Alicia Yee

After reading many different Better Lives blog posts, I have chosen to peer review Nicole Banke’s reflection on the Better Lives themes. I chose this blog post in particular to reflect on as I thought this was extremely engaging and informative. I admire and appreciate that she understands the importance and relevance of herself as an individual in the fashion industry in the beginning, as she states that she has a voice that can be able to influence the industry in a positive way, hopefully pushing it in the right direction. Nicole uses many examples of real-life scenarios in fashion to evidence her points, adding a very informative touch to her reflection and therefore showing knowledge and understanding towards the topics. She adds that the fashion industry has a long way to go in terms of the three Better Lives themes, and also points out that her career path (PR) will help her to hopefully strive in creating a healthier and more acceptable environment for the fashion industry by working with brands that affiliate and reflect the same values as her.  Nicole furthermore demonstrates a range of understanding through her statements and includes detailed analysis’ of each of the Better Lives themes’ influence and progress (if any) in fashion. For diversity, Nicole states that it is incredibly important for brands to have a focus on the diversity of the human population, specifically race and culture. She also states that every brand has a social responsibility as they have a base of customers that respond to them, therefore the image of a brand is crucial as consumers that are willing to support these same values, reflecting this back to society. She then states that sustainability is crucial for every fashion brand to take into consideration due to the massive impact that fashion has on the environment. On the topic of sustainability, Nicole claims that we the consumers are the ones that are truly responsible for the negative impact on the environment, as we are the ones choosing to purchase items that have left a carbon footprint through their process. She uses the current condition of the industry (and the effect of Covid-19) as an example on the negative impact, affirming that because many brands have had to pause or completely shut down production, the overall effect on the environment has been positive.  

Although this is an amazing reflection, I would have liked to have read more on her own stance on the themes and her own opinions on how the industry will be in the future, and what methods she thinks will tackle these ongoing problems. As well as this, I would have also liked to see more of an understanding of the Better Lives themes by clearly stating what those topics mean in the fashion industry, as they can have different definitions depending on the circumstances.  

Ultimately, Nicole’s ability to reflect and refer to evidence was what gravitated me towards her blog post as I was intrigued and interested. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this reflection on the three themes of Better Lives.

For my better lives project, I chose the course make-up breakdown. The course consisted of learning different makeup techniques for fashion that are outside of the box and creative. One theme that I think will be useful for me in the future is the theme of imperfection and what it means exactly. Lots of what constructs our views of what is perfect and/or imperfect is society. Whether we like to admit it or not, society does in some way or another, determine how we view ourselves and others. My project outcome was based on this theme, alongside an incorporation of colour theory. For me, this course was a big step out of my comfort zone, as I am not the most creative person and have very minimal makeup skills. It was something that would challenge me and force me to push myself in order to better my creativity and practical skills. Over the course of the few weeks that I was able to take this subject, I learnt so much about professional makeup for fashion. My expectations were exceeded as I thought we would only be learning basics. From the first lesson, I immediately was intrigued with the detail and thought that is put into the process of working with a client. I was immediately challenged with new tasks and practicals that I never would have thought existed prior to taking the course. I understood the concepts behind the practicality, however when it came to physically applying them, I was quite challenged. However, I thought of this as positive as I would then be able to achieve something that I wouldn’t have before if I hadn’t chosen to do makeup. Because make-up is practical in itself, I was very much able to push my own creativity on to my work, however I really strived for purpose in my project outcome. While brainstorming, I initially found it quite challenging to come up with an overall look that had meaning while also looking presentable. One of the themes I learnt through this course was that make-up doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘pretty’, because there is no such thing and the idea of perfection is merely a social construct. However, I still wanted the look to make some sense and have a purpose. As previously stated, I believe that being creative and out of the box is something that is not my strength, therefore for this final project I was able to push myself. At the end of producing my final project outcome, I was quite proud of myself especially when looking back at everything I had learnt and constructed. Although my skills in this subject are still merely beginners level, I do think that I have somewhat emerged with a more creative set of thinking. Because of this course, I will now look at makeup differently. Make-up breakdown made me understand the complication and art that is put into every single look seen in fashion. In a way, there is a story to tell through makeup, as there is a large amount of thought put into it. 

The three main themes of Better Lives consist of Sustainability, Diversity and Social Responsibility. Throughout my practice over the 6 weeks of this course, my main goal was to implement and consistently think about these themes and somehow integrate them into my work, both for my better lives project and hopefully for the future in PR. The three themes itself can be somewhat broad, as there is so much to delve into when thinking about them in terms of the fashion industry. Firstly, to really understand these themes I watched the lectures provided and did research to deconstruct the meaning and purpose of them in the industry. Sustainability is obviously an ongoing topic that is frequently discussed in terms of fashion. It is no secret that there is such argument that fashion is incredibly effective on sustainability. For example, mass productions of clothing and fashion weeks create a huge carbon footprint, not to mention a huge amount of pollution. Diversity in the fashion world is also something that is widely considered, with many different brands struggling to find a real differentiation from themselves to others, losing out on hype and consumers because they bring nothing new to the table. Lastly, social responsibility. In my field of study (PR), social responsibility is a theme that is constantly appearing. What do brands have to offer to society? Is there a purpose for them? Do they have social responsibility? Another big part of the theme social responsibility is cancel culture. Many brands often deal with huge backlash due to this newfound ‘culture’ and end up losing out on many opportunities to grow.  

As a fashion public relations student, my response to these themes can be defined through the subject itself. Public relations is all about communicating a message and to tell a story. This can be directly related to the Better Lives themes, social responsibility in particular. In PR, to be able to stand out as a brand is to strive for something that is rooted in a brand’s identity. This is where social responsibility can come into play. For all these themes, the role of PR is crucial in communicating how a brand can stand out amongst the rest. It is about analyzing the diversity of different sectors in the fashion market. To be a successful brand in today’s society, there also has to be an element of sustainability, as environmental topics such as climate change can affect a consumer’s opinion. Recently, protests such as Extinction Rebellion have gotten popular, putting pressure on the fashion industry to introduce and practice more sustainable and ethical approaches. With more ethical issues in fashion becoming bigger and more talked about, it is important that I use my given platform to work with brands that are conscious of their social standpoint and impact. I will strive to do this as my job subject has the power of influence over consumers, who are a big part of society. PR’s can push consumers in the right direction socially, overall encouraging the consensus to truly think about what they’re purchasing and therefore choosing to support.  

Out of all of the lectures I attended, my favourite was Katelyn Toth-Fejel’s society talk. I believe that I enjoyed this one the most due to having pure interest in the topic. I thought that the lecture was very informative throughout and interesting. I was able to gain insightful information about the society of fashion. A summary of what I learnt is as follows: The term ‘society’ can be defined by shared interests, shared memberships, and shared cultural values and understandings by a group of people. Everything we do, say and feel can be shaped by our interactions in society. It can be argued that to dress is to perform a social act. By dressing, we are creating and expressing our own individual identity. Additionally, by dressing, we are also communicating our aesthetic taste, beauty, sex appeal, wealth, status and social groups (modesties, religions, ceremonies, rituals). Fashion itself can be defined as a society. The fashion industry as a society has many aspects that are considered unethical. Examples can be fair wages, safe working environments, access to education, equal opportunities, and economic models. However, with all of these taken into consideration, the most talked-about issue with fashion now is ethical clothing.  A topic that is most relevant to this is fast fashion. Fast fashion is essentially inexpensive clothing rapidly produced by mass market retailers at a short expensive. It is incredibly popular with brands turning into franchises due to their successes such as H&M, Primark and Uniqlo. People are more likely to buy from fast fashion brands due to its convenience such as increased access to cheap clothing for consumers. However, fast fashion is deemed unethical today due to its promotion of ‘throwaway clothing culture’ and its exploitation of underpaid workers. Furthermore, there are negative environmental impacts from increased resource use, creating more pollution. Due to these reasons, fast fashion is problematic to today’s society. Katelyn however, mentioned there were strategies that we as a society can use to combat disposable fashion, such as using apps like Depop and Instagram to share, borrow, or swap clothes through second hand selling. She states that brands should focus on creating an ‘experience’ for consumers, for example, by getting audiences excited through the making process. Without these such methods, there will be no ‘hype’ surrounding brands. Hype can be a good way to diffuse disposable fashion, as consumers can be attracted to options other than cheap, affordable fasion. All in all this was a fantastic lecture and extremely informative.