Anna Viazikova

It was really interesting to read through my peers’ blogs and see various creative outcomes has reflected on Better Lives themes. 

Blog by Eleanor Parry Hensley where she has showed and discussed her outcome from Navigating through clothing seemed particularly interesting to me. In this project she has created a design for a costume for the character of Gretel.

It was really interesting to read that Eleanor looked back on her favorite childhood character – Pippi Longstocking which I believe has made her outcome more personal and meaningful.

Moreover, in her costume design she has also managed to reflect on their class trip to British museum where she came across  Edouard Vuillard who was a French painter. We can clearly see in her colorful design a link to the style of his paintings. To me that shows that the student has successfully reflected on the learning process to which she has been introduced in class.  

In addition to that,  her costume has been made from cotton which can be considered as sustainable material as it is biodegradable and renewable. This can be referred to one of the better lives theme – sustainability. Something that nowadays creatives should always consider when producing a garment. 

I think this outcome has been really successful as Eleanor showed the evidence of research and understanding of better lives themes in her final outcome. Also I really like that she has put something personal which made the costume design more artistic and meaningful.

Blog 3

My better lives option was photography. This project has allowed me to find out more about different photographers, aesthetic approaches and conventions along with getting more knowledge about technical aspects that photography involves e.g  lighting, ISO, exposure etc. 

I have found “Home portraits” project particularly interesting as we have been introduced to some historical examples of portraiture in the home and portraiture under lockdown which has helped me a lot when I was developing my personal outcomes. 

These photographic series (Figure1)  have been made during self-isolation in which I often found myself sitting on the window ceiling and watching people that tried to carry on with their days in these difficult circumstances. It also felt like I could connect with those people through camera lens. In addition to that I feel like this activity has resulted in developing a greater empathy and understanding of people which can be certainly linked to Lorrain Gamman’s lecture where she told how empathy is regularly utilized by designers to understand the perspectives of others.

When it comes to describing technical aspects of creating this work my main rule was to take photos of people from above so it almost looks like a CCTV and creates the atmosphere of observation. My editing process included inverting the picture into negative and then overlaying it on top of the initial image. I have added the grain to give depth to the images. 

Self portrait

Figure 2 is my second outcome where I experimented with photographing in the dark with a flash light. Usually I feel more confident behind the camera rather than in front so I just had to improvise. I like that my face is hidden behind the curtain in this picture which looks a little bit mysterious and abstract

I have been really enjoying the work of Johny Duffort lately and I feel that it had an influenced on both of my outcomes. In a certain way.  I really like his faded photographs usually with a contrasting spotlight on the subject. 

Also I tried to give a self-portrait image an analog like look but without actually using the film as it often cannot be recycled referring back to Better Live theme of sustainability.  

To conclude, I have really enjoyed the Contemporary portrait photography class as it has challenged my creativity and helped the further development of my photography skills. 

As PR and communication student I find it is vital to consider better lives themes such as social responsibility, inclusivity and diversity when communicating the brand into the masses. 

Fashion industry still has a long way to go in perfecting those three elements. Unfortunately we can still see that even big brands such as Prada (monkey keychains), Gucci (blackface sweater), Dolce and Gahanna (eating pizza with chopsticks campaign) get involved into racism scandals because of either their product designs or communication campaigns. All of that is the result of poor education of PR and miscommunication between design and PR teams.  Due to different communication channels (for example Diet Prada) that attract attention of the masses to the issues of inclusivity  people started to pay more attention on these issues and demand from the brands a greater work on inclusivity and diversity. 

When it comes to discussing  social responsibility we can still see big issues regarding the immoral use of cheap labor from the companies such as H&M, Primark, Zara etc. who would normally offshore they factories in the poor countries to keep their expenses and prices low. Which leads to another big problem – sustainability. However, it would be wrong to blame only fast fashion companies for promoting throw away culture as demand drives supply therefore consumers are also responsible for the environmental crisis. Consumers  need to understand that producing clothes involves a lot of creative work and physical labor therefore clothes should not be cheap. 

As a future fashion industry practitioner I believe that the only way to overcome the said above issues is through education of consumers and fashion industry workers.  We must acknowledge the old fashioned structure of our industry and modernize it to become a more sustainable and socially responsible. Better lives lectures made me more aware of those issues and more than that showed the ways of how to work on them. 

After watching through all of the better lives lectures which I believe has significantly influenced my understanding of diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. Some of the lectures has also given a greater insight into the history of fashion which I believe is vital to know to understand modern fashion. However the lecture by John Lau about Cultural Sustainability was my favorite and I would like to write about it in this blogpost. 

John has talked about what does culture mean, the influence of globalization on fashion, cultural diversity and misrepresentation which are all parts of  cultural sustainability. 

It was really interesting to hear that our culture can be subjective and objective therefore it is not only defined by our native country, it can be also be defined as how we feel and identify ourselves in the society.  John has shown a picture of woman that combines different cultural elements in her dress. I believe this fact is the result of globalization, that often leads to the different culture clashes. 

In addition to that, it is also fascinating how culture can influence our art perception. Linking this to the example of the work “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. If we read this work not from the western perspective (left to right)  but from the eastern (right to left) the painting’s  scene changes and therefore changes the meaning.  

Moreover, cultural difference sometimes can lead to misrepresentation which is when people interpret another culture incorrectly. We can find numerous examples of that in fashion. Brands such as Gucci by Alessandro Michele, Gucci by Tom Ford, Prada, Dolce & Gabanna, John Galliano,  etc. have been criticized for cultural appropriation in some of their designs. 

Apart from that, John has also mentioned the influence of politics on dress which I found very helpful for my FCH research. As an example he took how France used fashion to mark the beginning of a new political structure. 

To conclude, as a fashion public relation student I find cultural sustainability a vital thing to consider in order to work successfully in this field. PR’s strategies and campaigns are needed to be culturally diverse but avoid misrepresentation in order to attract a greater attention to the brand. This will help to construct a sustainable personality for the brand and will result in a good reputation and strengthen relationships with a wider range of customers.