LECTURE 12 SOCIETY
Throughout these two weeks, the wild range of lectures covered different areas that were related to fashion. After listened to all of it, the Society lecture stood out from the rest of the lectures. The discussion about how society links to fashion, and the idea of how the fashion industry has influenced the growing change of society issues were brought up. How people dressed up were considered as a form of social act, the larger dynamic related to sex appeal, expression of identity, religion…… The complex reasons of why people dress are more than just to impress or attract others, it could be the reflection of race, gender, and class. Which then formed the cycle of the relationship of the fashion industry and customers. Nevertheless, fashion became the influencer of culture, and the cause of social trend. The idea of how those closely those two factors bond together interested me in so many ways.
As a human, we observe and learnt from our social community, we use clothing in a way to fit in, to form unity, and find people with neutral interest, which made us consumers. As a consumer, we became the root of a lot of social issues, such as the effect of the fast fashion industry. We hold the responsibility to understand the possible damage of fashion, and also the sustainability and fashion should incorporate with one and another. There are several growing strategies about refusing disposable fashion and not buying new clothes but also keep it creative on social media. The experience of swap clothes, borrow clothes or purchase second-hand clothes could be a way to benefit the society, this is the proof of people starting to bring out the awareness of radical sustainability on media. As a fashion student that studies at London College of Fashion, it is crucial to keep in mind of the idea of sustainability while doing creative works. In the lecture, the design thinking process were mentioned, nowadays designer works with anthropologist and social scientist to further research on the audiences’ circumstances to understand how to affect the change. The importance of understanding the culture and the people will help to make the design process more meaningful. Fashion could be the cause of society issue but a lot of the designers were working on also reshape society. In order to succeed on incorporating sustainable in fashion industry, social dynamics is the key that designers should be acknowledging through their deigning process.
By providing the examples of designers acknowledging society issue, I have a better understanding and a vision about how social structure related to environmental issues. Looking to create the change and reshape the industry in the future should be our goal as a fashion student. Participating in those lectures has helped me reflect on myself as a consumer, and also as a producer. I should further improve myself on not just only the knowledge of fashion, but to explore and do more research about anthropology and social construction, focus on the current and historical society issue will help me envision the future.