Salome Ceriani

To conclude the Better Lives project we were asked to review one of our peer’s blog posts. One that caught my eye was Kun’s first blog post, which reflected as mine on Kate Fletcher’s lecture on Nature. Reading someone else’s opinion and thoughts on a common theme were really engaging.

Kun started her post, reflecting on how our desire as consumers to continuously have a new dress, is not only ruining the environment but is also making us forget how truly important nature is. Her opening was thoughtful and deep. From the beginning, it’s clear that she has connected with the themes of the Better Lives unit and made them her own.

The lecture by Kate Fletcher made her more aware of the current problem of Sustainability and how Fashion is also responsible. Being she a Fashion Styling and Production student, she is conscious that her chosen studies will lead to a career full of innovation and creativity. As a stylist, you can express through clothes ideas and opinions. During the lecture she realised that this can be a double-edged sword: the things she creates could potentially cause harm to Nature, and Kun now feels the pressure of it. But as Kate Fletcher explained, what we do is not only for ourselves but also for nature itself.

I enjoyed the way this blog was written. Although it did not have many paragraphs, and some passages were hard to read through, it contained many well thought arguments and opinions. The example of denim she wrote about was interesting and it suited well her discourse on human impact on nature.  She wrote this blog with a personal touch that was very exciting to see. She analysed first what the problem is with sustainability on a more sociological side, and then she went on to make it her own, connecting it to her course and her sensibility. This blog made me want to reflect more on how I could personally affect the environment both positively and negatively.

 I’ll end this post with a quote from Kun’s post which had an impact on me: ‘In such a fast-changing era, we seem to have forgotten how to slow down and forget the things that are always around us, but we no longer care. Fashion comes from nature. It seems that we only think about how to get those beautiful and fashionable clothes, but we never think about where they will go and what they will become when we discard them one day. We never think about the price of nature and the responsibility we should bear behind the beauty.’

Being a digital native that has always been interested in technology, for the Better Lives unit I chose to undertake the Emerging Technologies in the Fashion Industry project. As a generation, we GenZ always have a smartphone nearby, and we adapt to the newest technologies extremely quickly. This means that the digital world will be the prevailing structure in future society. Learning it’s potential now, that most of the Industry is still reasoning with the physical reality, will enable us to understand how to make the switch in the most ethical and correct way.

During the sessions, we discussed and looked at the most prominent forms of technology currently available but still not used by the mass. Bitcoins, AI and Augmented and Virtual Reality were all innovations which we explored and I was familiar with, but now thanks to the course I have understood how each of them can be used in the Fashion world. As a group, we chose to use technology to tackle the problem of Sustainability, which is one of the Better Lives themes. For most of the technologies presented, we came up with one or more solutions to reduce the Industry’s footprint on the environment. An ecological society based on cryptocurrencies, a VR shopping software that could reduce the stock in stores, and a Software that can predict future consumer consumptions trends to reduce unsold goods. We eventually chose the latter to be our unit outcome.

The trend forecasting app we imagined as a group would analyse consumer researches on the web and social media and understand trend cycles. As a result, brands could understand what patterns and styles would be popular in the next seasons and not overproduce the ones that are not ‘on trend’. Reducing the number of unsold clothes can have a deep impact on landfills and recycling issues. To create the app we created a ‘SWOT’ to understand the positive and negative aspects of the project.  This was a new process for me, and I found it very useful for future projects.

This project has been very interesting, as it gave me a broader understanding of the technologies available today and how they could be used. It taught me the importance of analysing a proposal through both the positive and the negative side, which is something I often forget to do. This will allow me to create more effective and engaging campaigns in the next years. Overall I have enjoyed focusing on a more business side of the Fashion Industry, as my major is more Communication-based. Through my university journey, I will implement the skills I have learnt during these months, as I now understand better what a possible future of fashion can be.

The Better Lives unit aim is to bring the student’s attention to some major issues of these times. The themes are Diversity, Social Responsibility and Sustainability. All three topics can and have to be addressed by the fashion community, and as the next generation of creatives, all us students should learn more about them. Understanding what the problem is will enable us to work towards a better society, which will be more aware of the environment and of the people who are discriminated or forgotten.

As a Fashion Pr and Communication student, I know that in the future I’ll be able to influence a group of people through my practice. As magazines, social media and ads can truly shape the perception of beauty, diversity will always be a theme to resonate with. From size to ethnicity to gender, my projects will all have to be inclusive. There is a huge need for a wider representation right now, and Fashion can truly contribute to that. The first important step I think we are already making it by studying in such a varied University. Seeing so many people, all with different backgrounds and tastes makes including someone diverse from ourselves a natural thing. Of course, we are all not alike, but in a sense, we can say that studying at UAL allows us to be inclusive without even thinking about it.

One thing I had never realized before the Better Lives unit is how important fashion can be when talking about Social Responsibility. In my life, I have always done some volunteering work, but it only gave a short term benefit to the people I was assisting. None of what I was doing could potentially improve in the long run someone’s life. And it was enlightening to realize that the subject I am studying, in the future, could change the reality of a lesser fortunate person. Many brands such as Toms are already doing it, and supporting them will probably send a message to other labels to follow their example.

Apart from Diversity and Social Responsibility, what this unit made me reflect on is Sustainability. Through the lectures and the ‘Emerging Technologies’ course, I’ve realized that there are so many ways for Fashion to cause less damage. And this for me is exciting because it allows my generation to revolutionize the way we think in each of the Industry’s sector. From stores to shows, technology will give us new means to not only be sustainable but also creative. From never-seen-before textiles made from waste to a digital fashion week that no longer has to follow the rules of gravity, the next five years will be a turning point. In my future works, I want to explore the potential of technology and how it can be implemented in a short time to reduce our impact on nature.
I believe this unit was essential to reflect on these themes that often get overlooked.

Every day we hear the word sustainability through news, protests and articles on the internet. The entire population knows about the effects of climate change or is suffering them. But yet there is a lot of struggle in changing our mindsets and actions.
Sustainable thinking is our last resources to save the Planet in the most effective way possible. And it’s also simpler than what most people believe.

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This is how the Brundtland Report (1987) defined what modern society should be like.
If there is a need to cut a tree to make a notebook, then there is also the need to plant a tree to maintain a balance.

The lecture held by Kate Fletcher at LCF in February 2020, was extremely mind-opening and abundant with examples that show how, as humans, we broke our equilibrium with the Earth.
One of them was the story of Rapa Nui or Easter Island. Rapa Nui is an extremely small island 2000 miles away from the coasts of South America, mainly known for its statues named Moai. It’s believed that they were made as part of a very intricate spiritual practice that each family did. But as each family did competitively build bigger and heavier sculptures to assert dominance, those were harder and harder to carry to their final destination. As they cut down the trees to allow for an easier way to transport the figures, the soil started to blow away as there were no more roots to hold it. And as the last tree disappeared, the Island started suffering from a long period of starvation, where from 15,000 people that inhabited Rapa Nui, only 750 survived.
The history of Easter Island really made me reflect on how much we need a healthy ecosystem to survive. Overconsuming the available resources will not be sustainable in the long run, and as we are finishing them, we truly need to reorganize the system in which we live in. And as a young fashion PR student, I feel deeply involved in this. As my course is focused on learning how to communicate, I will have the power to share with a large audience a new way of thinking through Fashion. Clothes right now are very polluting, and brands should focus on more ethically sourced fabrics and highly technological fibres. Technology is going to be the main source of innovation in the next years. This September the Industry will see the first digital Fashion Week, and it could really be the future. Diminishing the footprint during Fashion Month(s) could be the first step into a new more sustainable Fashion industry. Sector by sector, in the next few years we’ll see a true ecological revolution, that could potentially change our lives.