Miriam Appetito

For the last section I decided to peer review Maja Bebber’s work, she gave a really insightful perspective on her project, one which differed completely from mine therefore it caught my attention.  She discussed her collaboration with fashion brand “Lazy Oaf” and mental health project “Time to Change”.  Although our fashion projects differed I found myself relating and understanding to some aspects of her project thanks to my Better Lives knowledge. For example, when she mentioned ‘Lazy Oafs” history as a brand aimed at a specific audience, which she describes as rebellious, non-conforming to the norm, which are ideals which I have studied in my ‘Inside and Outside Fashion’ project as we looked into subculture and what pushes the creation of one, and it usually these ideas of rebellion.  I was extremely interested when she stated that she created gifs for her project because as a journalism student this is quite different from my idea of fashion, as I am more used to writing, exploring through academia and research. Also, I was quite impressed when she mentioned that she created these gifs with the Better Lives themes in mind; sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. The idea that the mental health was fundamental to her is really inspiring as I believe that mental health is pivotal in the world of fashion and should be seen as so. 

Looking at the Better Lives themes I was struck by Julia Crews lecture on power in the field of sustainability. Lecturer Julia Crew argues that it is only the power within society that sustainability can become a reality but also arguing that is one does not take the initiative by themselves this could never grow, she compares power as a whole with power with one. As one and single person, you are the only one with the power to control your thoughts and ideas, you can only move and think for yourself she argues that when a person decides to think more sustainably there is power with that because now can control who to support, where to buy and advocate to for a more sustainable industry.  The fashion industry is one of the biggest culprits in regards to the environmental downfall, therefore as consumers and fashion students there is a power in the roles we play in society, we have the knowledge and the money to choose and advocate for a more sustainable future. Crew also presented the power behind companies and their propaganda in hopes to sway consumers to believe into spending and buying more sustainable products when that is not the reality. The power behind bradding and marketing psychological tricks that are used to deceive the public, also the idea of fast fashion and it toxic concept that everything can be gained with cheapness, quick and ready in the palm of the hand when desired. Just looking through the streets of London one can identify at least one fast fashion retailer, cheap and ready-made clothing is shoved down our throats on a daily basis from what we are surrounded by, this marketing can also be identified virtually with these same companies spending more in advertising to generate more uniquely generated ads to reach a larger and more specified audience. Furthermore, to fully decipher the growth of large industrial companies one to has to first look at demographics and audience, we can see that globalization and industrialization have further propelled these entities from companies to monopolies and this due to the underlining factor that the spending demographic has changed and so has our outlook on clothing and fashion, their functions have managed to shift within our culture by slowly permeating our minds with fashion, through the aforementioned marketing ploys. In conclusion, power is the everything in the fashion industry which money and spending are its fundamental driving force, fashion will always be an industry made for consumers whether it be masqueraded by artistry and haut couture, the only way to get be a sustainable business is though money, and the power will be with who has the most, and who spends it where. 

During my first Better Lives lecture I was introduced to the idea of clothing as a sign system, meaning that clothing has a role in order to structure our society, clothing has a meaning and an agenda thus showing the real value that sign and symbolism are in inferring certain rules and ideals. In the sports-wear culture clothing is seen as a sign of wealth or a status symbol, which is a concept that has permeated throughout history, for example, European royal families used fur as such, and slowly this act has shifted in the world of fashion where athleisure has morphed into the daily clothing of the youth. Another way in which sign systems are prevalent in the fashion industry is when clothing is used to signify a job or a role, a nurse uniform or a police man are all industries in which their clothing has a role integrated with the profession as their attire has a meaning and function behind it, we as a society have adhered to these roles accepted them thus setting them in stone. On the other hand, it could be argued that through clothing as a uniform takes away the humanity behind a profession, creative director Alessandro Michele recently used as inspiration a military uniform for a show, through this it could be deduced that the purpose of that clothing has been stripped and is now a commodity for fashion but is this respectful to the workers? Or is it just art gaining inspiration from the outside world? These questions can also be linked to the idea of fashion gaining inspiration from the outside and taking it inside the industry. Furthermore, the idea of fashion having a negative effect on the outside can be contradict by the concept that uniforms have been created with the idea control in order to regulate and help our society function. Like previously stated doctors and policemen all wear an easily identifiable uniform but is that for us or them? Is this so we can easily identify them or a shield to protect them from us? A uniform can be seen and acknowledged but always removed will this take away the 13 or plus years of knowledge from a doctor though, so are uniform still amicable in are day and age, does everything need to be labelled? Through this understanding it is admissible to argue that a uniform has a higher function that just identifiability, like materials, comfort, and durability a uniform can also be created to help a person in their field of work, to help them navigate their job. Instead, uniforms in environments such as schools might not hold such a function but rather unify and control the situation, this can be seen as a negative as it reduces originality and one’s uniqueness but throughout history we have seen that a uniform will never stay intact with its original purpose as people will always find a way to detached themselves from the crowd.

Throughout my time and learning in my Better Lives project; “Inside and outside of Fashion” I learned about the importance of fashion as a symbol within our society, which is a concept that I have taken with me during my daily life, and thus having a great influence on my thought process in regards to the fashion industry, from high fashion to ready to wear fast fashion retailers. Looking at the highlighted Better Lives themes, sustainability, inclusivity and social responsibility I have been able to connect them with my ordinary life and within my fashion world, making connections with the world that surrounds me. This project was very instrumental to my thought processes as a journalism student, it made me question more and made me seek more information behind some concepts and ideals. For my final project, we were instructed to create to styled looks based on a subculture we had studied.  Upon creating my final project, I was finding it hard to think of subculture that identified me and spoke to me enough to create a look, but I decided to shift my perspective into something more holistic than a tight knight subculture which had rules and restraints even though most subcultures were created as an escapism from the ones we had set in our society. With this mindset, I decided to look at my nationality and my context looking at what was happening around me. I started by looking at Italian fashion and what that means, and saw that most of me and my peers a lot of vintage clothing even though that is not a subculture as there is not much meaning behind that, I found that those clothes came from a very specific time in Italian history, the 60s and 70s, post war, in which the country was finding itself whilst having to combat recession and depression, but still having an economic and cultural boom. In this era is where a lot of what people see as staple Italian was created, fashion houses in Milan were starting to take off, films by movie directors like Sergio Leone were becoming popular thus the aura and an illusionary image was starting to grow around the country even though it was still in turmoil, having inside terrorism and political divisiveness.  Through this I started to look at the style and fashion of the older Italian generation. 

For my styled look, I was inspired by the older generation in my country. To into more detail I was specifically looking at the “old grandpa” style that is now becoming a trend as vintage. I wanted to pay an homage to the clothing and senior citizens in Italy during a time where their survival is not a guarantee, as they’ve given us so much about culture, style and fashion. So much of Italy’s culture was created throughout their lifetimes is still recognised for their creations, therefore I believe as a youth we owe it to them to recognize what they’ve given as a nation. To create this look I decided to an oversized checker male blazer and a white bandeau top to completely place the attention on the blazer. The blazer represents this older generation also the beige, all colours that we use to associate with them as well as they don’t tend to use bright colours because of their ideals on vulgarity and being extra, also may represent this unspoken part of Italian society; the judgement, in Italy it is taught that do not be vulgar, do not attract attention to yourself, respecting yourself and god. Such ideals that this older generation holds, an ideal that my generation is constantly fighting against at dinner tables or protests are comments we will once miss when they’re gone. For the bottoms, I decided to wear some puma sports shorts to again represent this moving of time. It could be argued that the shorts are a sense of realism from the actual outfit as a lot of people would mix a classic formal item like a blazer with a sportswear piece