Abigale Peterson

The better lives course that I joined was Fashion Illustration. In the brief for the unit we had to research designers and brands that engage with core topics of this unit which included diversity, sustainability, cultural appropriation and social responsibility. By choosing a designer or brand that included some of these assets and take it further to produce a set of illustrations. By creating these illustrations we would learn skills from drawing the lines of the body and faces and creating the sketching of the image and garments.

During the classes we looked at different designers and the process of getting to know the shapes of the body and lines that are produced when creating illustrations. We started looking at experimenting with colour and texture through drawing, for example drawing on cardboard and using pens and paint.

Throughout creating these illustrations I found out about other ways to make illustrations more life like and intricate instead of the illustrations I had produced before. I learnt about angles of the body and the way the body can be angled and how to reflect that in my drawings and making it true to the reference image. Making sure that I was give attention to detail when looking at the positioning of the body compared to what I had been drawing previously.

During the online classes Sue mentioned about the initial fear of putting pencil to paper before starting a piece of artwork which I can relate too. I have always preferred doing digital illustrations as I had the control to change parts I didn’t like and felt like they always came out better. During this period of be apart of the illustration course I have realised that there should be no fear whilst creating these illustrations and to go with the flow of how the pencil moves and to not be worried about what I will create as it is all art.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating my illustrations as I decided to focus on Vivienne Westwood as my final designer and brand. I have always been a fan of her work and thought no one else would be a better for be to try and recreate. I decided to create two digital illustrations and two on paper to show the skills I have learnt and applied them to both ways of illustrations. I felt like after the lectures that I could be more experimental with my work and learn different skills and that not all of the drawings have to be perfect and just like the reference image.

Overall I’m very pleased with my final four illustrations and will definitely be using the skills I learnt from this unit in future endeavours. 

The themes throughout the duration of this project include sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. After learning more in depth about these themes I decided that I needed to become more sustainable in my personal life. I had never really noticed how my work and general living was actually not sustainable at all.

Sustainability-“the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level” 

I personally use fashion as a form of art and an expression of how I see myself how I work. My outfits and comfort is a main priority for me on a day to day basis, it shapes the start of my day and how my day will continue with how I feel within my outfit. “Fashion is an expression of both material culture and our non culture as its about our identities, our ideas, our emotions and our relationships.” This is a quote from a better lives lecture that I felt made a difference into the way that I think about my work.

I have always felt that by having the newest and up to date styles and clothing was what was going to make be happy. But the reason behind my happiness with fashion wasn’t the brand new clothing and looks it was the fun I had with creating outfits, pulling together items that wouldn’t normally go together and finding an outfit that I loved. It was re using items of clothing that I would have normally only given one life by wearing it once, but instead wearing it in different ways and creating history and value to my outfits.

I realised even more after learning about the themes of sustainability that it is genuinely such a problem in the world and in the industry. The production has doubled from 2000 to 2014 and that is jaw dropping. 

I will be using my work to create awareness for the clothing sustainability issue. I will be looking at any way that my work can be more thoughtful towards these issues how I can help reduce this problem through my work that can also create a message for other businesses and people to do the same thing.

I mentioned previously that in my personal life these thoughts around sustainability will be thought about more even in everyday tasks that I wouldn’t normally think about. I want to create my world a more healthy and environmental way of living without having the consumerism that I used too towards clothing. The happiness through re using clothing and making sure my work is more sustainability will bring me more joy than buying mass production items that are then ended up as waste because they have used their one life that society assumes it should have.

Power is shown through the fashion industry in many ways which I surpassed without realising the effect it has to that specific role. Roles such as the royals, military, politics and the media show varied ranges of power through the fashion those industries where. The uniforms and outfits that are worn have a big impact but because they we know nothing else we take this for advantage. The outfits are used to symbolise roles and higher hierarchy and to separate importance from unimportant. Throughout this lecture it reminded me of the understanding and history behind the fashion that is most of the time forgotten about because it is now known as the norm. 

A big part of the lecture hit home and I found I could relate to. The power of fashion through the media is a well known topic and is constantly spoken about for many reasons. The main reason is shaped around the “perfect” lifestyle that is shown on social media. What influencers wear on social media will have an impact on their following. I know that I have personally found myself comparing what I wear and how I look to other influencers that I have followed on instagram. Questioning why I haven’t thought about that outfit. “ I want to look like that” “Where is that from” “I won’t look as good as them in that”. It is a constant thought that most teenagers and users of them app will at some point come across whilst using it. From learning the facts that instagram has 45% of users in Britain following fashion accounts it makes me feel like Im not alone on those thoughts. Social media has more power than most, and it can be used for good and bad. It is a growing industry but we need to make sure it is always used for positive uses.

I heard during the lecture “ We are the driver of trends, and every time we buy something, we’re voting with our wallet.” It had an impact I didn’t think it would have. It made me think twice about buying items and instead going down more of a economically friendly way of shopping through second hand buying.

The power that we as consumers have in the fashion industry is way greater than I think most people know. We are constantly buying one use pieces of clothing and not having a second though on what that could be doing to our environment and planet. Its though that 75% of those pieces of clothing will end up in a landfill or incinerated creating fumes and pollution to our world. We have forgotten the true meaning of fashion which is expressing ourselves. Instead we have gained too much power and are wasting that opportunity on clothes that have one chance and are wasted.