Charlotte Lee

Reflecting on the Better Lives lectures and beginning my practice on the ‘In and outside of fashion: Sportswear Fashion language and sub-cultures’ project, I have naturally begun to consider how sustainability, diversity and social responsibility play a detrimental part in anyone’s practice within the fashion industry. It is fair to say that the fashion industry has its flaws, but this is no surprise and together, with focused teaching on these issues, I believe the next generation of fashion creatives will be a lot more aware and considerate- maybe even be the ones to champion these issues. 

Styling is a visual and creative practice where the stylist acts as a storyteller, who is trying to communicate a particular message to the consumer solely through a styled look. Alison Lurie describes this process- “by the time we meet and converse we have already spoken to each in an older universal tongue”. Therefore, in reality even though we may not consciously be thinking, about what made us put on our favourite blue jeans with that old Breton tee, automatically by doing so we have constructed a representation of ourselves to the rest of the world and already before we’ve even opened our mouths people are beginning to piece together their own picture of us. This is what makes styling so powerful, as stylists you are able to use this ‘universal tongue’ of dressing to construct a message. Sustainability is far from a taboo in the industry at the moment and styling is a practice that can most definitely advocate this. Stylists can make conscious choices about the pieces they use; this could include working with more ethical and sustainable brands or by using thrifted and second-hand pieces. For example, in our styling masterclass in week 3 of the project we created looks that were an accumulation of all of our clothes- proving that you can achieve an effective styled look from using what you already have in your wardrobe. 

Additionally, stylists act as cultural translators and the way in which they represent models is a key part of their practice. Humans as a race are diverse therefore this needs to be reflected into fashion and in my opinion, styling is an ideal outlet to communicate this. If stylists produced more diverse editorials- diversity would become more apparent in day to day life and in turn more accepted within the fashion industry. For me, this then comes hand in hand with social responsibility, because if stylists were to produce more diverse editorials then they are taking social responsibility for this current lack of diversity and trying to combat it. 

Conclusively, it’s a group effort if we wish to eradicate and improve the industry’s current issues and I personally feel that any person who works within the fashion industry has to be socially responsible for every action and decision they make. Particularly, now in times of hardship where we need to come together, not only in the fashion community but, as a global community these decisions become ever more preeminent. If Louis Vuitton can adapt to making hand sanitisers, I’m sure we can all adapt to this new way of living and in the future be more conscious when we make decisions.

Bibliography:

• BBC News. 2020. Louis Vuitton Owner To Start Making Hand Sanitiser. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51868756> [Accessed 10 April 2020].
• Lurie, A., 1981. Language Of Clothes. New york: Vintage. 

I attended the fashion and well-being lecture on 17^th February, which focused on the general concept of well-being and contextualised its importance in fashion. With the promotion of well-being as the focus of the 2018 Copenhagen Youth Fashion Summit and the estimated worth of the current global wellness market being $4.2 trillion dollars, and growing fast, the concept couldn’t be any more apt. Positive Psychology is the root of well-being and by using psychological theory, research and intervention techniques we can then begin to understand the positive, creative and emotional elements of human behaviour- or in other words one’s well-being. According to Seligman (1992) individuals are no longer passive vessels responding to stimuli, instead they are decision makers with choices and preferences, who control their own well-being- making them subjective. This feeds into the idea that there are two theories of well-being- Hedonic well-being (subjective) and Eudaimonic well-being (psychological). 

Hedonic well-being consists of changing one’s being for the ‘better’. This is done by maximising positive affect, reducing negative affect and generally increasing life satisfaction. The Pleasant Life (PA) model includes this idea of having as many pleasures as possible and in the context of fashion, Hedonic Treadmill theory can be applied- this is the notion that the person needs to keep consuming more and more in order to maintain this same level of happiness. But this provokes the question is more always better? The paradox of choice states maximising choice, maximises freedom but by maximising choice that increases the decision making required to reach a final decision. Therefore, choice then can have a negative effect as it produces paralyses- you may become less happy with the choice made and, in the future, you then have higher and potentially more unrealistic expectations. 

Eudaimonic well-being is the idea that in order to change one’s well-being for the better one needs to seek self-actualisation and cooperate in meaningful experiences that enable personal growth. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be applied here as according to Maslow, we have five categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualisation and in order to progress to the higher needs within the hierarchy one needs to feel they have sufficiently satisfied the previous need. This reiterates the concept that one needs to experience things in order to progress. 

In the context of fashion- fashion has the ability to enhance an individual’s well-being. For example, clothing choices play a pivotal role in identity formation and consumers with stronger materialistic bias use clothing for impression management, to convey success and to receive happiness from it. Additionally, organisations within the fashion industry have the ability to enhance employee’s well-being. This is by allowing creativity and flow which increases motivation and thus positive emotions. Conclusively, from this lecture I learned that well-being plays an important role within day to day life and that an individual can be detrimentally effected if their well-being isn’t fulfilled.