Rowan Pacey

Before starting Better Lives, I already had a brief idea of each of the themes; sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. I would like to think that I considered these in some way in my previous works. However, better lives opened my mind to the source of these issues. It taught me that these themes cannot be bettered by one person, let alone someone just starting out in the fashion industry. But instead can be improved many individuals making changes to what they do.

The sustainability theme led me to think about where I have sourced garments within my creative practice. Usually, I will source second hand and sustainable when shopping for myself. However, this may not be the case in my practice. I would typically go for the cheapest/easiest to source, which is almost always fast fashion brands. In my future work I should take more time for myself to source sustainable items. Thinking about how land, water, air and animal is affected if I were to buy or use a product. A point made within the theme was that cultural practises are lost in fast fashion. In the future I will consider the cultural symbolism and construction the items have, and how they would be perceived from a viewer’s perspective. This leads nicely onto the diversity theme.

For generations, the fashion industry has upheld a racist perspective, with a white beauty ideal. In some ways, I think it is strange to be writing about how diversity, everyone is the same regardless of what we look like, or where we are from. Nevertheless, generations previous to me did not have the same mindset. It is up to us to continue to change the racist perspective that has been portrayed in fashion. In order to do this, I think I have to understand that fashion should truly represent human difference, whilst respecting its differentiation. It should not just be a token statement of diversity, but a climate where all types of people feel comfortable within a workspace.

Before the better lives project, I think I underestimated the power of social responsibility within fashion. The whole of the human race bonds through fashion. It connects and influences everybody in different ways. Fashion can make positive changes within communities. I didn’t expect fashion to have the power to do that, before the better lives project. When in reality it is actually quite simple. By working in a creative field, I have the power to influence a positive change within communities.  Being able to use fashion for change is a picture I want to paint within my future work. When creating in the future I will consider where my responsibility lies, who I can help with my work and what influence I am having.

Over the past two weeks, the selection of lectures got me to think about the links between well-being, representation and culture within fashion. Well-being is something I consider on a day-to-day basis, within myself and the people around me. So, it was interesting to see the breakdown of the two types of well-being.

Hedonic well-being is subjective, breaking itself down into life satisfaction and happiness. Eudemonic well-being is psychological, looking at a person’s self-acceptance, personal growth, positive relations, autonomy, purpose in life and environmental mastery.

Originally, I struggled to think about well-being in relation to fashion. That was until Telicia Kirkland’s lecture on representation.

In the beginning of the lecture Telicia drew attention to the predication of monoculturalism of a euro-centric ideal. On account to hundreds of years of imperialism and mass-media, people who don’t have the euro-centric features have to fight for representation. When a person sees their community either not being portrayed or being portrayed in a certain type of way, they start to see themselves as undesirable.

Seeing yourself as undesirable due to the way you look effects every single part of the eudemonic well-being. To break it down; undesirability would make a person struggle with self – acceptance, personal growth, positive relations, autonomy, purpose in life and your own environmental mastery, because you are focused on your ability to match the medias standards, instead of focusing on yourself.

Personally, I find this incredibly unfair and almost inhumane.

The UN’s declaration that every human is born equal is almost impossible due to the wealth gap but should be praised upon in terms of the equal happiness/well-being an individual deserves. I think that once a person understands the power of well-being, they can contribute it to any of the issues raised in any one of the lectures.

All of these issues trying to be solved are just to improve the well-being of any individual. Industry workers should be empathetic towards how their creative choices affects the well-being of others. We are making better lives for everyone who contributes to the fashion industry. To have a better life we have to have a better well–being. Even if a person does not work in the fashion industry, they are still affected by it.

Example issues of sustainability, diversity, social responsibility, emerging technology and AI all have the power to degrade an individual’s well-being.

In my future creative practice, I will be heavily empathetic to the well-being of others. I will consider the impact of fashion industry’s issues on a person’s well-being.