BLOG POST: HOW BETTER LIVES INFLUENCED YOUR PROJECT OUTCOME AND YOUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Previously, I mentioned key elements that I have learned the most during the course of the better lives unit. This consists of three in my perspective main fundamentals- sustainability, diversity and communication. Throughout weeks of working together as a group we have learned about fundamentals and key elements such as aesthetic, ethos and positioning to utilise our knowledge in the creative direction and fashion activism unit as well as help us with an upcoming group project.
Moreover, we have been given a task consisting of looking at BODE- a luxury menswear brand that expresses a sentimentality for the past through the study of personal narratives and historical techniques (About, 2020). We have split the tasks equally and worked as a group collaboratively together on planning out structuring our moving image. As the end of the term was approaching, we looked at various ad campaigns, colour palettes and the whole mood and decided to portray the vibe we planned by using “personal narratives’ and “experiences”, vintage spring feels and fashion elements in it and as we all belong to different cultural backgrounds through better lives. We chose DIVERSITY as our influence for the project outcome.
Time passed, COVID19 pandemic has progressed, which affected everyone and left many in fear and cluelessness therefore, few regulations have been made and one of them to stay at home to keep everyone safe but that has not affected our group work as we often called each other to discuss the outcome.
Firstly, brand analysis concluded that the colours we will be either simple and minimalistic like whites or bold as green with elements of pattern like checked that BODE has in some of their designs nonetheless, we agreed on outfits we will be presenting. Shirts, trousers and blazers were the key elements as the brand is targeted for men but as many women wear it too, we have decided to use the “masculine” outfits and make it feminine.
Secondly, the idea of “personal narratives” and “experiences” was the key in filming the moving image, because of a pandemic we have all decided it will be sensible to travel back to loved ones, some including me will switch time zones as well as the sceneries and experiences. Travelling back has helped us develop the idea in portraying our culture through the personal narrative and the atmosphere we inhabit. My groupmate Aitoty and I came from Kazakhstan, both of us used our cultural backgrounds pieces such as traditional earrings and duvets as statement pieces for the video.
Finally, each of us has filmed their part themselves in their BODE “inspired” outfit and the landscape scenario and sent it to me to edit, giving the video that naive spring romantic vibe as well as editing vintage-like mood. Overall this project taught the “extreme” side of working in a group, in the current situation this is a 1 in 100 chance working with the lack of resources, equipment and thinking outside the box also helped me utilise my need for creativity which is lacking on my course that I wanted as well as show my skills as a video editor.
OUR VIDEO: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/9f02aab6-a5fd-4c4b-a979-a00108f338a2
BODE New York. 2020. About. [online] Available at: <https://www.bodenewyork.com/pages/about> [Accessed 22 April 2020].