Yee Ling Choi

by Iris Choi

After reading some of the reflection from other students, I decided to review on Maja Majchrzak blog.

  Maja is a student from Styling and Production and her project in Better Lives is Make Up Break Down. As I am in the sportwear styling project. I can tell how much makeup could affect the vibe the outfit brings out. The title “ Make Up Break down” attracted me. Maja explained it is not only about basics makeup which fits the majority of beauty standard. It is about creating the look with a lot of creativity and imagination from scratch.

  Maja final outcome of the project is to create a look based on the theme she decided which is ‘Imperfection’. I like that she was inspired by her own personal experience. She included her story of building her confidence and rip of the tag that the society gave her. Such as ‘bad skin’ and ‘bushy eyebrows. It is true that everyone are desired to look perfect and scared to be judged. In her final look, she put colorful patches on the skin to present the beauty she found in a kind of skin condition—vitiligo. It is known that there are some celebrity have vitiligo such as South African actress Leleti Khumalo, model Winnie Harlow and Enam Heikeens Honya.

  After reading her blog, I feel positive towards vitiligo and any skin imperfection. I believed that no one is perfect and everyone has their own beauty. We should embrace the diversity in the society. Beauty does not have a standard. More personal characteristics makes the world more beautiful and interesting. It is worth to explore more types of beauty.

  As a Creative Direction student, I think it is my responsibility to send the message of being inclusive are important to pursue a better lives. And show people that it is not ashamed to be yourself and to take pride in. I hope to create a series of editorial named ‘beauty standard’. From my point of view, anyone could be the beauty standard if they are confidence and have a kind heart. Beauty for me, it is not only about the appearance, it is important of the soul and mind. I will invite different race, gender, class etc.. people to come into my camera and tell us their story. I hope to give out positive energy.

by Iris Choi

  I am in the project of sportwear fashion language and sub-cultures scheme of work and resources. In the masterclass, we were given a lot of knowledge of sportwear history and how the place of it changes in people’s life through times.

  In one of the masterclass, we were asked to discus in groups and pick a cultures to reflect on. In my group, we picked punk as our focused culture. We draw a mind map include all the key words that we could think of about punk. For examples, 1970’s, hip hop, Green Day, ripped jeans, black flag, seditionaries and heavy mental etc.. We shared our own feeling towards punk culture and discussed about how it may affect the popularity of the sportwear trend. In my opinion, I think that punk culture represent fearless and breaking the rules. It is so cool and attractive for young people. And it is like sportwear. From Boomers to the middle  of Gen Y, sportwear are only allowed to wear during exercising stick to the rule. Somehow I think that the appearance of punk culture encouraged people to wear what they want in daily life.

  In another master class, we were asked to create two full body styled sport wear looks with our groupmates using the garments and cosmetic we brought. We created 5 looks in total. We mix and match pieces of sportwear with some formal garments such as a suit. In that look we also styled a sweat short outside a jumpsuit. We stuffed in some fabric inside the garments such as a jogger pants. We deconstructed the sportwear body in order to make changes to the silhouettes and shapes. We followed one rule to create cohesive looks is by using colors. Using contrast colors or approximate color. In the aspect of styling, matching contrast colors garments brings out a more bold, eye catching vibe. In opposite, style with similar color brings out a vibe of harmony.

In this project, I was inspired by the class. I think that sportwear can be formal and interesting after styled. Our tutor encouraged us a lot to be brave to create quirky shape of the outfit which open my mind. The effect and result it brought was surprisingly good. The silhouette we created are beautiful in my point of view. And in the process, it was fun to work with my groupmate and experiment with all our crazy ideas. Even though we did not plan so much before we do this quick photoshoot. We almost do it freestyle, putting garments on which seem not so cohesive and putting accessorize and face paint on face. This project taught me that do not be scared to implement ideas that I think it is crazy as a creative director.

 

        

by Iris Choi

I realized that I never truly understand the themes of better lives project will affect on fashion which is sustainability, social responsibility and diversity before weeks of studying better lives project.

  After reflected from some of the lectures that I watched such as culture, technologies in fashion, empathy, collaboration etc. I renew my mind of how the better lives themes will change how I worked in the future.  In my opinion I think that the themes are linked. Pursuing a sustainable future is what all human being focusing on. To have a better lives, fashion is obvious a huge part. As people are more likely to pursue a better lives quality.

  Technological and organizational innovation produced increased output and reduced cost of clothing. The amount of fashion items especially fast fashion garments we buy increased. ‘According to my research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry produces 53 million tons of products every year, but 73% is either incinerated or ends up as landfill.’ (It is often the small, ingenious efforts that change the world, 2018)

This is a serious problem that it may affect a lot of aspect such as air and water pollution, lack of land etc.. Advertisement, influencer, printed or non-printed interface imbue the society with consumerism without sense. In the long run, if we do not make changes to our lifestyle, irreversible damage will occur.

    Perfect face and body models are the majority on fashion covers. This become a standard of beauty in the society. People blindly pursue one kind of body shape unconditionally. People may do things to affect their health such as losing weight by taking illegal pills. Body shaming become a serious problem. Our society is not inclusive enough.

  It is our social responsibility to maintain sustainable lifestyle and to embrace diversity of the society. I would like to stop consuming fast fashion brand products and support sustainable minority brand. Decreased the frequency of consuming. As a creative director, I would hope to raise public awareness of the environmental problem that the fashion industry are causing. And I will send out the message of “Repair, Rewear, Relove” our fashion products. To fit in Gen Z, I like to start a online challenge, swapping clothes with neighbor and create new style clothing using our old unwanted garments.

  I believed that there are more than one kind of beauty in the world. Looking forward to a brighter and harmonic world, we need to include diversity of the society. From printed to digital world, I want to include different beauty of people on fashion advertisements such as different race, size, sexual orientation and class etc.. I believed that all human are the community of life so that we should treat each other and our mother planet better to obtain a better lives.

Reference:

1. IT’S NOT JUST A ZIP | YKK fastening.com. 2018. It Is Often The Small, Ingenious Efforts That Change The World.

[online]

Available at: <https://www.ykkfastening.com/itsnotjustazip/vol02/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=itsnotjustazip_vol02_A> [Accessed 1 May 2020].

by Iris Choi

  The Better Lives lectures that I attended was absolutely inspiring . I reflect a lot on how the fashion relate to the society.  The lectures that made me reflect the most was about emerging technologies in fashion by Nick Almond.

  Everyone are likely to forecasting the next popular trend in fashion or even creating it with the help of developing technology. Technology advanced capability. People are able to turn the realization of knowledge into action in the digital word. Based on Theory of Bounded Rationality(Gigerenzer,2002). It tell us that people can only make decisions based on what they know. For example, the digital camera inventor Steven Sasson was working as an engineer at Eastman Kodak. However, the invention of smart phone start replacing digital camera in most of the people’s heart.

  Another interesting technology mentioned in Nick’s lecture was the Artificial Intelligence(AI). AI have been rising and developing in the recent years. It works as a pattern seekers who look for a positive outcomes. Compared with human, it is able to tries countless time to find the best way without sleeping and its genuinely creative. So how does it affect the fashion industry? The X Reality(XR) is the group of technologies that include virtual reality(VR), mixed reality(MR) and augmented reality (AR). With the use of XR , there are AI stylists to assist people to find their style which fit them.  It allows designer to create digital clothing and allow people to try it on’ before its even made. It also allows consumer to have a immersive experience through visiting a store with the environment of places that never exit. And more digital influencers will appear. These are technological singularity.

  The use of new technology in fashion makes me reflect on the lecture about culture sustainability by Anna Fitzpatrick. Consumerism culture is mainstreaming in most of the western country.  As the technological and organizational innovation produced increased output and reduced costs. Mainstream brands can easily produce massive amount of garments and encouraged people to buy more. People believed that they shop therefore they are. Both material and non-material culture can be express by fashion. A lot of traditional handy crafted skills was fading away. With the help of AI, can the situation be reverse? How can handy crafted skills be sustainable in the digital world? Maybe consumer can try on some handy crafted fashion items or experience of some traditional cultural performance even they don’t have to step out of their house.

  I believe that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Fashion is made from nature. The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level is more important right now. Hopefully, emerging technologies in fashion can help human can have a better live.