Phoonyaras Nunackkarasooth

In the blog post I’ve chosen to review, Alicia has reflected on the themes sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. She has shown that she understands all three themes quite thoroughly as she made clear links to real life situations that are currently happening in the world.

In terms of sustainability, Alicia has shown that it is a theme that is currently very important to the fashion industry and how it functions as of late. This is something that I heavily agree with because of how affected fashion is by the environmental and ethical problems going on at the moment. Her references to carbon footprint and mass production definitely reflects on her understanding as a fashion student. I would’ve mentioned this as an example as well when making connections to my own thoughts on sustainability. Diversity is also another theme that she reflected quite well on, as I see that she’s made the connection between fashion brands and how they can incorporate diversity on their marketing projects. However, if she were to add more examples, it would make her explanations more clear and further explain her knowledge. I also really liked how she used the theme social responsibility to identify with the course she’s currently studying; fashion PR and communications. It really shows that she’s making good connections between what she has learnt in her own course and the themes that shes explored in the Better Lives unit. I like that she has stated questions to add clarification to her understanding which makes it easier for me to understand that her course has given her context on social responsibility as an important theme for fashion brands aiming for good marketing and promotion. Her statement on cancel culture is also very important to point out because it is something that has just been widely used by the public lately. That is, I think, something important to discuss, so delving into that, again just as example, would be something that would support her arguments even better. 

To wrap things up, Alicia drew back to her course again and made relevant connections to the themes as seen from this statement: “As a fashion public relations student, my response to these themes can be defined through the subject itself”. She explains that the roles of a PR includes assimilating the given themes to better promote and advertise brands and communicate the brands goals to their audience. This is something I’ve discovered to be true during my studies in the messaging fashion group as well. She then talks about her goals in the future as a PR and describes how she will use these new sets of skills and knowledge to influence customers or just society as a whole. This definitely shows Alicia’s improvement/development as a student in LCF and her commitment to strive in the fashion industry. I think with the work being put out and the arguments in her blog posts – she will indeed become successful with her work in the future.

As I attended the Better Lives lectures for fashion PR and communications, I’ve picked up many interesting knowledge along the way. The lectures taught me how to plan campaigns and promote specific brands in a way that is suitable for their target audience. I was put into groups of four and was given a task that allowed me to explore the many ways to produce an effective campaign. The main aim of the project was to find a charity and cause for the brand a suitable influencer that will benefit the brands popularity and make it stand out to customers that the founders initially want to target. 

I have work experience in terms of PR, therefore I do have basic knowledge on campaigns and its components, but working on this project helped me dive into campaigns in a more complex and specific manner. Doing this project make me realize that PRs actually do a lot more research than I anticipated. This includes the context of several factors in the campaign such as influencers, charity and the brand history itself. I found myself spending several days doing research on my given brand, including how the founders started it and the details of its collection. This was because I needed to pinpoint a specific target audience – making a consumer moodboard was also another task that gave me new knowledge on PR. I discovered that identifying target consumers are more than just a few general words to describe individuals who would buy the brands products,  it is identifying who the customers are as a person, where they come from and sometimes even narrowing it down to their social status (including salaries, occupation, etc.). A helpful piece of feedback I’ve gotten from Sophia and Leigh is that in depth research on the influencers background is also essential because it needs to match the reputation of the brand. The influencer needs to have some sort of personal connection to the brands story in order to be a good promotor. Their reputation, characteristic and individual style should also match the brand so that the consumers can see the influencer is authentic to the brand. This made me very aware of how specific PRs have to be with their jobs in order to develop an efficient campaign that will be beneficial for the name they’re representing. 

This not only helped me understand the PR industry a lot better, but gave me a new perspective to look at as a fashion journalist as well. I now see how PRs promote their brand in order to get people talking and the methods that they use in order to persuade audiences that their product is worth consuming. I will try to incorporate this mindset when I write features or news stories about products or brands in the future as I think having different perspectives can add many angles to a writing piece. This is a big personal development for me as a student in LCF.

As part of my learning on the Better Lives unit, I was made aware of the many themes the unit has explored. This included power, sustainability and social responsibility – all of which, I’ve discovered, can relate/connect back to fashion through different perceptions I’ve never actually considered until now. As a student in the BA Fashion Journalism course,  I could heavily relate to these concepts as it is something I believe a good journalist should stand for. These 3 themes/concepts not only allows a journalist in the fashion industry to work better/produce content that can benefit society, but also influencers readers to see through the same lens, thus creating an even bigger impact.

In terms of power, it is important to be aware of power in terms of consumerism and the huge role pricing plays in the fashion industry. In Julia Crew’s lecture, she noted that its a matter of ethicality and morals to weigh and consider whether clothing is just a momentary matter or something we actually need. If we actually think about it, the desire to buy something will pass if we fight the urge to consume products we simply find attractive or products that are trendy so that it will satisfy our needs to fit in/join the bandwagon. We, as consumers, have the power to decide what to do with the money we have. We decide whether we want to spend our money on things that matter/things that don’t. As a fashion journalist, I also have the power to tell people who follow my content what matters and what doesn’t – this will give me the opportunity to not persuade, but get people thinking about what they stand for. This can hopefully shape the way people behave as consumers in society, which might change the way the fashion industry functions, or how some brands choose to produce/sell their products. I personally believe there’s no right or wrong, as different people have their own respected opinions. This, I thinks comes along with the theme of social responsibility because it is up to the responsibility of the people, and their choice as to whether they want to give in to their materialistic needs or not. 

One of the bigger problems in the fashion industry, in my personal opinion, is sustainability. It is mentioned in one of the lectures that many of the sustainability issues come from fast fashion, which is a massive part of the overall fashion industry. Again, bringing awareness to this topic and educating people on this matter will give people the power to decide what to do with their lifestyle; whether to change it, adjust it, or keep it the same way. In my reports or writing in the future, I could incorporate/consider social issues in many of my content to deliver this message in order to leave a social impact. Assimilating these themes into my writing in fashion journalism is something I aim to do as a result of attending lectures in the better lives unit.

Julia Crew’s lecture really opened up my mindset in terms of the ways in which cultural and social aspects has affected fashion. It reminded me that fashion, in a way, is also run by the power of consumption and a lot of other socioeconomic factors. This to me, is very important as a fashion journalist. 

It can be viewed that fashion is powered by the influence of the public and also gives power to the people as well. Once utilized properly, fashion actually can enable us to communicate meaningful messages to the world. By choosing what to wear and considering what we buy, we are able to tackle several social issues that appear in the fashion industry. For example, when purchasing products that are unsustainable or come from unethical labor work, it may be adding on to those issues and can be viewed as a way of supporting the problem. But if we choose to not support these products/brands we are able to stop people from producing them, thus reducing the amount of energy that is being put towards that. 

One issue to that is the trends that are being publicized on social media by celebrities, social influencers and high profile individuals who are being paid to advertise specific brands every single day. This puts pressure on the target audience and makes people want to consume more products, which is why the problem is becoming a never-ending cycle. If we somehow manage to fight back the urge to join the bandwagon and feel accepted by societal norms of always being on trend and catching up to the latest products, we may be one step further to do what’s more ethical for the community. By refusing to support unethical fashion financially, it will be a big step towards ethical fashion. 

This links back the topic of power and how we can use power to empower people to make the right choices in terms of fashion and support brands that are doing things that will make the community a healthier and safer environment to live in. As a journalist, it is important to communicate what is happening around us and the problems that continue to revolve in society, but it is more important to encourage people to take action. By using our voice and urging people to join in, these problems will be a much easier to solve.