Linnet Kinder

Initially when I heard about this unit I was thrilled at the opportunity to study fashion journalism. I have been an avid reader of multiple fashion publications for years so the idea of studying this was really exciting. During this unit, I feel I was able to get a real feel for the realities of the fashion industry and what goes on behind the scenes. Overall this was a challenging unit for myself as due to the COVID-19 crisis, everything was turned upside down and the usual way of teaching was made impossible thus everything had to be moved online. Initially I was sceptical, very sceptical of how this would turn out. Depsite this, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of teaching and the clarity that was immediately restored to this unit. Swiftly, I became more confident in regards to what was expected of me from this unit. We were assigned a 500 word feature to write, I chose to write this on social responsibility. In this feature, I focused on companies reactions to the COVID-19 crsis. I strongly believe that this crisis has shown us the best and worst of society, we have seen many people both and rise and fall to challenge. We have Burberry who swiftly closed stores, protected their workers rights and repurposed their Trench Coat factory to produce hospital gowns. Meanwhile billionaire Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines asked his workers to take 4 weeks unpaid leave and millionaire owner of Sports Direct hiked up prices of home workout clothes by 50%.

In this feature, I argued that in times like this, it is really important to understand our social responsibility. Social responsibility is an ethical framework that argues that we, as individuals should act in the interests of society as a whole, rather than simply looking out for ourselves. This crisis has shown me that we as a society really need to stop being so individualistic and egotistical, from people bulk buying pasta and stockpiling toilet role so key workers who have just finished a 12 hour shift are unable to buy the bare minimum. However, it is has also shown me that we have some wonderful people in our society. This was shown when initially the government needed 250,000 volunteers to support the NHS, 750,000 members of the public signed up. This task really allowed me to reflect and make sense of the global situation that we are in.

Social Reponsbility, Diversity and Sustainability.

3 deeply important pillars of the fashion industry. Learning about these different values have really made me reflect on the best and worst parts of the fashion industry and appreciate how important it is to emulate these values. I feel great hope for the future of the fashion industry, one of the main reasons for this is that institutions like the University of the Arts London are taking great care to educate the leaders of tomorrow to understand the importance of these three pillars. By doing so, they are releasing new minds into the industry who will implement these values.

One of these pillar that specifically struck me was that of sustainability. This really is the be all and end all of humanity. Naturally, we are aware that we are on the precipis of global devastation due to global warming and it is our generation who will have to deal with the fall out. Therefore, because of this, it is deeply important that we as fashion students understand that we are going into an industry that has a detrimental effect on global warming. Although the fashion indisutry doesn’t have a reputation like the oil industry, it still contributes a sizeable contribution to warming the planet – to put things into perspective, it contributes slightly less  carbon dioxide than Russia.

Now that I have fully comprehended the importance of sustainability within the fashion industry, I undwerstnad how this may alter my role in fashion pr. It will become increasingly important for companies to have stellar records of sustainability. For example, in 2018 many were disgusted with major british brand Burberry incinerating millions of pounds worth of products to ensure it did not “get in the wrong hands”. This was seen as deeply irresponsible and many condemened the brand. As a PR it will be my job to ensure that the brands reputation is not ruined after revelations like this. I imagine I will also be responsible for reparations, for example donating money to environmental charities. When this revelation first came out regarding Burberry, they arranged to create a capsule collection with Vivienne Westwood. This was a very clever move as many are aware of Westwoods efforts in regards to the environment and she is a staunch Green Party supporter.

Reflecting on sustainability and this better lives project has really allowed me to understand how my responsibilities will differ slightly from the generations before me. I will have to specifically be aware of obstacles the generations before me were not aware of. This is due to consumers now being more informed and having slightly stronger values. For example consumers are thinking more before buying, they don’t want to purchase clothes that were made in sweatshops, generally they would rather pay more for a higher quality, sustainable product. Due to this, I will have to promote sustainable values within the brands I work for not just because it is the right thing to do, but evidently it is actually more profitable.

Blog Post – One

Lecture One – Julia Crew

Every now and again I read something and it sticks in my mind for what feels like eternity. Bobbing in and out of focus, the words “It takes just four days for a CEO from one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her lifetime” seem to be tattooed on my conscience. This excerpt is from Julia Crews lecture on power in the fashion industry. This lecture really brought to light the injustices that go on behind the scenes in this industry and revealed the ongoing turmoil that is everyday life in the poorest corners of the fashion industry. I felt deeply uneducated at the fact I have made an informed choice in that I want to work within the fashion industry and yet I was so deeply unaware of the injustices that go on behind the scenes. Naturally I was aware of the unfavourable conditions within sweatshops and the abhorrent behaviour of those that let this continue to be common practise, however, it really struck home when I compared the salaries of these workers compared to the CEO’s of these companies. From this lecture, I realised the importance of social responsibility. As the sociological theorist Emile Durkheim (1937) said “Social responsibility is an ethical theory, in which individuals are accountable for fulfilling their civic duty; the actions of an individual must benefit the whole of society.”

We as the consumers have a great amount of power, however, I don’t think many of us realise this. As consumers we have many day to day decisions to make, every day on the tube when we have adds throw in our faces, or when we walk down Regent Street and every single window has a bright bold add drawing us in time after time. We as a consumer need to understand and think of our social responsibility before we shop. Should we maybe stop putting money in the hands of billionaires who don’t even pay taxes to this country and focus on indepedendant brands who are sustainable and don’t exploit their workers? This will always be a difficult choice for this country as these multimillion pound companies usually have much cheaper and accessible products compared to the sustainable independent brands and at the end of the day, if you don’t have the means to be more of conscious of where you shop, how can you be expected to not buy the most affordable items?