Better Lives Blog 2: Themes Reflection
The better lives themes to name a few are social responsibility, sustainability and diversity. Using these themes through styling, we have incorporated these themes in our masterclasses to be communicated through clothing. Using these themes make you think much more than just clothing and you delve into the use of poses, expression and props. For example, when creating a look for social responsibility it was important to make the model like they were in action as if they were doing something as a metaphor for taking action literally but hypothetically towards social issues.
In times where awareness is important for social issues, learning to communicate these themes is more important than ever. When it came to working together, these themes were really brought out in an array of aesthetics – some of us created a more minimal look whilst other looks we assisted with were eccentric with wooden shoes and white face paint.
As these themes cover a wide range of social issues and can be communicated and interpreted in an array of ways that mean a lot of different things to different people, it can be difficult to communicate them at first especially in a group but we soon realized that our differences made our looks more diverse. We had a global perspective and different angles. The challenge to make the looks work only emphasized the idea of the themes as it taught us how these themes bring people together no matter their background and experience, to come together and understand the themes to then communicate them together only enforces them.
They have changed the way I work as I can now think of ways to incorporate these themes in a diverse way instead of thinking too simply and obvious – there is no right or wrong especially when you deliver your messages to the audience that will understand as some people will have experienced social issues within the themes on different levels. Instead of me making sure that absolutely everyone understands what I’m trying to say, I can curate my messages to the audience with room for those who understand to educate those who may not be able to pick up on the messages because they have had less experience in the subject matter. The themes and enforcing them has made me realise that with issues that are complex and have layers and levels, it isn’t always possible to communicate to all at once, especially in a growing post-demographic society.
Overall, I’ve gained more skills in working in a group with base themes where we are trying to communicate a message collectively where we can educate each other on our meanings. It also let me in on how other people view these issues and how you can communicate them through different materials, poses and expressions when we shared as a class what we managed to do in our first masterclass. In the future, I will remember the themes to be able to produce work that is able to tackle issues on an important level to increase awareness in the matters that affect a lot of us in the world today.