Weronika Kulesza

LECTURES

The goal of Fashion Activism class was to teach us how to promote sustainable fashion and diversity by creating a fashion video or a social media content of a specific fashion brand. However, before grabbing a camera, we had to learn theory.
As a first thing, I’ve learnt how important it is to understand the idea of a brand: its aesthetic, ethos and positioning.

BRAND = AESTHETIC + ETHOS + POSITIONING

A – visual aspects
E – motivation of a brand
P – where do they place themselves on the market

This simple rule allowed my group to create a visual board which reflects the idea of our brand.

In one of the lectures, our tutors showed us fashion campaigns of the brands supporting sustainability and/or diversity. Thanks to that, we could inspire ourselves by learning about editing techniques, exploring new ways of creating moving image, and about the idea of storytelling. We also had to develop ideas through such techniques as brainstorming and drawing a story board.

COLLABORATION

Before attending the first Fashion Activism lecture, I wondered how it is like to work with other students – I’ve always considered myself as a person preferring to work on everything on my own. However, after a few lessons I realised that it’s not entirely the truth. Of course, there are some specific tasks that I would rather do without anyone’s help, but I was amazed how many advantages brings collaborating. One of the examples is brainstorming, during which each of us had slightly different ideas. I didn’t come up with some of ideas on my own and was glad that there were students who brought something to the table. Another advantage of collaborating was getting inspired by someone’s positive attitude which always motivates me to get back to work. Last but not least, we learn how to be more empathetic through helping one another, trying to understand someone unique ideas and create a piece of work that would fulfil creatively all the group.

THE PROJECT OUTCOME

Our group’s final project was a gif reflecting the aesthetic and a goal of Lazy Oaf brand. At first, we planned to make an IGTV video, but due to a lockdown we have to change our plans. Although all of us were in different time zones, we managed to finish our work on time through WhatsApp. You can find the link to our final work below.

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/82a15f5d-47e5-4dd4-b391-7ce1e46c0084

FASHION ACTIVISM – MY THOUGHTS

I fully enjoyed attending Fashion Activism lectures and collaborating with other LCF students and feel grateful that we’ve managed to create something together. Also, the projects of other students were so inspiring that I have decided to make my own short film while we are still locked down in our homes. But, the most important thing is that I feel that fashion activism was the right choice and I would love to learn about it more in the future through creative practice.

Image Credit

LOEWE (2017) i-D and LOEWE present Love is Enough, a poem by William Morris. 16 November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ZCJHMamhY
(Accessed: 3 May 2020)

BETTER LIVES IN A TIME OF PANDEMIC

Our world is going through the time of a crisis – a quick spread of covid-19 caused a lockdown and now we are stuck inside our four walls where we are left only with our thoughts. A lot of us have mood swings which are getting worse after listening to the news. But even though this situation is serious, and we can easily get lost in our negative thoughts, we should try to use the time wisely.

Better Lives unit is focused on sustainability, social responsibility and diversity. To my mind, discussing all those subjects now is a matter of a great importance. Before covid-19, our society was focused on activities that actually do not matter too much: some of us were putting creating pleasant feed on social media over spending time with family, while the others did not care about the idea of sustainability and chose to support brands underpaying their workers.

Apparently, Better Lives lectures were streamed right on time to help us revalue our beliefs system, as also reshape our thoughts.

MY FUTURE PRACTICE

Better Lives unit reminded me and challenged to think of what is actually important in life. It gave me a quick insight into the fashion industry and helped me understand what all of us should do to change it into the industry which is sustainable and promotes joy and love instead of fear and hatred. This unit has also made me think of how I can improve my work ethic. Below are some of my ideas.

• As an aspiring fashion photographer, I could take photographs of pieces of clothing which were found in a second-hand, borrowed from friends, or to try DIY. Those are marvelous ways to support sustainable fashion and give second life to unwanted and only theoretically unwearable clothes.

• When it comes to collaborating, I’ve learnt about the psychological term “groupthink”. This term describes a group of people who collaborate and that are afraid to speak their own mind, as also to challenge someone their own opinions. As a result, their decisions are of a poor quality. I’ve experienced a groupthink a few times in my life. I’ve also experienced being afraid to speak my own mind in front of other people, as opposed to others, who were introducing their ideas with self-confidence. Each time I wasn’t brave enough to say exactly what I thought, I felt creatively unfulfilled. Now I know that I should challenge myself more and perceive my different way of thinking as something positive – thanks to that a group can come up with an innovative idea.

• I also have learnt what about the difference between diversity and inclusivity and understood that I need to take one step towards inclusive practice. I didn’t realise that my work was focused on one type of beauty, even though I believed in the idea of diversity. From now on, I will try to work with people from various ethnic backgrounds. I reckon that it would be a good way to support one another and make a difference in fashion industry.

REFERENCES

Crew, J. (2020) ‘Power’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 10 February.

Swift, C. (2020) ‘Collaboration’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 13 February.

Bari, S. (2020) ‘Intro to Diversity’ [Briefing]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 13 February.

Better Lives Unit was created for LCF students, including me, to expand our knowledge of the important subjects, for example diversity, technology and inclusion in fashion industry. There were a few lectures that caught my attention. However, because I am a supporter of sustainability in fashion, I have decided to deepen my knowledge of this particular topic.

Better Lives: Power

The lecture began with categorising power into five groups: power and fashion, money, media, consumers, protests, as also power and you. It was informative and thanks to that I gained knowledge of how fashion industry looks inside and why it is important to make changes that may result in living more sustainable lifestyle. As I’ve learnt, we need to believe that everyone has enough power to make a change, although it may seem that, as individuals, we have little to say. However, it all begins with a motivated, full of passion person who surrounds himself / herself with like-minded people that care about changing the World for a better place. Even though there are lots of steps we need to take and it can be discouraging, in the quote mentioned by Julia Crew, Nelson Mandela’s words remind us of an important fact:

“It always seems impossible until it’s done”.

What can we do to spread the idea of sustainability?  

• We can join the protests, such as Extinction Rebellion and Fashion Revolution,
• Buy clothes in second hands, as also practicing clothing swap,
• Share sustainable facts via social media. 

Better Lives: Culture

Thanks to this particular lecture I’ve learnt that if we want to live sustainably, we should stop thinking of ourselves as individuals. That’s because all the actions that we take affects other people, as also the nature. We are all connected to each other. However, it is easy to forget about it and to make choices that satisfy only us. A good example is buying a low-price product in a shop promoting unsustainable practices. In the “Power” lecture, our lecturer Julia Crew made an important point that our purchase is our vote. This vote, even if satisfies us for some period of time, results in showing the brand that we support its harmful practices.

As it was mentioned in the “Culture” lecture, sustainability shouldn’t be considered as a restriction, but as a lifestyle. Also, it would be helpful to think of it as personal improvement: being sustainable could make us be more empathetic, knowledgeable and feel powerful. Deciding to live this particular lifestyle may result in making greater changes and creating a better World for ourselves and future generations.

Sustainable Practice

As I’ve learnt through listening to the lectures, fashion can change lives for better or worse, and that is our responsibility to make the right decisions. So how could fashion improve our lives?

• It can help us to create a union caring about the Earth and spreading the awareness of the impact of fashion on our planet,

• It teaches us how to work together and support one another. It reminds us that we are not in this planet alone and should be responsible for one another,

• Fashion shows us an importance of both our voice and a vote – that, in the beginning, there is only one person needed to start a revolution.

References:

Crew, J. (2020) ‘Power’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion,
10 February.

Fitzpatrick, A. (2020) ‘Culture’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion,
10 February.