Ekaterina Perelman

As a part of my Better Lives unit, I was taking part in a Make-up breakdown course where the main theme for our classes and pathway was the idea of fashion mistakes and how we can use it in our own creative practice.  While looking at themes of contorting, Smokey eyes, and colour theory I was able to explore different aspects of the makeup and beauty industry.

As a creative student through years of making art, I learned how important it is to make mistakes. Sometimes it is just something which didn’t go as we planned, didn’t give as the wanted result or simply didn’t happen, but sometimes it is also something better, something we didn’t think of, something that made us learn from experience.

Fashion mistakes in makeup have the same significance: we make them and we learn from them whether by realizing it has a place to be either by changing our approach. Since the production of final looks was happening through the time of pandemic we had to think of something using materials at home. Creating something like this wasn’t something new for me as I often DIY my clothes or I use interesting found materials to create my looks or shoots. I think this is something we should be doing not only now during COVID-19 but also throughout our life as it is vital to be able to repurpose our old clothes into something new to be more sustainable.  Being able to reuse something we already own instead of buying something new is one of the steps which can be taken towards reducing consumption and create a more conscious approach towards it. We can use the opportunity of being at home now to rethink our approaches to creating something to drive a positive change towards a better and more sustainable future.

However, it’s not only about the reuse of existing products but also our social image and social media culture. My final look was about common beauty “standards” social media created for us which everyone tries to follow and this is the dame what happens with clothes and trends. People see influencers and bloggers posting their non-stop purchasing of new clothes and that what drives this culture of fast fashion to keep buying more and more. This is one of the critical aspects of the cultural issues in sustainability and that it’s why it needs to be addressed. I hope that by creating my looks and photography in the future I can promote the idea of repurposing and conscious consumption.

Themes of sustainability, inclusivity, and diversity are vital for our society and humanity more than ever. I think the key approach for each person is to take small steps that are available for each of us and implement them in life. What I’m considering in terms of my own work and my approach to tackle this issue is from both creative experience as a creative director and more personal day-to-day practice.

After starting Better Lives unit I realized I had very small knowledge about sustainability and with the beginning of pandemic and development of online courses so I started Fashion and Sustainability course from CSF and Kering Group so that I can learn in-depth about each aspect of sustainability including 4 different agendas. What I’m thinking is always what I can do as a creative director and social person and to me, I feel like my most power would be to focus on cultural agenda and promote the idea of huge unnecessary consumption. I created a manifesto within the online course and I can see it in developing as something further.  I talked to my friends, my parents (people coming from different generations obviously), and I realized that many people think of this problem as overestimation and not something which actually needs to be solved. I feel like a lot of people, especially in my country, in Russia don’t realize the importance of acting now and it is my power to make a change here and now by speaking mind in hope that it will open someone else’s mind. I want to use my social platform to reach out to people and explain my point of view of how serious the issue is. I believe through my creative practice I can not only learn more for myself but also learn from the bigger communities and see how they approach current problems.

When I’m thinking of something I can do in the physical sense I’m thinking about using as less plastic as I can, using cruelty-free makeup for my looks as well as to implement more sustainable brands for my shoots. I also acknowledge that I can be more resourceful from something I already have instead of going and getting new products/ clothes/ etc. Practice more of conscious consumption when making decisions about buying something, really thinking whether the product comes from and what kind of consequences my purchase will make, and not only for my work and creative production but as well for personal use.

Within Better Lives unit I listened to a couple of interesting and inspiring lectures but the one I watched first actually stood out to me the most. It was the “Culture” lecture by Anna Fitzpatrick where she outlined the importance of the actions which must not be delayed and highlighted the key points of what has caused us to get to the point where we are now.

When I heard that we have less than 10 years to act I was shocked as it hit me to realize that it is such a short period of time and how much pressure is on every one of us to take action now. But here we all have a question then: “How do we make fashion sustainable without hurting any area  in this industry which has been already set up for a very long time?”

The example Fitzpatrick talked about was fast fashion where she explained that if we do minimize the enormous consumption of the mass market which is so popular in our society these days it would affect people who work to produce those clothes as it would leave them without a job and source of income. So that moves us onto thinking about the ethical questions about mass production and poor working conditions which are a part of fast fashion.

The whole problem which has raised with fast fashion has a clear connection to capitalism and our habits as consumers. We tend to use clothing and fashion as ways to reward ourselves, to make us happy and in some cases to draw attention to prove something. With such reasons being so impulsive people tend to turn to fast fashion as a coping mechanism and the purchase might serve no longer than 5 weeks and be thrown away after it has fulfilled its purpose as being a “reward” or after it has gone out of fashion.

As Kawamura (2005) argued in their book “Fashion-ology” fashion is immaterial while clothing is essential. These days with new technology fashion changes so quickly that the only way to keep fashion society’s desire to always be in trend fulfilled is to produce more and consume more. This tendency is also supported by development in technologies: as they have increased (also increasing the amount of production), the peoples working hours have decreased and that has led to them having more time to consume in past years.  Side effects of that are production increased by double only from 2000 to 2014 and each year it keeps increasing by 60%.

Those numbers are shocking and that’s why it is time to take action. The key to it is to move from the idea of “me” and create a culture where we can all work together, which is a massive challenge. However, it will not only work towards such goals as a more sustainable fashion but also will have a positive impact on mental health which is so strongly affected by social media and its promotion of fast fashion.

References:

Fitzpatrick, A., (2020) ,Culture, [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 1 April. 

Kawamura, Y., (2005). Fashion-Ology. Oxford: Berg.