Asmae El Ouariachi

The first two weeks of the better lives’ lectures were Fashion subjects that are related to Diversity, Social Responsibility and Sustainability. When I heard about the different themes during the better lives project, I thought I was the most interested in Diversity and Social responsibility that can be related to fashion. 

So, I searched for lectures that where the most related to these themes. For example, in the first week I followed a lecture about how you can include all sorts of people in the fashion industry. This lecture was called the Inclusion by Laura Salisbury. Laura talked about why inclusion is important for the future. She mentions during her lecture that we have to design more for different groups. Through fashion we can represent our identity, therefore it is very needed that every human being can do that through fashion. However, this is still not possible, since certain people have disabilities and are excluded for wearing certain garments. For example, a zipper in garments are for some people a barrier and therefore can’t wear the clothing piece even if they want to. This lecture was very interested, and I never thought of these issues before. In the beginning of this lecture I thought this wouldn’t be useful for me, as a stylist, because I am not a designer. Later on, this lecture, Laura made clear that everyone can be a part of this inclusion. Me, as a stylist, knows how to style someone perfectly in a way how they want to represent themselves. Because of this lecture, I’m going to think more about certain clothing pieces that are non-inclusive and how to make them inclusive for everyone. I think this is an issue that stylists have to think about, since they can create diverse identities in fashion. 

Moreover, I really wanted to follow a lecture that was related to identity and culture. This is because I grew up with different kind of background/cultures. Therefore, I followed the lecture of John Lau ‘Cultural Sustainability’. In the lecture of John Lau, he discussed how to provoke a culture and how a culture can be misunderstood or misrepresent in the fashion industry. A lot of people, including me as well, think that a culture is where you are from. This is of course not true. Culture are ideas, customs and social behavior, and your background story is a part of that. Because a lot of people don’t know the definition of a culture, there exist cultural appropriation in the fashion industry and around the world. In the first place, I thought of this issue before, but never thought more about it. This lecture shows me that misrepresentation of a culture in the fashion industry is a big issue. I know my Arabic and Dutch history and It would be a shame if someone uses this culture, without really understanding a culture, for just to sell some clothes. A lot of creatives are classifying the Arabic culture, which is also a misrepresentation. For example in the music Video clip of Cardi B, Bodak Yellow (2017). Here the Arabs are depicted as rich and exotic.

The fashion industry is a global platform and if a culture will be misrepresented it affects what we believe and the view of people towards culture. Culture is not a just useful tool but an identity. Culture has to be protected from that and instead we have to create cultural appreciation and a cultural competence (the ability to understand, communicate with people across cultures) to maintain/sustain the real culture norms for the future. I will work with this mind set in my mind to create better lives for the future. 

In conclusion, I feel these lectures in paticular are very useful for my practice in the fashion industry. As I said before, the fashion industry has a huge influence on almost every human being in the world. Therefore, it is important to be aware of all the issues and make a change. Since I’m a fashion stylist, I will be in contact with all kind of platforms in the fashion industry and will be able to respect cultural diversity and be a part of inclusion.