Blog 3 – Sustainability and Styling

The Better Lives themes seem more topical then ever at the moment with the recent pandemic. Businesses, brands and individuals all locked away and struggling to keep the wolf from the door. I was intrigued by the question “is it going to make a difference to the fashion industry?” The last thing on anyone’s minds is their next pair of jeans, instead the topics being flung about are the environment, sustainability and change. After this is over we do not need to go back to normal, we need to change. 

The impact that the fashion industry/fast fashion has on the environment, workers wellbeing and the knock on to high end fashion is huge. Our clothes need to be sourced sustainably, the big brands should focus on the aesthetics of fashion again instead of churning out multiple seasons a year. We need to consider how many clothes we actually need. Riz Ahmed stated “Who are we without the productivity?” This is an interesting concept as I think we have learnt to rely on productivity, commercialism and branding to form our identities and maybe living through this lockdown away from the constant drive to strive, our mindsets may change. People tend to have a shorter attention span with clothes, buying one thing, getting bored, not wearing it and so buying more; or even buying something because it’s a ‘trend’ when it is unwearable to them. This is causing the biggest problems in the fashion industry in terms of sustainability. It is said that apparel and footwear contribute to 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions and that the fashion industry is the “third highest polluting industry in the world.” 

I had focused on sustainability as a theme in my practice but wanted to do justice to how I have felt since the lockdown. When looking at different styling inspiration or items of clothing I had around the house for looks for my Better Lives, BA Fashion Styling and Production unit, I really had to consider how to make it work during the pandemic as access to clothes, facilities, and models etc was limited. This challenge was an exciting one and it made me consider in depth the experimentation that could be done with the items and locations I had – this challenge made the outcome more rewarding. In sportswear, I feel like there is a huge variety of styles and technologies which are accepted but are unnecessary, and I had fun playing around with this idea. What factors are indispensable in sportswear, and what is just an accepted norm which actually can be interchanged with other more lighthearted designs and styles. 

In the first styling masterclass, along with 5 other students, I picked items from a rail and threw together looks which were unique, modern, eye-catching and challenging in terms of accepted sportswear norms. We wanted to challenge gender norms to display inclusivity and diversity, and we achieved this by interchanging men’s and women’s shoes, and focusing on poses associated with butch men or male workwear, but displayed by women. We put the men in heels and focused on body hair and joyous scenes of sports celebration to really highlight the ideas that we are in it together to win together, regardless of body shape, beauty standard etc. I found this project very enjoyable and loved working as a team to achieve an outcome which looked good and followed the themes of the better lives unit. 

For the second masterclass, as mentioned above, I had less material to work with but found some old sportswear I could use and wanted to do a Victorian take on sportswear as I had some old props and garments with which to work. I styled two looks, an old fashioned sportswear/tennis look, and a ski look. As with the first masterclass, I wanted the footwear to be intriguing to the viewer and make them question the focus of the look. In spite of the struggle with photography and facilities, I really enjoy the second styling masterclass and I am happy with the resulting looks.