Lecture Reflection (Society)

Out of all of the lectures I attended, my favourite was Katelyn Toth-Fejel’s society talk. I believe that I enjoyed this one the most due to having pure interest in the topic. I thought that the lecture was very informative throughout and interesting. I was able to gain insightful information about the society of fashion. A summary of what I learnt is as follows: The term ‘society’ can be defined by shared interests, shared memberships, and shared cultural values and understandings by a group of people. Everything we do, say and feel can be shaped by our interactions in society. It can be argued that to dress is to perform a social act. By dressing, we are creating and expressing our own individual identity. Additionally, by dressing, we are also communicating our aesthetic taste, beauty, sex appeal, wealth, status and social groups (modesties, religions, ceremonies, rituals). Fashion itself can be defined as a society. The fashion industry as a society has many aspects that are considered unethical. Examples can be fair wages, safe working environments, access to education, equal opportunities, and economic models. However, with all of these taken into consideration, the most talked-about issue with fashion now is ethical clothing.  A topic that is most relevant to this is fast fashion. Fast fashion is essentially inexpensive clothing rapidly produced by mass market retailers at a short expensive. It is incredibly popular with brands turning into franchises due to their successes such as H&M, Primark and Uniqlo. People are more likely to buy from fast fashion brands due to its convenience such as increased access to cheap clothing for consumers. However, fast fashion is deemed unethical today due to its promotion of ‘throwaway clothing culture’ and its exploitation of underpaid workers. Furthermore, there are negative environmental impacts from increased resource use, creating more pollution. Due to these reasons, fast fashion is problematic to today’s society. Katelyn however, mentioned there were strategies that we as a society can use to combat disposable fashion, such as using apps like Depop and Instagram to share, borrow, or swap clothes through second hand selling. She states that brands should focus on creating an ‘experience’ for consumers, for example, by getting audiences excited through the making process. Without these such methods, there will be no ‘hype’ surrounding brands. Hype can be a good way to diffuse disposable fashion, as consumers can be attracted to options other than cheap, affordable fasion. All in all this was a fantastic lecture and extremely informative.