Ioana Pop

Throughout this wonderful unit I got the opportunity to spend hours and hours researching and learning about 3 important aspects that hopefully will shape us me as an individual: diversity, social responsibility and sustainability. Doing Fashion Activism my main goal was to learn a little something about Creative Direction and mostly “test” the waters. I wanted to know what it takes to be a creative director, and thanks to Melodie and Carolina, I can say I managed to push my boundaries and achieve some outstanding achievements. My first setback was teamwork since I am such a bossy individual and I usually take the lead without even realising. I was afraid I might end up in a team with people not at all interested and that did not value the importance of this unit the same way I did. I remember the first lecture; I was sitting at a round table next to some girls that were just as excited as I hoped they’d be. Our task was to create a motion picture for our designated brand – Traid. As a student that goes to Lime Grove – we all knew Traid. We were passing by that Shepherd’s Bush store daily, but we had no idea what Traid was all about. They call themselves a sustainable brand that encourages recycling and upcycling, but in my opinion, Traid is so much more. Traid is diverse from the simple fact that in a store you can find more than hundreds of brands, Traid is sustainable and Traid helps the community and encourages everyone to be more aware of the impact of the industry on the environment. After meeting up multiple times, we ended up deciding how important it was to come up with a video that has an impact. We used some interesting techniques that involved a split-screen, grainy effects and we also used some entertaining music.

A charity store encourages real people to be real. At first, we were not pleased with the way the brand was promoted through visuals even though the content was worth reading! That’s why our new Traid was even more real than ever. We went with the “street as your own catwalk” theme, but in our video, we wanted to promote the importance of social awareness regarding the environmental impacts of the industry. As an explanation of the video, we all agreed on the following: At first, we wanted to make a comparison between luxury brands and waste fields to alert how the fashion industry contributes the world pollution. Then, by showing both nature and runways which are both inspired by sustainable clothes, we wanted to emphasize that sustainable fashion could be both sustainable and fashionable. In addition to that, we used a voiceover of Virgil Abloh to emphasize the importance of a change happening now (due to the pandemic). Even though we were looking forward to filming everything, the pandemic had something to say in all this and forced us to use stock videos. Through Zoom videoconferences we decided upon the direction of the movie and the videos just as if we were in a coffee shop in London!  

I have to admit, it was wonderful working with the girls and my team was the definition of “the dream team”. We all had something to say and it was the first time in my whole academic career when I did not feel like I was bossing anyone around! That was such a big development since I always tend to exaggerate and take the lead just because I am not used not to. We all had such valuable skills and those girls managed to make me understand the importance of responsibility. I kept saying throughout my blogs how it’s up to us to make life better, well in this one I feel like I have to say that those girls made my life better – and that’s a start! 

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/3dd3cc18-331a-40da-adcf-b08e99fbf07a?referrer=https:%2F%2Fl.instagram.com%2F – Enjoy our movie the same way we enjoyed creating it!  

References 

Vogue, 2020, Vogue Global Conversations: The Future Of Ecommerce. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luyvh6vPJX4&t=1312s [Accessed 14 April 2020]. 

Before coming to LCF, I was never truly interested in changing the world for the better in terms of Diversity, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability. Now, I feel like whenever we do something, even a small act of throwing away the trash – we must keep this in mind. After this unit, I will even stop buying clothes without meaning, clothes that do not have an impact on society and the surrounding environment. I did Creative Direction and had to work on a brand called Traid. After fully understanding what Traid is all about, I started understanding what life is all about. We need to give and receive, but what happens when we only receive but never give? Ever since I was a little girl, my mom made me give away my old clothes or those I did not wear. I was always proudly selecting which clothes to give away to people that cannot afford them, and which clothes are too bad to give to someone. My mom always took my worn-out clothes to recycling factories and gave away proudly my good ones. To me, it always made sense to give clothes, but I was always under the impression that if I want new ones, I must give up on the old ones. Now I see the point. I have at least 20 T-Shirts in my closet that I don’t even take into consideration when preparing an outfit for the upcoming days. And those are just my T-Shirts. What if some underprivileged girls could get them? Maybe they would start moving the mountains I was too busy moving whilst being concerned about why Miley chose Jesse over Jake. When we buy a garment, we think about what people will say after seeing us wear that particular garment, but who actually thinks about the hard work behind that garment? Who thinks about the underpaid, single mother that had to spend hours and hours on that garment, just to be able to feed her children? Who thinks of the environmental impacts of that garment? Whenever we attend a party, we hope not to see someone wearing the same dress, or shirt, or skirt, or shoes. But has it ever been a concern to anyone why we have this concern? There are at least 5000 other dresses like the one we just bought, half of them ending in landfill – yet we only hope not to see someone looking better wearing it than we do. Change must start within. To have a better future for us, change must happen. Probably after the crisis, the world will reset, and we will all have a new approach to how fashion must look like in terms of diversity, social responsibility, and sustainability. That’s why after this unit I made a promise to myself. From now on, everything I buy will have a meaning, and so I might even start being a better PR, and human altogether. Maybe so I could actually help change this life for the better.

Throughout my tumultuous life, one question has constantly bothered me: Who owns the power? Hearing Julia Crew asking this exact question convinced me that her lecture will be of a high impact on me. Maybe it’s a harsh thing to admit, but as a go-getter, carrier-oriented, ambitious girl – I’ve always dreamt of at least being in that power-owning small exclusive circle. Here is actually why I came to LCF, but never in a million years have I expected to become this human-rights activist.

But does power really matter, or is it just a means of making something credible? As a Public Relations and Communications student, I need to know what’s “on” now, and what is the most talked-about thing that eventually will be, as Julia said, either even cooler in 10 years or completely forgotten. I have realised that now I need to incorporate in all the upcoming narratives that I will build a sense of social responsibility. Making people aware of the impact their actions have on the society, and ultimately on our planet. Are Influencers used in the right way? How come the only thing that makes an influencer cool is the multiple outfits they showcase? As said during the lecture “The influencer economy of Instagram alone is valued at $1 billion and 94% of businesses said influencer marketing was an effective campaign strategy”, so why can’t we use those influencers to change mentalities and attitudes?

Yes, sometimes we are not even aware of the real message of an advert – and that means one single thing, the lack of education and clear communication. We as humans cannot expect everyone around us to share our views towards an advert because that’s what makes sense to us. People need to understand that what is normal to them will probably never be to someone else – and that is ok. We should stop playing psychological games on our consumers and make our goals crystal clear. Since fashion has been a medium to visually communicate power for centuries – we can use that power, just like many other brands such as Les Recuperables, Nudie Jeans, Olderbrother, and many more to communicate clear messages regarding why sustainability is crucial these days, or even why being aware of what your clothes are made out of could change how our world would look like in 50 years.

Let’s use the power we have to make life better.

References

Crew, J. (2020) ‘ POWER’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 10 February.