Better Lives Blog Post 2
After being presented the lectures that taught me about the importance of collaboration, emerging technologies within fashion and perspectives in industry alongside an array of other thought-provoking topics, I found that the interactive lectures taking place under ‘Fashion Activism’ helped me to expand on these ideas.
In these lectures, we were shown the importance of the three pillars of the Better Lives unit – Sustainability, Diversity and Social Responsibility – and their prevalence in the 21st century as these pillars are becoming the underlying values of many fashion brands. We studied brands such as Christopher Raeburn, Veja and VIN + OMI to explore how their sustainable ethos can be achieved in industry.
In my Fashion Activism group we all agreed that we wanted to carry a sustainable message in the work that we did. As a task we had to pick a group name, colour and an image that represented us. We chose the name ‘VALOROUS’ – a synonym for the word ‘bold’ – the colour blue and a picture of the ocean. This was chosen as we believe that it is important to be ‘bold’ in decision making and to stick to your morals in a pressurised working environment. E.g. maintaining a sustainable ethos throughout your work. We thought that the image of the ocean and the colour blue linked nicely with this as the ocean holds a great deal of power – corresponding with the chosen colour – but still needs to be protected by those championing sustainability and environmentally friendly practice.
We also looked at diversity. Previously in other units on my course, we had established that the term ‘Inclusivity’ is often preferred over the term ‘Diversity’. This can be succinctly explained through this quote from Liz Fosslien: “Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice at the table, and belonging is having that voice be heard”. It was interesting to explore the idea that many brands exploit the values of ‘Diversity’ and ‘Inclusivity’ in order to create a higher number of sales and to ‘tick boxes’. This taught me the importance of investigating into the work of others and not accepting everything at face value e.g. information from a TV campaign for a fashion brand or a brand claiming to support a particular charity or ‘cause’. It is vital to research the motive behind a brands work.
Furthermore, we discussed the significance of social responsibility and the value of having an ethical production line. We investigated brands such as American Apparel who place importance on the transparency of their workers and their working conditions. Looking at a brand as successful as American Apparel who are able to maintain the 3 pillars explored in Better Lives taught me how it is possible to maintain a strong set of morals in your work and still flourish in a commercial environment where there is a great deal of pressure to mass produce and cut corners – particularly in the fast paced 21st century.
At the start of the unit, I found that although I was aware of all three of these pillars of the Better Lives unit and their importance in industry, I was always better acquainted with the sustainable aspect of this more than the other values. Throughout both the general Better Lives lectures and the focused Fashion Activism ones, I have seen and learnt the importance of levelling all 3 of these pillars in my work and not placing one above the other.