Sihuan Peng

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Blog 4 Peer review

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Reflection 1

I have read a lot of blogs written by peers form different disciplines these days. Everyone shared their unique ideas and experiences on the themes of the Better Lives unit, inspiring me so much. I decided to peer review on the first blog post from Kun Wang and the reason why I chose her blog is that she reflected Kate Fletcher`s lecture which was talking about nature that I was interested in. I think the content of her blog fully reflected the connection between nature and two themes of social responsibility and sustainability.

In the first paragraph, she mentioned a test of testing to identify the plants and animals in London given by Kate Fletcher, giving her deep thoughts. I quite understand her feeling because I also got vivid impression of this test when I attended this lecture. I could hardly recognize any animals but be familiar with almost all the names of the brands, going through the same situation as she did. Kun Wang then discussed her thoughts that triggered by the test from two aspects. She pointed out a passage said by professor: ‘human always think that they are the center of everything, but in fact, on the contrary, nature is the center of everything.’ Everything is dependent on nature, including humans as well as their lives. she also questioned human behaviors of destroying nature and overconsuming natural resources such as deforestation, water pollution and air pollution. Those issues are exactly be of concern to human beings, relating to the theme of sustainability. In addition, she communicated some ideas of recognizing humankind`s position in nature, combining what professor said. It is another important part of her blog, reflecting the theme of social responsibility. As she said, in fashion industry, we can use fashion and other things to join the world, however, we must do with conscious of social responsibility. Before taking any action, consider the feasibility and whether it will cause damage or loss to nature and society.

Overall, I think Kun Wang has well reflected two themes of the Better Lives unit with her own insights about nature. Besides, it is wise of her to strongly express her ideas by using a great deal of rhetorical questions.

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Project outcomes and personal development reflection

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For the Better Lives project, I chose Makeup Breakdown course. Out of online courses, the themes of the final project are fashion mistakes, imperfection and color theory. Thinking of my minimal makeup skills, I chose fashion mistakes and imperfection as the themes of my final project.

For fashion mistakes, as a fashion styling student, it is familiar for me, even for those who are in fashion industry. Mistakes are common in this filed since thousands of people keep finding mistakes in every experiment in order to perfect their creations. It is impossible to go through life without making mistakes and is not bad to make a mistake, on the contrary, there is much to be learned from wrong reflection. These points of views are also suitable for makeup. I am still a makeup learner and it is not uncommon for me to make technical mistakes. For example, I used to make my eyebrows look very thick by using dark color eyebrows pencil and often overuse shading powder in order to make my features look more three-dimension. Meanwhile, I have to talk about another theme – imperfection to explain the existence of these mistakes. It is well known that compared with Europeans and Americans, most Asians have flat features and yellowish skin, including me. The trend now is that in some Asian countries especially in China, most girls take fair and unblemished skin as the standard of beauty. Due to my dark complexion and acne marks, I felt insecure and unconfident when I was a teenager. Therefore, I bought bright color foundations that didn’t match my skin tone so as to have fair skin. Every time I put on makeup, I tried to hide my acne marks with concealer until the blemishes ‘disappeared’. However, it resulted in flat facial features. Thus, I used to make those technical mistakes. Now as an adult, my ideas of beauty have changed. Diversity is one of the three main themes of the Better Lives unit and some lectures related to it gave me great enlightenments. One lecture by Shahidha Bari pointed out that inclusion is of great importance connected with diversity.Everyone is born different. We should not only learn how to be inclusive of others but also be inclusive of yourself, facing your own imperfection and feeling comfortable expressing yourself.

For the final project, due to my poor makeup skills，I decided to use non-traditional cosmetics, creating looks with the themes of fashion mistakes and imperfection. I did two experiments. In first experiment, I put on a full makeup, hiding all my blemished with concealer and using red threads outlining facial contour.Surprisingly, contrary to feel weird about emphasizing facial contour by traditional cosmetics, by using something else, it looks exaggerated but more interesting. In second experiment, I stuck some tiny colorful pearls found at home on the face along the lower eyeline. I exposed my blemishes with nude makeup so as to highlight my special eye makeup. This time I found that through photos of my second makeup, the pearls caught my eyes easily and I paid little attention to the ‘imperfection’ on the face. At last, combining the results of two experiments, I chose plastic ropes outlining my whole facial contour based on nude makeup, creating an outcome which I feel successful for and proud of.

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Theme Reflection

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Sustainability, diversity and social responsibility are themes of the Better Lives unit. After attending a number of lectures, my thoughts on fashion styling and production changed a lot. As a styling student and future stylist, I start to think about how these three topics play a positive role in my future work.

Before the Better Lives unit, I have finished the Key Concepts in Styling and Production unit assignment which is creating five styled looks with the theme of sustainably radical. In the initial stage, I did a lot of research on sustainable fashion. It is about nature, being green and eco-friendly as well as environmental protection. So, I took it for granted that these elements needed to show up in my five looks. I bought clothes from fast fashion stores and a great variety of props like plastic and food in order to perfect the styled looks. However, I did not realize how big mistake I had made until the Better Lives unit began. I only cared about my outcome and never thought about in this process, whether my behavior of using plastic met the theme of sustainability. And the worst thing I ever did was throw those props into the trash after I finished my work. Through this unit, I think it is an experience worthy of deep reflection. As a styling and production student, I know that stylist`s duty is creating beautiful images for the fashion industry. Some fashion enterprises often spend a lot of money, manpower and material resources only for some perfect photos, Ignoring the waste of resources, the destruction of the environment. Lacking awareness of sustainability has a bad impact on fashion industry. For me, as a future stylist, I should always keep it in mind and take actions for sustainable fashion. For example, when choosing garments and accessories, consider their materials and fabrics. In the future work, I prefer to use second-hand clothing or vintage or clothes borrowed from friends instead of buying new one. Many a mickle makes a muckle, I believe if everyone participates in sustainable fashion, the earth will become better.

In fashion workplace, diversity is a significant part. In Shahidha Bari`s lecture, it showed that Diversity is the measure of difference in a workplace. It is not about race, is also about culture and physics. I am pretty sure my job will allow me to meet models with different skin color, height and figure from all over the world. Also, I will be exposed to the culture of various countries. What is more, maybe my colleague have different religious beliefs. Facing diversity，my response is having an inclusive heart and embracing it. Most importantly, I think it is all based on a sense of social responsibility. In the lecture by Katelyn Toth-Fejel, there is a quote: ‘Each of us is a social being. we live our lives in a social environment. What we think, how we feel, and what we say and do all are shaped by our interactions with other people.’ (Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler (2008) Sociology: The Core. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.) I must always have social conscious, rejecting any form of discrimination, avoiding unnecessary misunderstandings that cause harm to others.

In conclusion, the best inspiration out of the three themes is that take into account the earth, the environment and the society firstly in my work and then, my personal side.

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Lecture Reflection

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During quarantine, I have watched all recordings of the Better Lives lectures and some lectures have impressively influenced my thinking on how fashion can create better lives. Nina Stevenson’s lecture which talks about ‘Fashion and Sustainability’ attracts me most. 

In her lecture sustainability is defined as: ‘The imagining and conceiving of cultural, nature-based, societal and economic prosperity involves the creative exploration of fashion’s artistic, culture-shaping and business practices in the context of a changing world.’ (LCF’s Education for Sustainability Transformation Strategy 2016-22.) This shows that sustainable fashion is closely related to four main aspects: culture, nature, society and economy. So how do they affect the sustainability in fashion industry? 

Nina Stevenson has emphasized a point in her lecture, which is ‘all fashion comes from nature.’ While designers draw inspiration from nature, fashion industries are also consuming its resources. The fashion industry is one of the largest, most dynamic and influential on the planet, yet it is also one of the most polluted in the world. Nowadays, the environmental water resources are extremely unbalanced and water resources are scarce, however, it takes up to 20, 000 liters of water to produce a kilo of cotton and as many as 8,000 chemicals may be used to make a garment, from dyeing to final treatment. In addition, the use of animal fur is, to some extent, an overexploitation of natural resources by fashion companies. The good news is that now More and more fashion enterprises pay attention to these problems and take corresponding measures. For example, Stella McCartney always puts “sustainability” more important than design when designing new collections and Gucci as well as Burberry have banned the use of animal fur. We, as one of the fashion consumers，should try to buy less, spend wisely, and invest in clothes that last.

Expect the natural aspect, the remaining three aspects of economy, culture and society are interrelated. On these three aspects, we have to talk about fast fashion. We all know fast fashion is a popular sales mode. But there are many problems with this consumption mode. Nina Stevenson pointed out the social problems in her lecture. According to the lecture, the value of the clothing industry is rising, the production of clothing is doubling, the consumption rate of people buying clothes is increasing rapidly, and at the same time, the number of used clothes going to the landfill is increasing. Additionally, she listed in a slide: In Uganda 81% of tall clothes are sold from the west – influx of secondhand clothing in dev countries is destroying local crafts, textiles and tailoring economies (Brooks, 2015).

The rapid development of fashion industry has brought about some negative effects on nature, social culture and other aspects. It is because people are aware of these problems that they put forward the concept of sustainable fashion. For the better development of this industry, what should relevant enterprises and people do? There was a passage in the lecture that impressed me very much: ‘We need a fashion system that has an ecological heart, a socially conscious mind, a culturally diverse body and an economy forms the muscle that enables it to move in flow.’ (Prof. Dilys Williams, Director, Centre for Sustainable Fashion) We should keep this in mind and sustain a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

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