Blog 3 – Project Outcome Reflection (sustainability)
To reduce the impact of fast fashion and waste of couture as a reflection of the theme of sustainability, I decided to change all the garments I would use in my project to second-hand clothes. I have read a report before which illustrates how an ordinary young guy did his own style which were all made of waste materials and second-hand clothes. As he successfully got himself into fashion week and caused a sensation, media outlet vied to break this news. I started to wonder the limit between high fashion and brand-less clothes – Are quality and brand image the only differences between them?
One of my favorite KOIs on Instagram is named Molly Chiang. She used to shoot a project in Egyptian pyramids. The special part in this shooting was that she made all the garments by herself: a belt made of a two meters pink satin cotton her bought from a local traditional fabric market, a floppy hat made of a hollowed-out khaki fabric, etc. It turns out all of these elements worked well together and brought a special feeling to it. As a photographer, I know that a good piece of work is feeding on the ideas and story line behind it, and a piece of luxury garments is never not the only thing. Another influencer named Lu Xianren implemented a counter attack on social media. Because in his photos, “plastic bags”, “rubber gloves”… every fashion insulated “single product”, in his interpretation, would become particularly fashionable. Sooner he was known by the public as a “wild supermodel” or a “country supermodel”. Some comment that he not only has the temperament of the runway, but also the gift of styling and the collocation of color schemes. He does not have the opportunity to wear couture from the stage, but he can make full use of the objects in the rural house. For example, he would make woven bag into a delicate dress, and make the bamboo leaves and sweet potato leaves into a triangular cloak and hanging ornaments. Now he is part of models in Pairs fashion week, and his faces are on all sorts of fashion magazines. There are plenty examples of recycling the waste into fashion items, and all gain a huge success.
For my future project, I would like to use garments from last season and decorate it with limited materials I have in hand. For example, I plan to use a sportswear I barely wear to make a tied bow on my model’s head which would looks like a headscarf. This kind of combination delivers a sense of nature and wildness into the picture, which to some degree adds more texture to it.
Bobb, B., 2020. Gucci’S Global Head Of Diversity And Inclusion Renée Tirado Is The Outsider Fashion Needs. [online] Vogue. Available at: <https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-diversity-inclusion-renee-tirado> [Accessed 9 May 2020].