Neda Yankova

In this unit we had to try something new, something different, using the knowledge we gathered from the lectures and our master classes. Our attention was drawn to topics such as sustainability, empathy, innovation – things we know exist, we like discussing them, but at the end we fail to exercise them in real life. So what we did now is to experiment and think about these different categories and implement them in our work – our project outcomes and hopefully to continue implementing them throughout our further projects in university and later in life.

My project was “In and outside of fashion: Sportswear. Fashion language and subcultures”. I was not too excited about it, as I never felt good at reusing other peoples work (designs, clothes). I am used to drawing and creating the whole thing all together, I am a Fashion Illustration student, and taking small bits and combining them to do something else felt terrifying. “ How can this match this when neither of the two elements was made for the other from the very beginning?” 

But in the process of reusing old materials, pieces – being sustainable – Firstly, I understood that I do not need to buy new pieces of clothing constantly, for the sake of an outfit, because this outfit already exists in my wardrobe or even the wardrobe of a friend. Secondly, indeed more thought should be put in the whole process of the styling to create something new, from something old, but is only a benefit, as it teaches innovative thinking and out of the box solutions. As Nick said in Lecture three (Emerging Technologies in Fashion) “It is hard to see what is ahead, when you are looking backwards.” – but nobody said you cannot use the past to form the future and this is absolutely true for fashion, as in my opinion nothing goes out of fashion as long as you know how to present it.

Thus sitting at home, because of the lockdown, having just a small amount of my clothes with me, I just decided that I should not fear the outcome. I made one look, having only my clothes for skiing and it did not look spectacular, but I felt satisfied. It turned out that each garment can have its purpose changed at my own whim at any given moment. A certain piece can be a sports bra for one person and a cropped top for another. It turns out everything is perspective and with different people come different perspectives, this is certainly something the fashion industry is aware of, talks a great lot about, but has not yet exercised it in real life, at least not entirely.

All in all what I learned from the lectures and project and hope to continue doing later on is:

1. Being sustainable (reusing) is sometimes more creative than creating from scratch.
2. Respecting others and their work, acknowledging what happens around you, means you will be respected and acknowledged in return.
3. Sometimes working in a group of people from different fields you can create something more, even if it is only an A2 collage.

Sustainability, Diversity, Social Responsibility – we discuss these three topics on a daily basis whether we understand it or not. There are heated debates about climate change, racism, sexism – all kinds of environmental catastrophes and discrimination. But what can we do about it? How can we change the ways we encounter, evaluate and find solutions to such problems? The Better Lives unit was meant to broaden our thinking and perception of these themes and help us think of better solutions as we are the ones who can build a better future.

I have always thought I knew enough about each of the categories, which the lectures covered, but my knowledge was not detailed enough. Thus, I did not particularly learn something brand new, but my views changed a lot.

I started thinking, is it necessary to buy clothes all the time, why not reuse them? I know that I am a consumer and sadly I cannot change this fact, but I can try to avoid constantly buying and looking for new clothes, because this is not only to the detriment of our planet, but to ourselves as well. There are lots of people that are underpaid and abused at their workplace. I do not want to stimulate this no more. Moreover, I do not want to build my identity following fashion trends. I would rather follow myself.

Consequently, sustainability and social responsibility go hand in hand. If we want a better future for our planet, we must allow people to have a better life. This could happen if people are more empathic, understanding towards each other. We are all the same, we all work together inside of this thing called society, we should respect and encourage each other.

To be fair, I was not really keen on changing my surroundings and meeting people from other courses, but during the process I found out that there is nothing scary in doing so. Working in groups (for our projects) to do something as simple as a collage and giving, as well as receiving positive comments, resulted in a simple, yet beautifully done piece of collage. This means that by simply acknowledging others you gain a wonderful experience and you do everything faster and better. The key is to be open and positive.

Then comes diversity, last but not the least. When a person is open-minded and positive, he/she/they can easily come together and implement their differences in their body of work. I learned that by getting in touch with people I can visit every place on Earth – through culture. In my future work I would like to demonstrate to everybody that we now live in a multicultural world. I do not want differences between cultures to be a problem, I want them to be celebrated. I want to re-evaluate where I come from, what am I doing, why am I doing it, and I want to understand where do all of the others come from, what are they doing and why do they do it this way, whether this happens through styling for fashion or illustrating for it. Because only by seeing how people style their clothes and visualise their ideas, I know that many, many things are different and at the same time are perfectly the same.

BL Lecture 11 – Representation, Diversity / Teleica Kirkland

At the beginning of this unit I thought I will reflect on more than one of the lectures and my body of work would be a mixture of what I have understood about them. Later on, however, I found out that maybe my reflection will be much more thorough if I addressed only one of the themes of the lectures. For this very reason I chose to work over Lecture 11 – Representation and Diversity.

As I myself come from a not so big and not so commonly spoken of country (or at least not in a good way), the representation and diversity theme was really interesting for me. I am from Bulgaria and I have seen many fashion shows or photo shoots inspired by my homeland (For example : John Galliano Fall 2010). However, not often do I see any kind of “shout out”. Nobody really knows what is happening over there on the border between Europe and Asia. I am not bitter or angry about it, my sole interest is that people start learning about us and do not only assume. I have heard many times “Aren’t Bulgarians racists?”, “Weren’t you Russian?” and so on. Obviously nowadays people do not ask you “How is it there?”, “Who are you?” etc., but straightforward assume what the answer would be. Experiencing this on an everyday basis, when Teleica Kirkland said “Not talking doesn’t solve anything.” I thought “Yes, it doesn’t and I shouldn’t assume vice versa, that every Westerner thinks Eastern Europeans steal their job, or are racist or can only work as cleaning ladies or plumbers, I should just ask.”

Before this lecture I myself did not really know what cultural appropriation or appreciation meant, I have read and heard of it, even discussed it, but listening to this lecture and understanding it, I found out that it is easy to label different people. For example, black people can be involved only in sports or music, Spanish and Italian can work only in hospitality, Chinese are fit to work only in the fields of science, Eastern Europeans can only work as cleaning ladies or janitors. But this is a fallacy. All people are born with the same capabilities, we all dream, aspire and we all can learn.

It is common knowledge that we learn the fastest through seeing, observing our environment. Our eyes are the primary source of information, words come thereafter. Consequently, when we meet new people we observe their appearance first and then we speak. The first impression of someone is their clothes, the second is their words. It is said that one cannot judge a book by its covers, but we can learn a lot about peoples heritage, culture by only looking at what they wear, which is absolutely spectacular. Fashion is what connects us all, modern one as a matter of fact. In my opinion, it is the main tool, with which we can create bridges between different cultures, as long as we truly appreciate and not judge each other, or do not understand culture and fashion as pure profit.

“Design, fashion is all conversation.” says Telicia Kirkland and she is right. I feel tremendously grateful and happy, that fashion designers and brands find inspiration in Bulgaria, in our many-sided culture. However, I want people to interpret my culture with a deep understanding and not only, because it looks “exotic” or “other-worldly”, just as I will always strive to do with theirs as well. Therefore, what this lecture taught me is that fashion, culture, people, we should talk to them in order to fully understand them, and there is nothing wrong about asking or talking.