Cimmie Dhanda

My group and I were assigned Traid and started our brand research (aesthetic, ethos and positioning) immediately. I was pleased that we received Traid as a brand as I had already been researching wasted fabric and the contradictions of fast fashion after learning about sustainability in the previous Better Lives lectures.

When I arrived at the first Fashion Activism lecture I was nervous to be assigned into a group with students from different courses as I had only worked amongst peers within the same class since September. However, I found that it made research easier as each person had a different strength causing us to benefit from each others expertise. Traid is a UK charity shop representing sustainability and creativity. From our research we noticed that Traid had effectively communicated their brand ethos and goals but neglected the advertisement of the creative and fashion sector of the brand. We created a shared keynote document to plan the fashion film: 

For the film we wanted to focus primarily on how Traid garments (recycled/charity clothes) can be just as fashionable as garments on the runway. The reason is that we want consumers to be aware of how economical shopping options can follow trends, to reconsider purchasing items from fast fashion stores and understand the harmful impacts fast fashion has to the environment and human well-being. Whilst analysing the Better Lives themes we wanted to incorporate diversity through model casting as inclusivity, race diversity and size diversity should be the standard in fashion. Also, we wanted to film with a grainy, film aesthetic as it is popular/the latest style of film creating immediate attention from the consumers. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic it is unsafe to complete the video-shoot as planned and my group have understandably travelled back to their home countries. At first I was doubtful at how successful our outcome would be but the first online lecture was inspirational through the examples of gifs by Rosanna Webster. We have managed to work together and rethink our ideas via Zoom and have driven to still use the same concept, but instead of creating our own content we sourced stock footage of sustainable fashion shows/catwalks and edited it with clips that connote that luxury brands contribute to the world pollution. Furthermore, we incorporated a voiceover of Virgil Abloh talking on Vogue Global Conversations, he ended the talk saying the pandemic is ‘an aspiring time for us to paint the future’. I believe, he is suggesting that now is our opportunity to change for the better by being more sustainable and diverse within the fashion industry therefore relating to the Better Lives themes. Furthermore, I believe we could have incorporated a clearer message about the environmental and social impacts that the fashion industry is causing.

In conclusion, the themes have helped to develop our projects outcome and aided my personal development. I will develop my creative practice by using second-hand stores to purchase garments for my styling. Also, I will avoid purchasing from fast fashion brands as I am now aware of the poor treatment that the workers receive when making the clothes and how economically unethical the brands are. I am pleased with our outcome because we had overcome the restrictions from the pandemic through great team work creating a moving image that conveys the message we originally planned for Traid; the street is your runway. 

Final Traid Fashion Film: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/3dd3cc18-331a-40da-adcf-b08e99fbf07a?referrer=https:%2F%2Fl.instagram.com%2F

References

Vogue, 2020, Vogue Global Conversations: The Future Of Ecommerce. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luyvh6vPJX4&t=1312s> [Accessed 17 April 2020].

Before I started Better Lives I was aware of the themes sustainability, diversity and social responsibility, but my knowledge was not profound. After attending the lectures at the beginning of the course and the Fashion Activism lectures I have learnt the importance of the themes within the fashion industry. The themes are all individually important, however Better Lives has sparked a passion for sustainability within me. 

The research mentioned in my previous blog post reveals that we as a society dispose vast amounts of clothes every year causing overconsumption in the clothing industry. As an aspiring stylist, I found the facts and numbers astonishing which has influenced me to change my creative practice in the future. Upon further reflection of the theme sustainability, I am determined to re-use and up-cycle materials I have used for photoshoots and, limit my purchases from fast fashion brands such as, Topshop, Pretty Little Thing and Misguided that I would use to style a model. 

Fast fashion is a phrase used by mass-market retailers to describe inexpensive clothing that meets new trends. I believe there are four elements of fast fashion- low quality, rapid production, competitive pricing and trend replication, creating a huge impact on the workers involved in production and the environment. Each year ‘more than 300,000 tonnes of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK’, these garments alone are increasing the carbon footprint by five percent. Not only does fast fashion have a negative impact on the environment but also the garment workers. The people who make fast fashion clothing are underpaid, underfed and pressured because there are no other options. Alternatively, contributing to conscious fashion is sustainable and ethical, reducing the carbon footprint and a movement towards fair labour, lasting clothes and natural materials. It can be done through purchasing from charity shops and ethical brands.

Furthermore, we are currently under uncertain times from Covid-19 but in my opinion it can create a change for better. The fashion industry ran on four seasons per year where designers would work months ahead to plan and predict what the consumers would want for each season. However, the pandemic is a calling to make the industry reconstruct into what it can be for the consumers. Globally, brands are donating to the cause such as, Burberry delivering 100,000 surgical masks to the NHS workers which may have never happened if Covid-19 didn’t occur. If that same approach is alternated to readjust the industry intentions to sustainability, diversity the same way many have responded to the crisis the fashion industry would be able to create a new cycle. 

In conclusion, I will be attentive of how economical my styling choices will be in my everyday life and my upcoming projects.

References

The Times, (2018), ‘Clothes worth £12.5bn are thrown in the bin’, [online] Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clothes-worth-12-5bn-are-thrown-in-bin-b8rqfrcg2 [Accessed 18 Apr, 2020]

Independent, (2020), ‘Coronavirus: How fashion brands are supporting the Covid-19 relief effort’, [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/fashion-beauty/coronavirus-fashion-industry-relief-effort-charities-support-vulnerable-people-a9439516.html [Accessed 18 Apr, 2020]

Attending the Better Lives lectures the past two weeks has taught me information that wouldn’t normally be explained in a fashion school. I have learnt that we are the generation that will change the industry in the future to create improvements in the factors; diversity, sustainability, and social responsibility. Therefore, I wanted to get as much out of it as I could in terms of information and learning, since through our work in fashion we can make a ‘better life’ in these three areas.

The ‘conferences’ that have attracted my attention were the Introduction to Sustainability, Power, Culture and Inclusive fashion where each conference raised some distressing points. From my understanding, sustainability, power, and culture cohere with one another as they all cause social and environmental problems. Having just completed a styling project on sustainability I was quite interested in expanding my theoretical knowledge. The quote that Nina Stevenson shared by Prof. Dilys Williams ‘We need a fashion system that has an ecological heart, a socially conscious mind, a culturally diverse body, and an economy forms the muscle that enables it to move in flow’, made me question the impacts fashion and humans are having on the environment leading me to consider what my values and practices are as a stylist. As I am already exploring my Indian culture within my work I decided to research the global garment recycling capital of the world- Panipat, New Delhi. It is known for the warehouse that recycles textiles where they ‘take in discarded clothes from Western countries and turn them into recycled cloth… heaps of clothes are piled to the ceiling.’ Researching figures and statistics was an eye-opener to see how much waste we all produce, overbuy and dispose of. It has inspired me to create visibility for the issue of overconsumption in the clothing industry through styling and production. To achieve this I need to learn, experience and experiment. It’s hard to think of a solution as there is mass production of clothes globally but instead, we need to turn fashion’s waste back into clothing through up-cycling and recycling- act in a restorative way. Through the lecture ‘Power’ by Julia Crew, I learnt 94% of businesses said influencer marketing on Instagram was an effective campaign strategy. Therefore, designer’s voices can be heard because of the open access and power of social media.

Also, ‘Inclusion’ by Laura Sailsbury educated me that inclusive fashion is clothing that different types of people can use without the need for adaptation or specialised design. Laura used the example of M&S offering an opportunity for disabled children to dress in clothes they wouldn’t have been able to wear because of their disability. Laura made me realise the barriers and issues of inclusive fashion through the way it is marketed as it is towards disabled children suggesting you have to be abnormal to feel normal. It made me question; is an inclusive fashion brand campaign enough to make a brand inclusive? I believe that it is not, it makes a brand inclusive on a surface level but not inclusive- it’s just a marketing tool. To quote Hard Nef, a transgender model ‘Inclusion leads to understanding, demystification, destigmatisation. Fashion has the power to glorify bodies and identities- to include them in a narrative of luxury and beauty’ which I will now consider through my styling and casting models.

To conclude, through the Better Lives lectures I have discovered the different problems in fashion faced by society and the industry. As these lectures have explored different angles of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility raising awareness to our generation so that we can make a change through our practice of work.

References

Stevenson, N (2020) ‘Introduction to Sustainability’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 13 February.

Sailsbury, L (2020) ‘Inclusion’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 12 February.

The Economist, (2017), ‘Panipat, the global centre for recycling textiles, is fading’. [online] Available at: https://www.economist.com/business/2017/09/07/panipat-the-global-centre-for-recycling-textiles-is-fading [Accessed 20 Feb, 2020].