Iwana Cederburg

In fashion activism my group and I were assigned to make a moving image for the brand Emily Bode. We decided that we wanted to make a video that could be published on either the website or social media. We started off by each taking an area of the brand and finding out its aesthetic. My job was to find the aesthetic of the photography and moving imagery Bode had already published.

We all found that they carry a minimalistic, calm and naturalistic vibe. After some brainstorming, we decided to make a short look book video. Unfortunately, lockdown happened before we could execute this, so we were forced to film over zoom.

To make it more interesting I came up with the idea to ad landscapes. The final idea was to each film a landscape and create an outfit to match both the landscape and Bode’s aesthetic. Then film our look book over zoom and put it all together in a minimalistic style. Once all the clips are put together, we decided to add a vintage effect as we felt this matched the brand very well. To tie it all together we found an upbeat but clam song that matched the quick cuts.

As for better lives themes, we interpreted mainly sustainability and diversity. Sustainably through creating outfits from clothing already owned and putting emphasis on the nature and its importance. Diversity by using ourselves as models. In the start I thought we may use a professional model for our film but I am super glad we didn’t as it ads a personal touch to the it.

I am super happy with how the video turned out considering the circumstances. It has a real nostalgic feel and is aesthetically pleasing.  I am super proud that we all put an equal amount of work into it.  Although I was used to working in teams prior to this, the circumstances with Covid-19 created a bit of a challenge. However, we were all super communicative and voiced our ideas openly to get the best result possible.

The main thing I learned from this process is that you can do a lot without even meeting each other. It was a very interesting experience to create a body of work with a team where everyone is in a different time zone and over the internet. I’m glad I got to do it this way though as it taught me a lot about communication and the importance reliability and punctuality. We had a few times where people forgot about meeting resulting in us having to wait a whole day or more due to the difference in time zones. In the end we all managed to pull together and create something we can all be equally proud of. That was one very important thing for me int his project, that we each played in equal role in the production of the video and I believe that was very successful.

Link to video: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/9f02aab6-a5fd-4c4b-a979-a00108f338a2

Since being introduced to the Better Lives themes this unit my outlook on the work I want to produce has already changed. At first, I did not see the purpose of the unit and how it would benefit our studies. But soon realised how crucial it is not only for our studies but for our development into the industry in the future.

The better lives themes have resulted in me exploring further the impacts that the fashion industry has on the environment and our society. I realised too that the focus is so often on the bad impact that the fashion industry has, that all the good is just overlooked. There is no denying it the fashion industry has a lot to fix, but we must also credit those who are already fixing it. There are many brands that are moving to more sustainable production methods and many who are making sure they are inclusive in the models they represent. In terms of models I look up to Savage x Fenti’s casting, they include every colour and body type.

Sustainability was probably the theme I was most involved with prior to this unit. I have always been anti fast fashion and pro second hand. Subsequent to all the lectures however, I found that I am actually a lot most passionate about fair representation and equality, this is not to say that all themes aren’t equally important. The problem of representation and misrepresentation is one that I realised I overlooked quite a lot. It is actually a theme that is especially important for me, being a woman of colour. Even though I did not think much about it before my feelings towards it have escalated quickly and I now have almost a feeling of anger when I see misrepresentation in the industry. This both in the case of the variety of people represented in the media and the credit that people should receive for their work or culture.

As a photography student one of the most obvious ways to help represent is by photographing a range of people not only the once that fall under the mainstream beauty standard. I would love to be able to take this further and also represent these people’s cultures, values and beliefs through my photography.

I never found it important for my work to have a story or a meaning, and to a large degree I still don’t think it necessarily needs to. However, I now feel more motivated to come up with concepts that can help make the industry better.

Overall I am super grateful that we had this opportunity on being educated on all the Better Lives themes. I am certain that they will influence my future practice in a positive way and make me more conscious in my decision making when it comes to putting out work and working with other creatives or brands. Hopefully I can make other people more aware of the changes that are needed in this industry through my work.

Out of all the lectures I attended Teleica Kirkland’s lecture on Representation stood out the most. Representation is an issue I have had interest in for a while, but never took the time to research it further.  The main theme covered was the importance of representing people from a diverse range of backgrounds in the industry. This included everything: gender, sexuality, ethnicities, bodies and colour.

Colourism

The western culture has been prioritised in the media for so long it engraves this idea of “the ideal look” in peoples minds. Among this there is plenty of racist imagery perpetuating stereotypes with people of colour. This can cause non-coloured people to think this way, but members of communities of colour themselves. Leading to situations such as skin bleaching. Which brings me to the issue of anti-blackness which is discrimination within the coloured community. Darker skin (black) is seen as undesirable in contrast to light skin (brown). Even though this has been around for centuries, becoming a global phenomenon during the slave trade, today it is still widely apparent in the media. Most POC represented in the media have lighter skin. This to me promotes that POC are only famous because of their Eurocentric features. 

Cultural Appropriation

One of the most vital subjects in within this lecture was cultural appropriation. The definition of cultural appropriation is the use of one culture’s symbols, artefacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture – regardless of intent, ethics, function, or outcome. Of course, people should be able to get inspiration from designs but not without doing the research. A good example for today is the Kardashian family and their box braids, just like Bo Derek in the 1970’s. These braids are actually called cornrows and are of African descent and they are getting no credit for it. What’s worse is that when a POC wears cornrows they are described as ghetto in comparison to the praise non-coloured people receive.

There is of course also cultural appreciation, a positive issue that is often overlooked due to all the negativity. An example given in the lecture was the Wafrica project by Cameroonian designer Serge Mouangue. He designed Japanese Kimonos with African fabrics but followed respectful representation and showed that he truly understood both cultures.

Thoughts

This lecture has urged me to think deeper about the things I create. Although I already knew the importance of representation, being mixed race myself, I realised too that it can often happen on accident or on a smaller scale. Due to that it is important to always research one’s ideas before one executes them.  It is so easy for cultures to be lost especially as we live in a white supremacist society where most people belonging to that race can get away with more than should be acceptable. Representation matters as it gives the minorities a chance to be heard and respected for what they do. The more it is done, the sooner equality is reached.