Helen Sheppard

In my chosen better lives specialism (fashion activism ) our project was to create a GIFF or short video on our chosen brand. Our brand was Emily Bode, our group really liked her aesthetic and her whole brand concept. We as a group thought that her brand relates to the better lives theme very well. However sustainability was the key one. We had many plans before the pandemic to film at a  studio with diverse models and country items to give a rustic feel, we were also going to take short video clips of our models on a farm somewhere out of London with a retro camera so it had a vintage feel. When we had this idea, we were very inspired by Emily bodes clothing and some of her campaigns. In these campaigns most of her models have bare feet and in rustic, earthy and natural areas. These ideas where more aimed at the theme of diversity within better lives.

However due to the pandemic those ideas where no longer feasible. So we started expressing our ideas together about how we could change our video and make it more achievable, considering we are all not in one area and sticking to the lockdown guidelines. We all concluded that we were going to film nature and wild animals. This concept was more aimed at stainability. I think that this fits in well with our project focus of Emily Bode, as she had farm animals in some or her shoots and I think that her brand really does portray a natural and peaceful atmosphere, as she upcycles a variety of clothing items. I feel we have successfully created this in the video. We decided to make our video for an Instagram advertisement therefore we created a square format video, as we thought social media is a massive platform and we think it would be the best for our video.

I think that my group team work and commutation was very good as we all set a deadline to film our induvial clips and get them sent to one of our team members who knew how to edit and combine  the clips to make our video, I think that the editing made our individual clips link in together well and look professional and I think it would definitely catch the audience’s attention. As we all kept in contact and made sure we all understood the task to ensure it was completed to the best of our abilities, this made getting across our ideas for the concept easy and worked effectively.

Overall, I am happy with my final better lives video as I think that it is everything my team could have imaged and I think its defiantly does show the better lives themes well. The editing and combining of the clips was better than I imaged, which I will have to learn how to create this my self for the future.

Link of video below Bode in nature:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/3edc81f2-daef-49d0-909e-65f60cfe22ec?channelId=490f8d2f-85d4-4daa-9b6d-cdc70dfe01c6

I have found my chosen better lives lectures which is about fashion activism very informative and interesting. I think that I have learnt a lot from these lectures and it has taught me to think more about creative direction, when creating projects, and to look at the deeper meanings of such things as advertising in giff and promotional videos , and why they have chosen to use certain colours, text and sounds to trigger different moods and feelings.

My lectors in my chosen subject were very good at keeping everyone interested and focused. I found that all the visual resources that they showed us really did expanded my knowledge on fashion advertisements throughout the years. Which were useful and helped me gain a massive insight into  apart of the fashion industry that I haven’t really thought about before. I feel that this will help me when I am making my own projects, as I will be able to think about the creative direction process , and not just think about strictly hair and makeup.

I really liked learning about this specialism. I feel that it is very different to my chosen degree but it also linked to my subject as they may well go hand in hand. This was heavily theory based and included some visual representations. This as helped me understand how important it is to have the right image and film clips to grab the customers  attention and being visually appeasing.

To conclude I have very much enjoyed learning about fashion Activism and creative direction and I now know how closely linked both subjects are and how they will affect the business I will be in. Which will now make me aware of how things are promoted and the techniques used to persuade people on what to wear and what to buy. In the future I feel that this will help me as now I will be able to think about both subjects when creating future concepts and projects.

The two lectures which stood out to me the most are, Nina Stevenso Sustainability introduction and Julia Crew’s lecture on power, this is because they have really opened my eyes to the importance of sustainability with in the fashion industry. I haven’t really thought about this until attending these lectures.

I have learnt what a big effect the fashion industry has made to our planet and the nature that in it. Nina Stevenso said ‘we need to start putting the world first’, else the world which we take for granted will be not longer as the damage we have done will be irreversible.

I have also gained a much bigger understanding into the fast fashion industry though out these lecture, I didn’t quite realise how much of an issue fast fashion was until attending these two lectures. The main issues are with the high street clothing stores which are producing cheaper garments, these garments are not made as well as the more expensive brands and therefore don’t last as long before they get thrown out. These garments tend to rip and tear so can not be worn again so end up in land fill sites. I feel like just knowing this it has made me more personally more aware about how long I keep my clothes for and the long jevity of my garments.

One thing that really stood out to me in Julia Crew’s lecture was learning about the profits of the company compared to the wages of the people and children who make the garments in fashion industry, and how it is so biased and unfair. The less economically developed counties (LEDC) are being taken advanged of by the more economically developed counties (MEDC) though using their unskilled workers to do manual jobs and paying them less than they would have to in a more economically developed county. This shows that the fashion industry has a direct impact on the surrounding communities and their quality of life. This really does change my view on buying cheaper clothes as I now know that I am encouraging this to happen, Julia said ‘the market relies on the consumer to buy’. I feel that this is a very intresting topic and have learnt to be more aware of what and how the garments I purchase are made and distributed.

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot from these lectors about this topic and I have been finding them very helpful. these lecture have expanded my knowledge on the better lives theme of sustainably in fashion. I feel confident in saying that I’m more educated and will try to better my choices when buying clothes. these lectures have made me realise how important it really is and how I will deftly be making a change.