Desislava Bogdanova

For the peer review I chose to look at Gabija Pocuitte’s blogs and focus on the 3rd post where she evaluates her final project outcome with some reflection on the themes of better lives. Gabija is originally a fashion photography student but was alongside me on the make up course for Better Lives and it was interesting to see how differently we approached the idea of the ‘Fashion Mistake’ to create final looks. She used 3D objects as well as normal make up products to seam together an intriguing and experimental look targeting the idea of sustainability and the disposability of certain objects within the beauty/fashion community.

Gabija chose to focus more on the sustainability aspect and to use household beauty items such as hair bands and hair grips to design a look. She mentions further research into artist Rie Sakamoto who also created a collection made of rubber bands and this research gave the look context and development as she was able to create more iterations from her initial look. It’s important to have artist references and it’s something that I felt was somewhat lacking from my final outcome evaluation because it would give more context to my project. She draws inspiration well in regards to basing her colouring on the collections and trying to incorporate some of the same elements of boldness and contrast into her work which works well with the two statements made by the objects (sharp and round). She considers the overall composition with critical outlooks and determined that the colours used are not too powerful but bold enough to make a statement yet not overpower the piece.

She provides and interesting outlook on the theme of sustainability within the beauty community and fashion by utilising items that are viewed as disposable when really they are harmful to the environment and we should be more careful with the way we treat and take care of such items as many of them are not recyclable at all.

One area that Gabija could improve on is considering a more well-rounded concept or explanation of the final look as for this outcome, she has mentioned mainly just sustainability as opposed to reflecting on all the other themes of Better Lives such as social responsibility and diversity. Although she does go in depth about these issues in other blog posts, it would benefit the final evaluation of her project if she had mentioned them even briefly in the final outcome to tie together the project more.

Overall, Gabija’s blogs are thoughtful, insightful and well written, she has clearly done a lot of research and has engaged fully with the themes presented in the project which lead her to have a very successful outcome.

The make up course allowed me to be a lot more expressive and experimental in my final outcome than I usually would be on creative direction. My focus for the project stemmed from the idea of the ‘Fashion Mistake’ ; more abstract and innovative methods are undertaken to create a look. The freedom of this area of make up is what drew me in. This took make up away from just focusing on enhancing the face/beauty of a person and elevates it into a more sophisticated and free craft in which the standard ‘rules’ of make up don’t apply. As a creative director, my urge to create a deeper meaning for the final piece was prominent, to create a meaningful yet striking piece of work.

This was my initial experiment in which I explored some of the themes associated with the ‘quarantine queen’. The look was more prop based and mainly involved the tissue paper attached to the mouth. To develop this I decided to add more colour and form to the look and try using a brushed up brow, glossy eye and blush to accentuate my features and make the overall look more finalised and actually apply the skills and inspiration I gained from the make up workshops.

I chose to envelop the three themes for my project as the final outcome was a satirical piece based around the idea of a ‘Quarantine Queen’. This was intended to be a provocative caricature of the response to Covid-19 and lockdown. Typically, as a nation, we over consume, but never before have we witnessed such a panic in the public leading to empty supermarkets and having to ration items in store to be able to provide to everyone. The initial panic of the public was ridiculous! Though there was no need to hoard food and sanitation items in any way, shelves were empty, leaving the most vulnerable members of society unable to attain their regular shopping. This provided quite a wake up call, many pictures of elderly people staring at empty shelves began circulating online and soon, the ‘quarantine queens’ were publicly shamed. The final piece was quite successful in presenting these ideas in a more editorial sense as the set and make up was not necessarily typical. The make up course opened my eyes to realising that you do not always need to do a full face or use actual make up products to create a powerful look; sometimes less is more effective.

Overall, I am pleased with my outcome as I was able to experiment with a different medium while still portraying clearly the message I set out to convey. It was very liberating to work around the idea of the ‘Fashion Mistake’ and to be able to focus more on communication rather than the typical skills. If I could improve this piece I would develop it further into an editorial with various models and looks as I think it is a powerful and relevant topic which greatly emphasises the Better Lives themes.

Lorraine Gammon’s lecture on ‘Empathy’ illustrates the need for empathy within the design industry by showing powerful examples and explaining the need for user focused design to enhance the experience of consumers. One must really understand audience for which you are designing and have passion for it but also the ability to detach and provide unbiased critiques to progress the work. Social responsibility in design means confronting difficult issues and make the public more understanding (e.g. Highland Rape collection by McQueen, The Is It My Fault? Exhibition) or create inclusivity for an overlooked/excluded demographic.

A particular example that I found very relevant is the designs created by Harriet Harris, Graeme Brooker and Angela Luna. The designs were centred around function and multi-purpose to help a group that does not instantly come to mind when thinking of fashion; Syrian refugees. The different designers created wearable coats/clothing that could also transform into sleeping bags, tents or even floatation devices. This is inspiring as it is both innovative and necessary and supports the idea that art should make a change in the world rather than just exist as a decoration. Artists should be activists. This is also referred to in the lecture by Lucy Orta on ‘Democracy and Activism’ which elaborates on many artists such as, Maja Bajevic or Francis Alÿs, who are constantly questioning political and world affairs with opposing moral stances to highlight inconsistencies and make people think more deeply about the world around them.

Social responsibility is a very current topic, especially during the unprecedented state of the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. Though many negatives have arised with the spread of the disease there has been an increased sense of community particularly in regards to the NHS. Anyone with a sewing machine, particularly those in creative industries seen sewing PPE and scrubs for NHS as a collective effort to support the staff for their brave work even though the government should be doing this not the people. Hospital scrubs are not typically very fashionable but with the efforts of the fashion community in the UK, there has been a certain flair and individuality added to the donated scrubs. Not only does this show a greater inclusivity in design but also shows the seizure of power from government stockists, showing the empathy of the people can be greater than that of government organisations.

The themes of sustainability, social responsibility and diversity are ones that I was familiar but not entirely engaged in. There is definitely a greater need for all creatives to consider these themes more in their practise if we are to develop the fashion/art world without causing further detriment.

There is far greater depth in diversity than just picking people of different races, sizes and abilities to represent a brand – there must be an active way to design for all. A great deal of fashion, in particular, deals only with the aesthetic side of design and sometimes the functionality but a lot of the time, it is not common to design a garment or product that can actually be useful in many ways or cater to the needs of those outside the typical sphere of consumers such as those who are homeless, physically impaired or mentally impaired. There is a great number of consumers who do not fit the customer profiles of many brands and are forced into buying normal items despite their situation requiring a more specified product. This encourages me to consider greater functionality and to spread more awareness through my work. Furthermore it inspires me to reach out to more atypical audiences and try to create a more inclusive piece of work that could potentially help alienated or forgotten communities.

Social responsibility and sustainability also go hand in hand with this as it is impossible for us to all continue the way we are working without changing as it is seriously harming not only the earth but its inhabitants too. In order to not cause further damage to the environment and people who are being exploited for our ease, I will definitely aim to work in a less wasteful way and also, directly not buy into faster alternatives when gathering materials, garments or anything needed for a shoot. Realistically, it is not worth it to be wasteful or harmful when you could make something far more interesting and creative by working with what you already have.

In conclusion, although these are terms I was already familiar with, the lectures have really inspired me into seeing diversity, social responsibility and sustainability as more of a necessity rather than an option to consider when creating work. The project has opened my eyes as to just how much improvement is needed within the fashion industry and how it is up to us, the upcoming generation of creators, to change it. Moving forward, activism for these topics will definitely be a priority for my personal work but also for collaborations I may take on in the future as we need to create an industry that is more conscious, meaningful and inclusive.