Frederique Slinkert

I have chosen to reflect on Sian Orwell’s blog about her personal development throughout the Better Lives unit. The reason I chose to peer review this blog is that she discusses her new development while considering her existing habits and coming to different conclusions to aim at in the future. She captured the theme of sustainability in her blog which was explained well with several examples of her own experience and behavior.

What encouraged me to continue reading her blog was her honesty about the confrontation she had with herself while recognizing concerns in her behavior towards the environment. She managed to generate new ideas for her future actions, and it was interesting for me to read about her lingerie design that included recycled plastic. I was attracted to the design cause, she interpreted inclusion in her representation and involved her knowledge from earlier lectures.

Furthermore, she talked about how the pandemic is affecting the fashion industry and how this period is the perfect opportunity to modify the change. This insight made me research more information about how COVID-19 is affecting the fashion industry, and I discovered that as Sian mentions in her blog, that the fashion supply of retailers is stripped away, and less fashion content is being released into the world. Not only will this benefit the environment, but it also makes us aware of how much we consume as a population.

Ultimately, what attracted me most about the blog is that she managed to enhance her opinions and create new ones for her future practices. Moreover, I want to compliment her on acknowledging and confronting herself, which is a tricky part to do at times, with new experiences learned from the Better Lives Unit. Sian did a great job on explaining and engaging the reader, cause her beliefs were truthful and relatable. The only thing I wish she had done is talking more about how inclusivity has affected her as an individual studying creative direction since I do not have any knowledge about that. Overall, informative blog to read and excellent job.

In life, we go through different development stages that lead us to specific ideas and situations. This has an effect on our future direction and which path we choose to take; Better Lives has been one of those stages for me to grow as an individual and lead me towards certain future endeavors.

Throughout the Better Lives Unit, I experienced new influences regarding diversity, sustainability, and social responsibility. I was shocked when I understood how big our footprint is on the environment and I realized that we are able to make several changes individually. For instance, I found it useful thinking about different ways to produce new packaging for environmentally friendly businesses, and how to include those ideas into my own business in the future. Besides, it felt right for me to rehabilitate my old ideas into new ones, especially after being divided into groups where everyone has their vision of fashion. Seeing my teammates encouraged and interested in our project made me more excited to continue creating new outcomes with them. Using digital communication showed me that you can be connected with one another while being apart. We, as a group, wanted to create a campaign that would have a friendly approach but feel more intimate due to the whole pandemic going on. In the course of designing our campaign, I found it difficult at times to concentrate on the result of the whole cause we are not in a position of meeting up. Many of us luckily, had very similar thoughts so, this made it easy for us to start designing our mood board and video. While recommencing our project I started feeling more secure about the outcome instead of being worried about our digital communication. Also, our digital communication using Microsoft Teams went effectively and comparing to the other groups, I am a member of in other courses showed me that my Better Lives group was the best environment for me.

Moreover, I experienced more knowledge about diversity in fashion. For example, our group was assigned a brand called Nubian Skin that encourages lingerie and hosiery for women of color. I realized that not only diversity is enough at times and that inclusion plays a big part in the development. People think that diversity is just about race, but it is not. It encompasses differences in gender, age, abilities, and sexual orientation. It was exciting thinking deeper into that topic throughout the Better Lives course, and it made me more aware of what diversity means for people.

Ultimately, Better Lives has enhanced the importance of the different concerns such as Sustainability to me and taught me to think further than the eye sees. I will continue encouraging myself when it comes to the aspects that the Better Lives unit has informed me about in the future.

The better lives themes have been vocalized by my peers, through our projects and our lectures. However, these themes have been of great importance through my individual course at LCF. I study fashion PR & communication and for Better Lives, I have been assigned Fashion Activism. Both these subjects are of great importance when regarding concepts such as branding and communication. Therefore, I am aware of the positive impacts that diversity, sustainability, and social responsibility have on consumers, producers, and the world as a whole. So far, my better life’s journey has allowed me to discuss these concepts with my groups and discover more about how gaining an understanding and consideration for these topics will help me when entering the workforce.

In Anna Fitzpatrick, lecture, she talked about the disastrous impact that the fashion industry has on the environment and that it is the second-largest polluter in the world, just after the oil industry. The environmental damage is increasing as the fashion industry grows. Fitzpatrick’s lecture affected my opinion on how to proceed working in the future while focusing on being sustainable. For instance, she talked about ‘Fast Fashion’ and how they deliver frequent new collections inspired by catwalk looks, for me it would be crucial to supply garments that are ethically clean. Continuing, these garments will keep their value and the story behind them will be powerful. Further, it is influential for us as Fashion students and future graduates to think about better outcomes and create opportunities to manage the contamination of fashion in our environment. Fitzpatrick made me more aware of the destruction fashion has on our world, and recommencing working towards green results will be a priority in my future projects/businesses.

To continue, I understood the importance of creating awareness around this matter and, while still lacking a business to operate, I will be active in my role as an intern for a business called Rodial where I participate in their Promotion and Communication team. It will be vital for me to suggest their using sustainable packaging and create more diverse approaches to their branding portfolio. Besides, if I would have my own PR company in the future, it will be a necessity for me to work with certain people that have the same values as me when it comes to the environment. Operating with someone that will not stand by their ethics will affect my business negatively. Furthermore, these morals include working with sustainable materials, people with the same intentions, and being as efficient as possible while taking into account the environment. I feel like this is only the beginning of a radical transformation required. I am starting to see some early signs of industries in transition.

Ultimately, I am looking forward to learning more about these subjects and how they will affect me in the future as a fashion individual and creative learner. 

While attending and watching multiple interesting Better Lives lectures, I found myself stumbling on Laura Salsberry’s talk that expressed a method of thinking that suited my vision of fashion. During Salsberry’s lecture, she discussed focusing on garments as tools to intensify the recovery of stroke survivors. Throughout the research, she realized that she needed to look into an audience that targets people who have suffered from different circumstances instead of disregarding factors such as elderly aged individuals that suffer from limited usage of physical elements of their body. For instance, a few years back, I dislocated my shoulder and was in a position where my shoulder needed to be stabilized for over six months. After my recovery, I found that often tight clothing or clothing with heavy designs on the shoulder area made it extremely difficult to dress for my fashion due to my limitation. Ultimately, I have had similar problems to the one she is targeting, that being limitation within my arms. By broadening her product and allowing it to not subject to only heart stroke survivors, she was able to capture a whole new target audience. By understanding the needs of fashion concerning a broader scope, it will create a more significant insight into the future on how to evolve products beyond a niche market circle. Hence, by adhering to people who have little use of their arms nor hands after an injury, and all those that classify under that scope, she can grow her target consumer and therefore be able to provide for more consumers.

Salsberry allowed me to understand the importance of including several categories into one and therefore building a better perception of how we can be more inclusive in fashion. She managed to create more consumer possibilities and inspired my vision on how to establish ideas not specifically generated on ordinary opinion in fashion. Having been affected by an issue regarding limited body function, I am very aware of the importance and benefits that her garment study will bring to many people. Aside from helping people, she also demonstrated the importance of extending fashion to a time and age, the way that as time extends, so do the ends of people. In order to be successful, the ability to serve those needs is vital. Eventually, Salsberry affected my thinking to a positive response in which these garments can succeed in the future and be stylish at the same time. From experience I know, it can be hard for those to feel comfortable in specific garments due to physical limitations. However, Salsberry convinced me by showing several examples that can make it possible.

Overall her Better Lives Lecture influenced my thinking the most, she addressed multiple factors and created a very powerful outcome in which I got convinced by her statements and ideas.