Emma Trimboli

As part of the Better Lives program, we were asked to attend a unit in a different course, and to complete a project pertinent to the chosen course, I chose BA Fashion Styling’s In and out of fashion: Sportswear fashion language and subcultures. Despite not being very keen on sportswear, I was excited to learn more about styling and, hopefully, get to try my hand at it.  Over the course of six weeks, we followed lectures focussing on different aspects of the styling practice, and we attended two Masterclasses. In and out of fashion was mainly influenced by the issues of sustainability and social responsibility. Allow me to explain how. 

While the lectures were theoretical, during the Masterclasses we finally had the chance to put our skills to the test. We attended the first one, Deconstructing the sportswear body: Silhouettes & Shapes, Customisation / Sustainable Sportswear / Recycle, in person. Divided into four groups, we were asked to style one -or more!- looks that followed the brief. We were challenged to create unconventional silhouettes inspired by different sportswear subcultures with the clothes we brought from home. This is where the question of sustainability comes into play: by using and repurposing clothes we already had, we didn’t participate in the polluting fast fashion industry and learned how to upcycle and repurpose different garments. Due to Covid-19, the second Masterclass, Healthy-youth vibes in Corona times, took place virtually. Individually, we were tasked to style a sportswear look using what we could find around the house. Despite the circumstances, I was even more inspired by the results of the second Masterclass: working singularly, each of us was able to develop more complex and creative responses to both the task and the Better Lives themes, and I loved seeing everyone’s different interpretations of the brief. 

The themes of social responsibility and sustainability were also tackled in two lectures, Styling of the body and Sustainability and customisation. Styling of the body was about posing and body positions, and how to communicate through them. It taught me how to be aware of possible controversies in styling, such as cultural appropriation and the perception of working-class garments as a subculture. Sustainability and customisation concerned -you guessed it- eco-fashion and the alternatives to fast fashion. Many fashion insiders now strive to create a system that can be supported indefinitely through recycling, upcycling and new technologies. 

During the Better Lives Unit, I was able to meditate on the themes that are most relevant in the current fashion industry, both in their theoretical and practical aspects. More than anything, I learned that interesting and thoughtful fashion practice can be achieved anywhere, even while quarantined in my room. The experience of the second Masterclass, influenced by the current lockdown, made me really ponder over the effects of consumerism, and the results that can be achieved even when consuming isn’t possible. This chance of reflecting on the themes of sustainability and social responsibility was surely beneficial to my personal development. 

The Better Lives Unit has been an opportunity to reflect on the themes of diversity, social responsibility and sustainability, that are likely to play a fundamental role in our future practices. In the past few years, diversity and sustainability have already become hotly debated topics in fashion: consumers and practitioners alike have begun to realise that the industry needs to change radically to become more diverse and fully sustainable. But what I’ve found most interesting was engaging with the theme of social responsibility. In the words of Sangiorgi and Scott, “Design work today is increasingly moving well beyond the conventional concerns of form, function and style to address difficult societal challenges”. This means that design is becoming more aware of its power of shaping society, and consequently, the role of the designer is evolving too. As many of us are designers in-the-making, we must make sure that our practice is always fuelled by genuine concern for other people’s needs.  

These reflections were sparked by two of the Better Lives lectures I attended: Katelyn Toth-Fejel’s Society and Lucy Orta’s Democracy and Activism. When talking about the relationship between society and practice, Toth-Fejel advocates for “socially engaged design”: a design practice that takes marginalised groups and their necessities into account, identifies social needs and challenges the status quo by “finding alternatives to mass production, low wages and seasonality”. According to her, “building empathy in design” is the first step towards social responsibility: empathy is what makes design groundbreaking and relevant in today’s society. Lucy Orta, artist and Chair of Art in the Environment at Centre for Sustainable Fashion, focused her lecture on the politically engaged artists – like herself- and the works they produced in response to local issues. The pieces she showed us are great examples of “emphatic” design, and show how artists can collaborate with marginalised communities and find stimulating solutions to their issues. Some of Orta’s works, like Collective Dwelling (1997-1999) and Procession Banners (2018), had the goal of bringing communities together by creating communal installations, while others, like the Identity + Refuge exhibition and workshop (1994-1995) and Connector (2001-2002) shined a light on issues like homelessness, society, identity and shelter. 

These lectures made me realise how important it is that designers genuinely care about other people. What makes design relevant and current is its ability to cater to the -sometimes very specific- needs of different groups, and to bring communities together. Its power stands in its intrinsic predisposition to social responsibility. Even though it is -and still is- a creative and even artistic practice, designers shouldn’t try and separate their work from the realm of utility: in other words, design for design’s sake isn’t -and shouldn’t be- a thing. The designer’s goal is to make life easier for everyone and to produce objects that are not only aesthetically beautiful, but that also serve a specific purpose. I truly believe that design can change the world, but only if it’s catered also -and especially- to the most vulnerable. 

References:

Orta, L. 2020, Democracy and Activism lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 20 February 2020.

Toth-Fejel, K. 2020 Society lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 19 February 2020.

During the second week of the Better Lives Unit, I had the chance to attend John Lau’s lecture on Cultural Sustainability: it inspired me to challenge the relationship between culture and globalisation, and to rethink how we approach cultures different from our own. According to Dr. Lau, when discussing the relationship between globalisation and cultural identities, concepts like cultural sustainability and cultural competence are fundamental, as culture “acts as the filter through which people process experiences”. In Dr. Lau’s words, globalisation is “an international influence that changed the fabric of culture”. But what does that mean, exactly?

In the past few years, globalisation has become a familiar buzzword and, over time, developed into a concept so intrinsic to our daily lives that we have stopped questioning it altogether. Yes, we live in a globalised society, blah blah, we already know. Nothing new under the sun. Cultural Sustainability made me realise that, this way, we fail to see the influence globalisation has on our perception of other cultures. As fashion students and future fashion practitioners, we must be aware of this; being able to navigate cultural differences respectfully is a fundamental skill in every fashion practice. 

The cultural norms we experience today are versions of European culture that developed as a result of close contact with different ethnic groups, and therefore through globalisation. Diversity and multiethnicity are integral parts of the 20th century’s zeitgeist. The concept of of zeitgeist, the defining spirit of the time, was often mentioned during the lecture: Dr. Lau described it as “the set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of a society at a specific period of time”. The zeitgeist finds full expression through fashion: the word “fashion” indicates something that is popular and in style, and “what’s ‘in fashion’ at any one moment speaks to wider trends in society, politics, and the arts”.

Fashion is often influenced by current events. For example, Dr. Lau mentioned how Yves Saint Laurent’s collections of the 1960s and 1970s were inspired by student riots and female emancipation movements that were common during during those same years. Right now, “citing” other cultures is big among fashion designers. The problem is that, says Dr. Lau, often designers fail to do the proper research and reference this or that culture just because “it looks cool”. This happens because said designers lack cultural competence, the ability to “think, feel and act in ways that acknowledge, respect and build upon ethnic, socio-cultural and linguistic diversity”. In the era of globalisation, fashion practitioners come in contact with cultures other than their own on a daily basis: cultural competence is necessary to achieve a mindful representation of culture and to avoid incidents of racism and cultural appropriation, which are -sadly- a common occurrence. Culture is the filter through which we process experiences: it’s therefore important for each of us to challenge ourselves and the “intended meanings” of what we see through cultural sustainability. 

References:

Lau, J. 2020, Cultural Sustainability, lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 18 February 2020.

Make It Our Business (2017), What does it mean to be culturally competent?. Available at: http://makeitourbusiness.ca/blog/what-does-it-mean-be-culturally-competent

(Accessed: 23 February 2020)