Solomiia Zakharkiv

I had a chance to look at several different blogs and every single student had a lot to say. For my final blog, I decided to review Nicole’s blog which certainly caught my attention. In her blog, she discusses her impressions and personal experiences as well as knowledge and personal growth. She describes her interaction with fellow students and the way she communicated her ideas as well as mentioning the importance of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. There, she makes a statement that “Creative Direction is visual communication”.

First of all, she explains in detail the purpose of a fashion film and how it can be communicated. She then analyses her group’s strategy and the way their research was done. I think it is vital to be able to discuss every stage of the process and Nicole does it very well. However, she managed to successfully talk through difficulties she had to challenge within their group and how important it was to keep the communication on the same level as it was before the current crisis. Secondly, by exploring and developing ideas for the project, she contributed with numerous propositions and developed creative attributes by rapidly approaching the fashion film. I like her honest and transparent approach and how openly she discusses her personal development and growth as a contributor to the group’s assigned brand. As a creative individual, she reflected fully on the themes of sustainability and social responsibility, especially diversity by creating the link to the brand and the outcome.

It is undeniably an important part of creative practice – an ability to talk freely about the struggles and mistakes. I think her blog combines both positive and negative sides of working in a group, which is normal for a new experience like this. During the course, she mostly engaged with theme of diversity by explaining how essential it was for the brand “Nubian Skin”. Eventually, the outcome echoes the current situation with COVID-19 and the film provided me with an ability to dive into a range of skills and themes, which were presented.

Finally, I think Nicole managed to give an in-depth and detailed blog, explaining her refection and contribution. She gives a nice explanation about the development of their film, which successfully covers and represents diversity and social responsibility. Perhaps, if more time was given, she could look more into sustainability and how “Nubian Skin” could improve their product. All in all, I think the creation of the film was very much a success.   

The Better Lives unit has encouraged me to think beyond just the creation of fashion images. Over the last three months or so, this project managed to bring so much awareness and has changed my perspective and opinions on fashion and the way it functions. This entire unit showed me both the positive and negative sides of the fashion industry and, most importantly, underlined the urgency and the need for action. I had a chance to indulge my knowledge on diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. Despite doing Fashion Photography as my main course, I was always intrigued by Creative Direction and Activism in particular. By working in a group and being assigned a brand, our goal was to produce a short video for “Nubian Skin”, which was established in 2014 by Ade Hassan who decided to create a different kind of nude.

In my opinion, this brand hugely represents and supports diversity. For our group, it was important to discover the intricate details of the brand’s background and aesthetic. This brand brought a truly innovative product to the market because of the way they empower women of colour. This brand, in particular, made the term “nude” more inclusive and has had a huge influence on many parts of the fashion industry. “Nubian Skin” is constantly evolving and expanding its reach, not only by delivering worldwide but also by communicating with their clients on social media platforms and collecting feedback. By doing our research, we managed to establish the main goal of the brand and started generating our ideas about video’s outlook. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our final edits and communication, in general, was tested as we had to switch to online. This gave us a chance to truly understand how challenging it can be to work as a team. By collecting the information, we realised that male figures aren’t represented as much as female figures, so it was a great opportunity to add more transparency to brand and the video.

It was one of a kind experience participating in this project. Due to the current situation, it will forever impact our way of thinking and working when it comes to fashion. “Nubian Skin” was designed to tackle tokenism, combat stereotypes and promote diversity and identity. Every member of our group felt like it was vital to highlight the fact that every woman and man deserves to be powerful, beautiful and connected. Our video offers authentic portrayals of black and minority ethnic communities. Finally, the Better Lives unit showed me how principal the making of an advert is, especially in these complicated and uncertain times. Working with other creative individuals will provide me with great connections and it gave me a chance to rethink my learning and develop new, essential skills.

Throughout the duration of the Better Lives unit, it is certainly obvious that sustainability, diversity and social responsibility are tightly linked with each other. This unit provided me with an opportunity to explore fashion practice and that it is heavily influenced by those themes. I participated in the project where I experienced and understood how fashion can change lives. It allowed me to be creative and experimental. The Better Lives unit has once again emphasised the importance of the above topics, recalling how much they influence the formation and development of the fashion industry. As creative individuals, we must learn how to prioritise correctly while thinking not only about our achievements but also about the planet. For the last three or so months, I was able to work with students from different courses by engaging in the Fashion Activism project. Therefore, there has been a constant encouragement from my fellow peers and other students to start practising responsible habits.

Fashion Activism has laid different aspects of the fashion industry and how it works. As a fashion photography student, I thought it would be vital to reconsider my work and the people I work with. I decided that I further try and be open for suggestions that offer and promote more sustainable fashion and with brands who share my beliefs and resonate with my own aesthetic. Moreover, after considering what these themes have taught me, I will continue to work with different groups and will exercise equality and empathy for minority groups. Consequently, as an intentional student, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and cultural background with others.

I am open to work with clients from whom I can gain inspiration and understanding of other cultures and ethnicities. The lack of diversity is definitely something that has been around for a while in the industry and I am keen to change it. Supporting diversity and social responsibility is something of a priority for me because everyone deserves to be recognised and to communicate their beliefs and ideas with others. However, already now when preparing to work on a new project or when it comes to researching a brand, I look into the brand’s morality and to what extent it is sustainable, diverse and socially responsible.

Currently, the society and the fashion industry are experiencing these anxious times due to Coronavirus outbreak, yet the situation makes us appreciate the things that we pretended were almost invisible to us. The crisis had a huge impact on the industry and there must be a positive side to it because once in a while fast fashion has slowed down and we finally got to rethink our actions and impacts on ourselves and the planet.

The lectures that I have watched all successfully covered diversity, sustainability and responsibility. All the lectures allowed me to think about my skills in ways that might impact more than just myself. 

A lecture “Culture” by Anna Fitzpatrick really grabbed my attention and challenged me the most. This is largely because it reminded me that we are living in a climate emergency and have LESS THAN TEN years as our window of action. We have to change things drastically. It is evident that the way we make and consume fashion respects neither people nor planet. This lecture aims to look at sustainability and culture concerning fashion. For a better understanding, I have decided to divide this lecture into two parts: the first part is about how cultures, habits and practices of fashion currently undermine or support sustainable future; the second covers a critique of consumer culture and the challenges it presents for sustainability. Anna discussed our current lifestyles and ideas, yet so many of them are causing huge social and environmental problems. Our role to create better lives is to recognize that there are limits to how we can live and operate because there are limits to our natural world and its resources. Therefore, consumer culture plays a vital role in how we present ourselves – our identities as well as our relationships with one another and with nature. It reminded me how closely fashion is linked to a culture of materialism and consumption. 

Another lecture that I resonated with the most was Claire Swift’s lecture about social responsibility. She managed to focus on so many ways in which fashion connects us and discussed her work that she conducted alongside LCF students. Swift has been involved in so many projects and approached several collaboration theories and examples. One of them is Conscious Contemporary Craft that represents a complex, interconnected project involving staff and students at London College of Fashion, women at Downview Prison, and residents at San Patrignano, a recovery community in Northern Italy for young people dealing with substance misuse. These projects definitely addressed first-rate issues within the fashion industry, while remaining around enriching tasks for women to take part in. Claire reminded me that fashion can be a solution and social aspects are extremely important. Fashion can improve lives and increase well-being.

Both of these lectures stressed the importance of culture, social responsibility and sustainability in the fashion industry. Currently, we are given the knowledge and set of skills to make changes and contribute. I am beginning to wonder what more I can be doing at the current level of my practice and what am I trying to say to others with my work and creativity. More importantly, I am now understanding that collaboration can be a complex, multi-faceted and challenging environment which can take several years to get right. However, it is vital to not get overwhelmed by all the issues that the world of fashion has created. I now realise that I must start creating better lives and I am grateful to both lecturers for a reminder.