Blog Post 3: Reflection on Project Outcome
Through the past few years, we have witnessed fashion brands growing more interested in understanding of the consumer who’s now searching for more meaningful and valuable ideas resonating in the industry. According to the “Fast Company” trend report for 2020, companies will become even stronger representatives of consumer values. As consumers become more aware and demanding, we expect the fashion industry to grow more socially responsible through ethical choices, wider representation and the right amount of sensibility during the design process. That is why as my Better Lives Project, I chose “Messaging Fashion” as I understood that I want to explore different forms of communication through the prism of activism and social responsibility.
During this project, students were allocated to different fashion brands and were supposed to respond to the cause in a creative way. Creating a fashion campaign based on social responsibility and understanding how Public Relations work opened the gate to a deeper awareness of the fashion industry. By choosing the charity and media partner we could create a foundation for potential collaboration based on brand values. My team was allocated to the Wales Bonner – founded in 2014 menswear brand that through the past few years emerged on the British fashion scene. In her practice, she refers to culture, ethnicity, spirituality as well as redefining masculinity through traditional British tailoring cut. As follows, we chose the cause of Toxic Masculinity in collaboration with “The Future Men” – based in London, a specialist charity organisation supporting boys and men struggling with masculinity by promoting positive values and tackling stereotypes. We decided to create a new capsule collection for men that the charity will benefit from. Supported by SSENSE – the media partner and e-commerce, Wales Bonner with Campbell Addy would create a photo diary of how these men are practising self-expression and combating toxic masculinity. The whole campaign would reflect the ideas Wales Bonner stands for and how she makes the idea of social responsibility part of her fashion agenda.
Messaging Fashion project acquainted me with knowledge from a totally different field. Starting from preparing consumer mood boards, through key messages, and profound research I have learnt what Public Relations stand for and how they can create brands’ socially responsible image. On the other hand, the final outcome asserted to me that there are still more ways to contribute and fight for the values we want to see in the industry today. The pole for action is still wide. Better Lives made me realize how crucial it is to be represented by innovative creatives who will set the fashion agenda independently of big corporations for years to come. Fashion can and must be vocal about issues important worldwide as it capitalizes on our world’s diversity. Consequently, it can become a successful platform for speaking up about issues and problems that should enter our mainstream consciousness.
References:
Seiter, C., 2020. These Five Culture Trends Will Dominate The Workplace In 2020. [online] Fast Company. Available at: <https://www.fastcompany.com/90454068/these-five-culture-trends-will-dominate-the-workplace-in-2020?fbclid=IwAR1j92hWN3FqpYTJ7IcMpoinY5yBAP6NxMxm_rEOugfiDJlBV20NFXAqKk8>
10th May 2020 @ 10:05 pm
For my final task, I wished to review a blog that shared a common ground with my chosen pathway for Better Lives unit. After coming across Maciej Knas’ blog that was reflective of project outcome and personal development for Messaging Fashion, I knew my search had ended. Messaging Fashion required us to work in groups and design a social responsibility initiative that was authentic to our allocated brands. Maciej and I were part of different groups and designed two different campaigns for Wales Bonner. Given our shared experiences, reviewing his blog has given me an opportunity to consider my scope of improvement as well – to understand whether I could have done the aforementioned task differently.
Through clear and concise writing, Maciej introduced the relevance of social responsibility within fashion in his blog, setting tone for his decision to take up Messaging Fashion. As rightly stated, fashion consumers nowadays are more aware of their purchasing power than ever and are beginning to consider ethical factors before buying; like transparency, workplace culture and environmental impact, amongst many others. This has undoubtedly brought big brands under social pressure to cater to these growing consumer needs.
Demonstrating curiosity, Maciej explored Messaging fashion through the lens of social responsibility and designed a campaign tailored to his allocated brand – Wales Bonner. Enterprise is an evident attribute in the decision of choosing Toxic Masculinity as the campaign’s message. He assessed brand values that are centred around culture, ethnicity, spirituality and redefinition of masculinity, created a campaign that aligns with these values and pursued the project in an ethical way. Wales Bonner is a brand that designs androgynous clothing. For women, we have clothing articles like boyfriend jeans that is essentially masculine. However, for men, we draw the line too soon. This brand challenges that social stigma through gender neutral clothing. I think the campaign is well thought of.
Collaboration with The Future Men – a charity that supports boys and men struggling with masculinity goes hand-in-hand with the selected cause. Linking the campaign with a media partner and charity that are relevant to it is a clear indication of connectivity of ideas. The campaign is reflective of Wales Bonner’s ideology and in all, is a strong concept where social responsibility is the protagonist.
I understand the constraints of sticking to word limit. However, role of diversity in Maciej’s personal development would have made a great addition to this blog. Working with a diverse group and how that affected the project outcome is a challenge that we all must have faced during this unit as creatives. It is important to recognise these challenges and improve upon them in future. To incorporate sustainability in this project, perhaps considering an existing androgynous collection instead of capsule would be a better alternative; the proceeds from which will go the charity. To reduce the environmental impact of photoshoots, collaborating with an illustrator would also make a good choice. As seen in the case of Vogue Italia.
To conclude, this is a strong reflective blog that I enjoyed reading as it is written in an appealing manner and is indicative of passional engagement with the Better Lives themes.