Blog Post 3 Ryan Lewis
Throughout this better lives unit, I have expanded my knowledge based around these key themes that include, sustainability, diversity, and social responsibility. For my project avenue I explored fashion journalism, within this we were directed to complete a 500-word feature which had to be written for an audience of our choice. Progressing through we had to write about one or more of the better lives themes. Within this, I chose to do my feature based on social responsibility and sustainability written for vogue. The topic was surrounding the impacts of how Covid-19 has impacted different parts of the fashion industry especially the factory workers. It is safe to say that there is no shortage of factories in these third world countries that are used by major fashion brands that lead the highstreets. The topic I chose really opened my eyes to the problems they are experiencing in this unpredictable time. In Addition, I think a lot of people forget about who makes their clothes and I really wanted to highlight this with my feature.
Within the task that Liz set us she talked us through how to write a successful feature and what to include to make sure the task was very clear. After uploading our features we commented on each other’s features to look at what other students had written about. This was a very interesting task as each student chose a different topic. I think it is important to look at peers’ work to have an insight into what they thought of the task and how they portrayed it for their chosen audience.
In my opinion, I think the better lives themes played a big role in the task set as the key themes are vital to the fashion industry for them to progress into a better time. In Addition, I liked the broadness of this task as we could speak about any topic that interested us to try and help bring light to major problems within fashion. Hopefully in the future people will think more about the factory workers that get paid next to nothing to make garments that are then being sold for 100x the price and sometimes even more.
4th May 2020 @ 1:09 pm
Hi Ryan, I hope you are doing well during those challenging times.
I’ve read your blog posts with feeling of curiosity whether you have the same thoughts about Better Lives lectures as I do. The two of my favourite lectures were also ‘Power’ by Julia Crew and ‘Emerging Technologies in Fashion’ by Nick Almond. When it comes to power in fashion, I’ve always found interesting the fact that people use clothes as a message to others: that through pieces of wardrobe they not only show their status or sense of style, but also their power. It is an interesting subject for those who are interested in psychology. Also, as you’ve mentioned in the lecture number three, we all know that new technologies might slowly replace the things that we use nowadays. Personally, I believe that it’s not a good thing. People get used to doing everything quickly: they think about result, not a progress. For example, taking photographs by DSLR cameras is much more difficult than taking them by a smartphone, but it brings creative fulfilment. I hope that people will not resign from film or digital cameras for technology in their phones.
As you, I believe in an idea of sustainable fashion. I prefer buying clothes created by sustainable brands, as also in second hands – purchasing a good quality clothes for a few pounds in there is much more fulfilling than spending money in shops incorporating unsustainable practices. I always try to use my own or model’s clothes during a photo shoot. Also, when it comes to diversity and social responsibility, we still have a lot to learn and do. However, the most important thing is that we try to understand other people, help them and learn from their life experiences. We should be involved in promoting inclusivity because, no matter how serious it sounds, the future of fashion depends on us.
I wish you a good day 🙂