Eugenie Penichot

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I chose to study the ‘Navigation through clothing’ course, which centers around costume design for all types of performance (opera ,ballet ,theatre ,circus ,…). I was drawn into the course because Styling is about storytelling through clothes too. Creating a character’s costume is an opportunity for me to enhance the sense of design and storytelling. 

We worked on the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, I chose to design the Witch in an Opera context. 

The opera context allows you to be very dramatic, maximalist. In opera, the stories are extraordinary, so the costumes needs to accentuate the idea of being in another world. During an internship, I saw from up close the reality of creating an opera. The audience is far from the stage, you have to create flamboyant costumes to makes them understand the storyline.

With the lectures’s help, I understood that you have to get into the characters headspace to make something accurate. You have to take the viewers’s perspective in consideration and create something easily understandable to the viewers’ eyes if you don’t want to loose the audience. You question yourself about the character to understand her appearance.

We visited the permanent costumes collection of the National Theater and saw them from up close. We saw the diverse body types and the uniqueness of the tailor made costumes.

In my research process, I found a thesis that discussed the psychology and the meaning that are included in the story and in the witch character: Platzerová,BC.K.(2014) Eating their own: Maternal Cannibalism in Hansel and Gretel. I based my creative process on it. I gained a deeper understanding of the tale’s impact. In my perception, ‘Hansel and Gretel’ is a story about women: their willpower and resourcefulness. 

From Platzerová research,It is Gretel who becomes a heroine while taking the initiative and saving her brother, herself and her whole family. The children and their relationships with the female characters (step mother, the witch) are meaningful. It’s about them gaining maturity and independence from their parents: « Suddenly they know where to go and they do not fear of being lost and hungry again because they defeated the witch and are fully self-sufficient ». 

I learned that traditional fairy tale have a lot of hidden messages and symbolism. Oral greed is one of the theme most exploited in the story because of their food deficiency.

The wealthy blind and mischievous cannibalistic witch needs to have impactful symbols in her costume. Her wealth is heavily displayed in my design. From the thesis, the witch represent gluttony through cannibalism, she is the temptation (her candy house) and represent the idea of listening to your savage impulses. She’s also a woman eating children, she literally repulse the idea of maternity by eating it. I designed a dress with an exaggerated round belly to represent this resentful idea of maternity and power, she is the personification of a bad mother. 

This experience has been enlightening and enjoyable, Better Lives offered me a different way to understand the design process (sustainability, diversity and social responsibility ). It’s important to create with a consideration of the industry’s future and of the final outcome’s impact.

Reference: Platzerová,BC.K.(2014) Eating their own: Maternal Cannibalism in Hansel and Gretel.Diploma thesis.Masaryk University, Faculty of Education Department of English language and Literature.

Available at: https://is.muni.cz/th/hgnky/Eating_Their_Own__Maternal_Cannibalism_in_Hansel_and_Gretel_fp5vk.pdf

I loved reading Antonia-Florina Rosu creative practice reflection about her Illustration course in the Better Lives unit. She is an aspiring fashion journalist student and tried something out of her comfort zone on the Illustration course. I was greatly impressed by her enthusiasm, honesty and transparency. I enjoyed the way she described her experience so personally and how she took risks.

I’m a styling student and I’m part of the creative field, illustration is one of my hobbies and I use it often in my projects. I was curious to see what a person with no drawing skills could learn about this practice. Styling gives creative freedom and a sense of control over your own vision and I think that most creative process gives that same type of feeling. Because of her field (journalism), she is working on digital platform most of the time. Creating with materials and being in touch with different techniques was a new way to work for her. Drawing techniques, textures, collages offered her a three-dimensional outlook on fashion. Her perspective on it was refreshing to hear and reminded me of why I love drawing fashion.

She mentioned the freedom of creating, and the enjoyment that in drawing theres no wrong answer. Your creativity has no limits and you can always find an inspiring way to look at fashion (playing with materials and different subjects and trying to portray a vision or a point of view). I can tell by her experience that she gained respect for the craft and that she took a risk by doing something out of her comfort zone.

The session that stood out to her the most is the collage session they had where they had to bring their own magazines. She transformed the female form by playing with various body types from models pictures in the magazines. She gained confidence from this session.

Her honesty about her views on social responsibility, sustainability and diversity made me relate to her because I too, find it hard to believe that your own voice can make the difference. But she motivated me as she grew out of her cynic views on the matter and opened her mind to the case.  She confessed that she had a ‘toxic mindset’ before the unit and was skeptical about being a part of the Better Lives lectures. But as she went on to discover the lectures, she understood the power of her own voice to help raise awareness to diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. Being an ally is a powerful act and help to build a better future.

The evolution of her approach to the unit and to the Illustration course was enlightening and hopeful. It is inspiring to feel optimism and see a person opening her mind to new views and learning from her past. I respect her evolution and I’m glad to see a transparent point of view on the better lives course.   

Reference:Rosu, A-F. (2020) ‘Creative Practice Reflection #2’. Assignment for Better Lives, Undergraduate, UAL.

As a Styling student, I am supposed to have a ‘bigger picture’ outlook on fashion. I observe and reflect on what is the fashion industry to me: the mirror of our society. I try to portrait a new perception of it and create images to tell stories.  As I study and work in this industry, I can clearly see a lot of issues that are more and more seen and talked about.

The Better Lives lectures was for me the introduction into a three dimensional way (lectures,workshops, practice) of seeing those issues. We discussed many perception of the fashion industry in these lectures, including sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. Those three are the key to a better future for the industry and everything that surrounds it.

Sustainability is really being put forward in my studies and practice. It’s a notion that I familiarized myself with this year. I had a previous project called « Radical Sustainability » and it guided me through the reality of practicing sustainability habits in my work. Such as sourcing clothes in a different way (vintage clothes, customizing clothes to create some modification, loaning clothes from sustainable ‘green’ designers), and working with a particular goal in production (reducing waste) is difficult. The outcome of this experience was that I came to realize the planning that sort of shoots demands; it involves more care and time because of the ‘unusual’ aspect of it. We’re not yet used of being careful with sustainability especially in the fashion industry. It is, after all, the most pollutant industry in the world. 

It is important to note that raising awareness on the topic of sustainability was demonstrated mainly by social media, as it was an already discussed topic that only came into action recently thanks to the popularity and hype factor of brands such as Marine Serre.

Diversity is beginning to be put forward in editorials and media. With social media, people claims for change in representation (cancel culture helped make and break people that were abusing of the system) and it allows recognition for a lot of different people (with different backgrounds and ethnicities,shapes, genders, sizes and disabilities) in the fashion industry to come out and be heard. The fashion industry is still recognized as a privileged and elitist industry but it’s starting to change and is slowly evolving in that direction. Diversity in representation and inside of the industry is for me a basic human right that should be absolutely put on forward. 

It is part of our social responsibility to make and create a better industry for the future. If I’m able to be an impactful actor in this industry, I wish to change peoples minds on those subjects. It is about creating stories and being heard, the fashion industry is often being glamorized because it showcase luxury and privileged culture but it is still a deeply flawed system.

In conclusion, the Better Lives lectures greatly influenced my thinking and emphasized my beliefs. It gave me motivation to act more towards the creation of an industry that I would proudly be a part of.

I had the opportunity to attend the well-being lecture held by the doctor Jaketerina Rogation during the Better Lives program. It asked us several questions about well being and the fashion industry. Well being and fashion doesn’t seem to be connected but Dr. Rogation showed us otherwise. In our society, fashion is strongly linked with people. It’s a materialistic need to possess a great deal of clothes.

It’s a key factor for being happy in our society, or so we’re told.

It showed me a different way to look at the fashion industry and the people that are a part of it. The fashion industry is an industry but its also an art form, it’s complicated to combine economics and feelings together, this lecture offered me a different perspective.

There is multiple factors to well-being: physical, subjective, social, psychological,economic and in a specific domain. We discussed two theories: Hedonic well-being (subjective) and Eudaemonic well-being (psychological).

Well-being is a growing market that is estimated to be worth $4.2trillion. Fashion is an important tool for well-being: it gives confidence (« Looking good, Feeling good » ) and allows you to create yourself everyday. It’s one of the most powerful and direct tools to show our identity to the world. 

Hedonic well-being in the fashion industry consist of over consuming and trying to feel the same level of happiness at every buy (the rush of possessing something new). The fast fashion industry benefits from this to create constant attraction to their products and giving the appeal to their consumers. Creating different collections and launching multiples sales, making the most profit. 

Buying is an under-estimated power that most of consumers don’t realize they have. Buying is ‘voting with your wallet’. We pay tremendous amount of money to feel happy and to possess a multitude of things that don’t last. Today, we have so many options to get what we want (small online business to big worldwide online shops), consumers can get anxiety from having so much choice (produce paralyses). It can easily become unhealthy to always look for more.

Eudaemonic well-being is about self-actualization, it’s about wanting more than just a rush and having something more stable and healthy. Consumers seek for fulfillment and meaningful experiences that help personal growth. Psychological well-being is about personal growth, search of purpose in life, environment , autonomy , positive relations and self acceptance. It’s about living a meaningful and happy life and looking for a balance.  

Well-being and the fashion industry is about the mental impact it leaves. 

Dressing up and finding pieces that truly reflect who you are and how you want to portray yourself gives confidence, self actualization, personal growth and happiness.  

This reflects a need for slow fashion. Slow fashion is about a socially and ecologically responsible change in the industry that is putting long lasting ,well made and unique pieces to their priorities. It impacts the well-being of the consumer, the product ,the manufacturer and the industry in itself.

This lecture enlightened me on the importance of sustainable fashion in the industry. It is the first step toward a better fashion industry, from people within the industry (manufacturers,workers,designers) and consumers too.

References: Dr.Rogation,J and Dr.Khadaroo,A (2020) ‘Fashion and well-being’  (Lecture). Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 19 February.