversity not only in terms of race and colour but also body types which I think is incredibly important because so many people especially the youth still continue to have body image issues. The fact that your styled looks moved way from gender stereotypes also displays diversity in an important way. So many young people are identifying as non-binary and I think they definitely need to be represented more in the media. I’m happy to know that you felt empowered while modelling the looks since I’m from an Indian background I’m certain I would’ve felt the same way. I’m a Fashion Public Relations student and I’ve learned about tokenism and how diversity can be a buzzword in the fashion industry but it feels genuine in your experience.
The better lives unit has definitely impacted you in a positive way as it has given you an opportunity to think about Sustainability, Social Responsibility, and Diversity in new ways and you have been able to learn new things about styling and different subcultures. You have also managed to gain more confidence by stepping out of your comfort zone and engaging in the activities and completing the tasks given to you in your project.
References:
Fashion Revolution (2018) ‘7 fashion brands that are designing out waste’ Available at:(https://www.fashionrevolution.org/usa-blog/7-fashion-brands-that-are-designing-out-waste/)
(Accessed 4th May 2020)