Umberto De Pasquale

https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/01/blog-3-project-outcomes/
https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/01/blog-2-themes-reflection-15/
https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/03/07/filtering-fashion-identities-through-power/

Among all my peer’s works, I decided to analyse and reflect on Daniele Facciuto’s blogs. The reason behind this choice has to do with the fact that he, through all his four posts, has opened very good discussion about the Better Lives themes of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility and that some of them shared my same point of view. 

Starting from his first blog, Daniele has made some interesting reflections on the introductory lecture “Power” by Julia Crew. I was really captured by his debate about how current fashion can influence and determine our personalities through the power of media and the communication.  As conclusion of this deliberation he then suggests that society should review the role and the importance attributed to some influencers in order to encourage all of us to express our own identity, which I totally agree. Moreover, what I also have found close to my personal view was his sensitivity regarding important causes such as the urgence of big industries to become more sustainable and ethical fair towards their employee.

Then, thanks to the progression of the other blogs, I have been able to analyse Daniele’s approach to his project. Unlike me, he has chosen fashion photography as it has always been part of his inclinations. It was an encouragement reading of how he has found my same difficulties in practice for the development of his work due to the lockdown. For this reason, he has decided to take picture of his best friends by facetime and in addition to that he has been able to capture all their different epitomes. So even in his case the power of the creativity has triumphed and made him realise that we do not necessarily need many tools to achieve good results. Therefore, his example demonstrates how our social responsibility, which encourage us not to leave home for irrelevant reason, has become really strong.

Daniele ,like everyone else, has been affected by this delicate moment of the human history, which in our cases sees us also away from our families. But he, like many of my peers, through the power of his words has demonstrated how today it is important to be focused and socially responsive. Therefore, he is the proof that our modern generation is capable to think about a better future and that one day it will really contribute at changing things which are today affecting negatively our planet’s destiny.

When I choose my Better Lives project I decided to go for something completely different from my degree subject which is mostly based on the communication’s strategies. Both make-Up and Prosthetic connected to the theme “Developing a Character” attracted my attention and curiosity as I was sure it would be based on practical classes and also because one of my life desire was to learn some make-up practices. What I could not immediately understand was the connection between the better lives themes and the course itself and how one day I could have assemble it to my current studies.

During the first couple of weeks we all were introduced to the Prosthetic by our project’s leader, Steven Salomon and we were also explained what we would have practically realized during the following sessions in order to develop a character for the final project.The real challenge started when we were asked to realise some painted illusion and distortion effects, working with one of our group’s peers.  The process was over all really engaging, even if not so easy at my opinion, and what I also found really interesting was the variety of all our approaches to the task and the diversity expressed by our final results. My first make up performance, as you can see from the first picture, did not turn out to be perfect as I did not really achieve the requested effect but at the same time it made me understand where exactly I could improve myself.

Thankfully during the second workshop, where we focused on such types of effects like bruise and burns, I was able to realise a more realistic prosthetic and I was delighted I had reached a quite good result. That was also the time when I understood that despite the high level of consumption made by all of us students in order to achieve the desired goal, it was very important that we all would follow the right procedure when throwing away some products , in order to be positively responsible for our environment .   Furthermore, it let me think and hope about a better effort and a different commitment coming from the fashion industry towards such important matters like social responsibility and sustainability.

Unfortunately, the last part of our project has been affected by this international emergency and to be honest I was quite frustrated not to be able to complete our scheduled workshops as I really wanted to gather more practice. Eventually, during the last session, we all were given the chance to talk about our developed characters through some concept design because obviously we were not in possess of the main materials. The most surprising thing was that we all came out with beautiful and different ideas, all nicely realised with the simple use of our creativity, which we sometimes underestimate because backed up by a digital kind of support.

Overall, this project has been very useful for a deep understanding of the better lives themes and how they can be applied in many different life’s context and it has also lighted my desire to keep on learning some more about the make-up practices. Furthermore I have finally been able to associate them to my current studies and I am pretty sure one day they will support my creativity when I am asked to develop a narrative for a brand or a social campaign.  

In a time period which sees us locked in our places in order to stay safe from a disease which is killing the lives of million people, it is very natural and easy to keep going with some reflections about the Better Live’s main themes.  As all of my friends and my peers could testify, because of the very little resources available to us, we are lately finding very hard discovering practical solutions to daily tasks which before would have been executed in an easier way. But is this really a very bad thing? Although it looks like a very complicated adventure, so far from our mindsets, this should be a chance for us to use our creativity in a very sustainable way and to be conscious in everything we decide to do.

Therefore, looking also outside the box, this all could lead us to build a deeper and bigger sense of responsibility towards our society and also our planet. Speaking of this, we can tell we have already won a big challenge as we are all staying home and we are respecting social distances and above all we have some heroes out there who are hardly working in order to save people’s lives. This is indeed the right moment to show the world some kindness and tolerance and mostly to be active in a delicate episode of the history where all human beings need to stand by each other.

So I think this unit’s themes suit perfectly this period and in addition it could help us build a different way to approach to our future’s projects and adversities.In fact It will surely contribute to make us even more judgmental when one day we will step the fashion industry’s doors and we will realise that many things are not so perfect as they appeared in our biggest dream and also it will excite our creativity when we find ourselves in certain contexts where there is a lack of essential resources. 

Thanks to these dialogues we will demand and we will aim for more concreteness if ever our bosses ask us to run social campaign about diversity, sustainability and social responsibilities which today unfortunately are for many people just key words to remember in order to stay updated with our world.  And not only, we will embrace them in our social lives, contributing within our community and largely towards our planet , trying to reduce useless wastages and always trying to be unselfish and sympathetic especially regarding those who today are struggling and trying to do their best to save our planet’s fate.

This is the right time to completely remove what is really toxic from our environment and to be substantially realistic when brining solutions for the immediate future. We subconsciously already know what to do, we just need to be brave and let our creative minds build a better life prospective. 

During the first two weeks of Better Lives we all had the chance to hear the voices of very good lecturers about issues which nowadays involve and invite us to reflect. Among these, the one which mostly captured my attention and my deliberations is “Power”, directed by Julia Crew.

As the title reveals, it is a dissertation on how the Power was and is still expressed through some strong aesthetic symbolism which will always be reflected by our clothes and how also it will be forever connected to such matters as MONEY and form of PROTESTS. The lecture was introduced by a very truthful quote which briefly states that Fashion celebrates life and community between people belonging to different cultures but that at the same times it hides or maybe not longer, such a strong Capitalism which negatively affects people’s life.

Obviously, this all is attributed to the way Power today is used and controlled by such “big” characters who, because of their need to expand profits, go to the detriment of those who work to guarantee themselves the simple rights of living and survive. This sad statement brought me immediately to a question: can we do anything to slightly change what is really happening or can we at least try to work collectively in order to make our world a fairest place where we can all more or less benefit of the same rights?

Yes, this is absolutely possible as we are also the reason why things have been always conducted this way. We have indeed contributed to certain realities, in this specific case we let some colossal fast fashion companies miseducate us and teach the audience to constantly fill up their wardrobes for just a pure aesthetical and social need.

Therefore, it led me to another question: “How those business can raise a bit more of awareness towards the people’s necessity of over consuming?” As the same lecture pointed, the answer is in our POWER and how it turns into something  extraordinary when it is invested in democratic acts of protest and humanity gesture. 

In my opinion, the greatest encouragement comes from the activism of big designers, such as Vivienne Westwood, who has always raised her voice against a cruel capitalism and who since ever has embraced a sustainable way of making and producing clothes. Another great example is represented by Giorgio Armani, who has transformed all his four Italian production sites to produce medical overalls for the individual protection of health care providers fighting the coronavirus. Moreover, he has declared that this emergency should be an opportunity for big business and not only to slow down and reflect on how things can be done better in the future, in favour of our planet. 

So, as also proved by these pioneers, we can all come out with a cure for our world’s illness. Primarily all the big fashion ambassadors should change their attitude in terms of their incessant production and to be an example for their competitors and the small businesses. In the meantime, as consumer, even if in a smaller case, we can all contribute at using our POWER in social contexts where a change is needed and then be finally responsible of our planet complete recovery. 

REFERENCE:

Julia Crew (2020) ‘Power’ [Live lecture]. Better Lives  London Fashion College .10 February . Available at: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/81f5f93f-89c9-4e6d-a3ff-17d0eafcfc76?referrer=https:%2F%2Fmoodle.arts.ac.uk%2Fmod%2Fpage%2Fview.php%3Fid%3D397690 (Accessed: 10 April 2020).

Zargani, L. (2020) ‘Giorgio Armani writes an open letter to WWD’, WWD, Available at: https://wwd.com/fashion-news/designer-luxury/giorgio-armani-writes-open-letter-wwd-1203553687/ (Accessed: 10 April 2020).