Blog Post 3
I decided to choose ‘Make Up Break Down’ as my option for the Better Lives Unit as I have always been fascinated at a make up artist’s ability to create a work of art, sculpture and in some cases completely alter the visual appearance of a someone’s face. Alongside this, I felt that make-up artists and stylists have to work very closely in terms of collaboration and thus it would benefit my own future as well as any make-up Artist that I will work with because I will be able to appreciate and somewhat understand their techniques and methods of operating. Overall, I found this unit very utile and felt I learnt a lot of new techniques that could even be applied on myself! It allowed me to further understand theory behind applying and understanding make up on a whole which I hadn’t previously thought about – for example learning the Colour Wheel Theory was highly useful.
For my interpretation of the brief, I decided to look into ‘Make up Imperfection’ and something that felt personal within my own terms of identity. Growing up I felt insecure and saw my acne scars and freckles as ‘imperfections’ – just like a masses of young people due to the beauty standards within the media. Thankfully as I have gotten older I have embraced them as my natural state. This then linked to me including flowers and natural products, e.g. Daisies or Rose petals, and using them to cover my blemishes for my final make up looks. This idea was also inspired by the importance of nature that I was informed about in the lecture given to us by Kate Fletcher.
To me, I have always found flowers as a signifier of natural beauty and femininity therefore by incorporating them, I was able to create a personal state of perfection. To further explore the ideas of femininity and to also link to the masterclasses that I found highly useful and informative, I decided to incorporate contour into another look with the use of flowers on my cheekbones and white petals to ‘highlight’ my brow bone.
Due to the current state of the global pandemic, having to do these tasks at home caused slight anxiety within myself and what was asked of me felt somewhat impossible at first due to my lack of resources. However, it allowed me to think beyond my usual creative capacity and to take advantage of my home and garden environment. I was proud of my final outcome especially because I was able to incorporate what I had learnt from the lectures and the Make Up Breakdown masterclasses to create something personal in my own surroundings.
In conclusion, I have felt the Better Lives unit has allowed me to have more confidence in my ability to involve myself in practices that are new to me and the equal importance of adding a personal side to a brief as well as understanding and being empathetic towards others.
Fletcher,L. (2020) Nature [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion (Accessed: 12th Feburary 2020).
9th May 2020 @ 2:56 pm
PEER REVIEW
Source: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/author/19020863/
Jodie Haworth’s series of blogs drew my attention for a couple of reasons. First of all, she is a Fashion Styling student whose unit choice covers a significant part of my current studies. I thought it will be very useful for me to see how someone from a correlated creative branch may perceive ‘Make Up Breakdown’ and bring it to life in the project outcomes.
She also reflected on the same lecture I had (Representation by Teleica Kirkland) in her first blog post and concluded with thoughts that resonated with my values, starting with admitting that she felt it was her social responsibility as ‘an individual not of an ethnic minority’ to learn about issues such as racism or cultural appropriation. It was a relatable feeling which combined with her insightful and composed way of writing, sparked a further interest in her insights.
Apart from finding connections between her profession and the chosen project and what benefits she got from participating in it, she managed to highlight links between some of the watched lectures (‘Power’ by Julia Crew, ‘Nature’ by Kate Fletcher and mentioned above one on Representation), the Better Lives three key terms and her interpretation of the ‘Make Up Imperfections’ idea, saying inter alia that it reinforced the diversity related concept she learned during the lecture about Representation. Such connotations clearly show that Jodie became really engrossed with the offer of the Better Lives unit and actively explored the brought up ideas, investing in the self-development. The explicit inspiration behind her words makes the reading automatically an easier and more enjoyable process. Included quotes from the lectures help a reader understand her point of view and again show her involvement in the Better Lives unit.
The greatest strength of Jodie’s style of writing appear to be the ability of providing strongly insightful conclusions from the challenges and ideas she had to face in her project. She understood the theme of imperfections in make-up practice as something very personal and related to her own experiences with the acne scars or blemishes, incorporating them into the final designs. The choice to talk about such marks on a human face makes Jodie’s approach toward the theme very universal and diverse as many people can relate to her experience and become automatically interested in how she interpreted the idea further. I think that incorporating flowers in her project outcomes was a brilliant idea, as it highlighted the sustainability aspect and how the author had to challenge herself due to the ongoing pandemic. It also seemed a very appealing idea artistically, therefore I cannot find adequate words to express my disappointment for her not including any pictures of the final project outcomes which would also help attract attention to the blog.
I found Jodie Haworth’s series of blogs very reflective and informative. She presented a broad spectrum of understanding the Better Lives themes in her posts and made them interesting to the reader, showing her learning journey through numerous reflections on the whole process.