Better lives post 1
Reflections on how better lives lectures influenced your thinking :
During my CHS class Nick highly recommended Anna’s culture lecture. Honestly at that moment none of better lives lectures helped me to think deeply or newly. So I watched her lecture with half doubt. And it made me feel that there are other people who think like me.
In part of my heart I was always wondering ‘Can fashion ever be sustainability? And ‘ Is it possible to put these two words ‘sustainable’ and ‘fashion’ together?’. A word sustainable means: able to be maintained at a certain rate. However from my point of view fashion couldn’t be preserving at specific level it will be worse every years. It’s because fashion industry is consisted of consuming and manufacturing. It means if no one buy clothes this industry couldn’t be run. So when Anna started her lecture with a word ‘Consumer culture’ I was very curious about what she would say.
Especially last two years, big luxury brands (Chanel, Louis Vuitton etc) and people who are working in fashion industry are talking about sustainability more often and importantly. Regardless of how, I truly believe, main key is up to consumers. Anna mentioned that consumer culture can be loose defined as the desire and ability to live beyond basic needs. We are buying clothe and stuff which Anna called as ‘Totem’ to reward ourselves and to show I have very successful and life. And I reckon that the most easiest way to show our wealthy is buying luxuries, wearing those and posting it on instagram. And this point trig consumer to buy more and show more.
Then if we are not able to stop people to consuming more what we can do as fashion producers.
I have got an answer from an interview with Stella McCartney (The sustainable Fashion handbook by Sandy Black: 2012: Thames& Hudson). Her brand is well known as using eco friendly leather and fur. Furthermore, she usually showing her ready to wear collections under sustainability theme. So that sometimes she is reflected as environmentalist. Anyway at the interview she emphasised that she is a fashion designer. Her role in fashion industry is make beautiful luxurious things. And she loves people walk in to store and don’t even know her clothes are manufactured with organic or faux leather. At the end when they already fell in love with her clothes they will NOTICE what it is made up of.
Thus, as fashion producers we have to make people wondering and curious through our works. Create an image or a video which can draw consumers’ attention and spend time to read producer’s intention. Giving a revealed answer is not powerful but, if we using consumer culture and psychology in good way and showing proper creativity works which can work as trigger. They will concern harder than us.