Karolina Dorau

As my Better Lives choice, I decided to take part in the Make-up Breakdown project. My main motivation was the fact that I am a part-time luxury beauty assistant. Thus, I thought this choice would facilitate my competences in the work environment. Additionally, as I study Fashion Styling in Production, I found this project as beneficial in case if I needed make-up for my photoshoots and would not be able to find a suitable artist, I could potentially do one on my own. 

However, Make-up Breakdown turned out to be much more than that. It not only fulfilled all of the functions mentioned above but also made me think about sustainability, diversity and social responsibility, all of which will be discussed in the analysis of my final outcome below. 

Due to lockdown caused by COVID-19, the form of the project was changed from group work into an individual one. Even though I felt quite down about this fact (I enjoyed the workshops and collaboration with other students), I managed to stay motivated and come up with an original idea. While collecting initial inspiration, I had to consider what mediums I have available to use at home. It was caused mainly by the fact that, bearing in mind the concept of sustainability, I did not want to order items online, especially because it raises additional virus risk because of the delivery process.

Therefore, I got inspired by the self-adhesive pearls I once bought for another university project but eventually decided not to use them then. Those small ornaments reminded me of classic Chanel necklaces, which I used as a main source of inspiration. Bearing in mind the concept of fashion mistake which was covered during workshops, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and, instead of applying a few pearls here and there, create a design that would enable a more conceptual expression. Finally, I used the pearls as interchanging elements that would replace other cosmetics to come up with an aesthetic yet asymmetrical design. 

Bearing in mind the concepts of social responsibility and diversity, it got me thinking who the statistical Chanel customer would be. I figured that a stereotypical image of such would be a higher class middle-aged white women. Then, I started analysing the tall and slender young models that Chanel would typically use, again noticing lack of range in there. This way, I started thinking that even though essentially I was not too enthusiastic about becoming my own model (as in quarantine I have no possibility of involving anyone else in the process), it is beneficial towards promoting both of those aspects. 

Finally, I came up with a classy yet creative outcome which fully satisfies me. While creating, I incorporated other techniques learnt during the workshops such as colour matching and contouring. I noticed that even though the probability of error was big, considering no supervision and lack of face-to-face technical help, I enjoyed the process. I think that this observation is the most beneficial for me in my future practice as a stylist as it enabled me to fight with my biggest fear, which is a fear of mistake.

My Better Lives topic choice was Make-up Breakdown. Walking in for the first of technical classes, I did not necessarily know what to expect. The room filled with make-up stations and unknown faces filled me with moth excitement and insecurity. The tutor briefed the entire group, explaining we will be dealing with experimental design for fashion practice, covering theory and practice of make-up application. A key point of focus would be innovation in the form of creative mistake implementation to develop an original technique, both compelling and delivering social change.

This topic essentially caused mixed feelings in me. On the one hand, I realized that my perfectionist mindset may cause difficulties in creating imperfect works. On the other, I realized it was an amazing opportunity to overcome this weakness. Because of this, I started to treat Make-up Breakdown more like mental training than technical learning of make-up skills, additionally considering my previous experience and advanced skills so far. 

Such perception motivated me to undertake this challenge and actively participate in classes, showing engagement and gradually acquiring shifted viewpoint. For this reason, I volunteered as a model during the first workshops, covering the aspect of foundation matching. Such an approach was new for me as I usually tend no to stick out too much. However, in my everyday practice as a stylist, I recently noticed that sometimes it is better to be looked over than to be overlooked. Thus, I treated this task as a perfect opportunity to start doing so.

Next workshops discussed the technique of face contouring. To analyse it more in-depth, students were supposed to map each other’s faces contours using bold colours. This was challenging because of the pairing with a person of different origin, which involves working with different face features than those I was used to. Additionally, the colours were easily transferable and problematic to work with. Happily, both I and my classmate enjoyed the creative process and bonded while conducting it. Additionally, this task informed my practice as a stylist, inspiring me to think more inclusively in future practice. 

Last workshops introduced the smokey eye look, brief asking to create make-up that involved devy skin and smudgy eye. Tutor advised a simple method that involved a black pencil and blending brush, saying that it does not require too much minuteness and can be created quite freely/carelessly. Those tips were a complete opposite to information I acquired during my make-up training which was particularly focused on symmetry and details. Still, I decided to follow my tutor’s advice and let my creativity take a lead. Even though such an ethic of work was completely against my habits, I enjoyed the effect created. This inspired me to express the ideas more freely in my styling practice, keeping in mind that sometimes an accidental outcome may be more satisfying than a primary assumption.

Overall, I believe that the topics of Better Live workshops I attended caused shifts in my mindset, showing me that perfect does not always mean the best. This way, I started feeling much freer in my creative practice and gained loads of motivation to undertake experimentation in my future projects.

Well-being may have multiple meanings, depending on the context one allocates it in. However, Jekaterina Rogaten, a Better Lives unit lecturer, emphasized the need for defining it as a positive condition rather than lack of a negative one. Unfortunately, due to the rise in terms of materialistic and individualistic values caused by shifts in the structure of a capitalistic world, achieving this state gradually becomes problematic. This raising issue may be observed in almost all aspects of human life, including fashion. 

Within positive psychology, hedonic (subjective) and eudaimonic (psychological) well-being are differentiated (Estes and McMahan, 2010). Second of them consists of personal attributes such as self-acceptance, growth, purpose, skills, autonomy and relations. Due to its universality, it may be widely applied within the fashion industry, affecting both its consumption and production counterparts. 

Today’s consumerist society is often based on a wrong view that more equals better. Thus, the customers create high demand and companies make their efforts to produce overwhelming amounts of items to fulfil those needs. In terms of clothing, those products are then sold in high street stores with a full range shifting from season to season. However, according to researchers, this process has a negative effect on buyers: a wider choice equals harder decision-making process and reduced satisfaction with a final choice (Lepper and Yengar, 2000). Because of this, I believe that migration towards slow fashion should take place. This way, the concept of sustainability is fulfiled by reducing the number of garments produced. Simultaneously, the well-being of customers is enhanced by the establishment of a sense of dialogue with a designer as well as obtaining the feeling of clear purpose.

Well-being should also be elevated among fashion industry employees. A research conducted by Meyer (2007) compared this feature among professional models and non-models. The results showed that professionals characterized in lower need satisfaction and well-being but greater personality maladjustments, what was explained as a result of unfulfilled basic needs. It reminded me of the observations I have made while volunteering on Fashion Week. Even though officially the underweight models are banned from taking part, most of the girls involved were very skinny. In addition to their young age and restless lifestyle, it created an image of heavily affected beings. This observation influenced me strongly, causing frustration but also inspiring to take action upon inclusivity. Therefore, I decided upon incorporating a wider range of models’ sizes in each of my upcoming projects.

The most influential part of Rogaten’s lecture was how calm yet confident call for action it involved. Jekaterina demonstrated how fashion and well-being may correlate, impacting each human being. It means that every one of us, from a young lady doing her weekly fast fashion shopping at Primark to billion-dollar companies greenwashing their harmful actions, needs to step forward and have their day in the fight for better tomorrow.

References

Iyengar, S. and Lepper, M., 2000. When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), pp.995-1006.

McMahan, E. and Estes, D., 2010. Hedonic Versus Eudaimonic Conceptions of Well-being: Evidence of Differential Associations With Self-reported Well-being. Social Indicators Research, 103(1), pp.93-108.

Meyer, B., Enström, M., Harstveit, M., Bowles, D. and Beevers, C., 2007. Happiness and despair on the catwalk: Need satisfaction, well-being, and personality adjustment among fashion models. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2(1), pp.2-17.

Rogaten, J., 2020. Well-Being.