Rebekah Pavey

My Peer Review of William Clarks Blog

I read over Williams Clarks last blog about the Project Outcomes and his Personal Development Reflection of the styling and production course on the better lives unit and found it very interesting. What instantly caught my eye was the pictures that William posted with his 3^rd blog of one of the masterclasses he was able to take part in. the vibrant color of the python trench coat worked amazingly in both ways he draped it but especially the redefined as a gowned skirt. Which is what is so amazing with fashion is so versatile, a coat can be worn is 100 different ways it’s just about finding what works which William touched more on in his blog “Convention also doesn’t have to be boring.” As a stylist myself I was drawn to this post because the silhouette William was able to create would be something I would wear today and links with the better lives theme of being sustainable as it showcasing that garments don’t have to be used for their conventional use, experiment and exploring is the most exciting thing to do with clothes.

As William went on in his blog where mood changed to showcase the unprecedented time that is going on in the world today by saying that “This huge reduction in the chain of creativity essentially has the power to shift how the industry will operate in the future. Post pandemic, fashion will feel familiar but far away, as businesses spot opportunities to save on scarce resources and still receive quality content – things will undoubtedly change.” The Covid-19 outbreak. But William was able to turn that around and find light in this dark time by creating content and imagery via facetime like many of brands now, for example, Vogue Italia and jacquemus for pop magazine and all mags becoming online to get there content out there whist people are stuck at home.

I found his ability to direct a whole photoshoot via facetime very impressive because the model was styled perfectly, she looked like she came out of a 70’s fitness video. This shows that William has really understood the importance of showing and doing research into different subcultures really helps in the creative industry to create a narrative to the shoot. But also, it is very fitting to what’s happening around us right now and the importance of our ‘hour of excise’ gifted to us by the government. Although William expresses how he doesn’t think the fashion industry won’t keep to this sustainable change they will go back to “glossy productions of the past” where brands will still “desperate to sell their new season product.”

To conclude, regarding Williams’s personal development on the styling and production course is really strong and I am really excited to see more of his work in the future because his creative direction is spot on like designers like Virgil Abloh.

Rebekah Pavey

Styling and production

https://www.instagram.com/paveyrebekahstylist/

During my time working and progressing with my contemporary portrait photography practice a lot has changed with the world, something that hasn’t happened in over a decade. A pandemic. “An influenza pandemic is a global outbreak of new influenza a virus that is very different from current and recently circulating human seasonal influenza” (cdc.gov). coronavirus also is known as COVID-19 had changed a lot within the world but especially within the fashion and media industry, a lot magazine liberating for the sustainability in the world right now by moving their platform online to making free digital copies while no one can go outside to get their content out in the world, but all fashion retail stores are closed. It’s a very surreal time in the world.

I have been taking this time to focus more on my practice with both styling and photography, but because everything is becoming very online including university itself I thought I would take advantage of this situation we are all in and create a series of fashion images including me and diverse group of friends and people that just wanted to collaborate because what more liberating then talking and taking time out of your day on facetime. I’ve called this piece of work “at arm’s length” all shot via iPhone on facetime to highlight the importance of the social distancing rule to be 2 meters apart. This to the left is a self-portrait shoot I did via facetime calling myself off my laptop and screen shooting on my phone.

To produce the shoot’s, I wanted them all to have the same sort of imagery but all to show everyone unique personalities to do this I gave my friends some direction before the shoot to masking tape their phone onto the ceiling above their bed and around the bedsheet lay 6-10 objects that have meaning and sentimental value around you and then I got them to lay in the middle and pose for me. Better lives have really taught me that I have a social responsibility and a voice that I need to showcase because that has never been more important than right now, this pandemic and lockdown of already 6 weeks has really made me think about my responsibility in the world and how I want to be preserved in the fashion community so I realized I need to up my game and improve. To do this I have been focusing a lot of post-production something that I haven’t been very good at before so always procrastinated with by doing these shoot’s I have been trying and different editing and retouching technique on all of the series so I can improve and get better but after all of the theme I would overlay the images to make the shoot look like an actual facetime call. So, I can really highlight the digital theme. However, on a lot of them, I edited it to mimic a scrapbook aesthetic, a scrapbook something we would make to capture a memory, and experiencing 2020 with all of its ups and down will definitely be a surreal memory I always hold with me. 

Reflections on how the Better Lives themes might change how you work in the future;

Now we are into the second phase of our ‘Better Lives’ unit, I am focusing on contemporary portrait photography being tutored by Danny Treacy, during this we have been shown more personal works of Danny’s like ‘Them’ a collection of images Danny created where he distorted his own body by layering and disguising the face to tell a story through his images and also many different guest lectures inspiration where we were introduced to photographers like Juergen Teller, Ethan James Green and Samuel fossa. They have shown us that what is most important is connecting with your subject is the best thing to be doing to get a good image. Also, good lighting and direction on set. ORGANISATION IS KEY. Firstly, scout out a location, mood board, test shoot, shoot but ALWAYS a test shoot and be professional.

During this we have been mingling with students from hair and make-up, creative direction and 3D fashion animation getting to know each other through group excise, for example as a group we were asked to go out to the market and make a collection of images that inspired us works we wanted to focus on lighting but also have a similar feeling aesthetic going through our images so we went for an orangey color scheme. We were able to achieve most of these images because these lovely ladies setting up a restaurant inside of the building let us look around and exchange conversation. we have also been looking at basic camera controls and training like changing the ISO, Aperture and shutter speed during this.

The better Lives unit is helping me change how I work in a more positive way by making me more professional making new connections with friends that will help me with collaborations in the future. I went into contemporary portrait photography class not knowing anyone apart from like 3 individual that are in my styling and production class, now I can at least say I feel comfortable and happy to talk to everyone in the class.

We also have a social responsibility to show what happens in the world today into our images, as Kate Fletcher said in her Nature lecture, nature is the enabler of the fashion system however Nature is also fashion’s limiting factor and we need to get this point across, without cotton or silkworms there won’t be any clothes, we need to stop taking for granted what we already have and start being greener and these alarming facts should make you do so as well, did you know that all living systems are now 50% in decline or that there was 2x as many birds, animals and plants in the 1970’s then there is now on earth.  contemporary portrait photography as shown me that having your own aesthetic is key in making it in the fashion industry, so my aesthetic is going to be all GREEN only, upcycling, remaking, renting, reusing. NOTHING NEW.

Reflections on one or more of the Better Lives lectures and how they have influenced your thinking;

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been influenced by the lectures I have been attending to perform a Better Life. The themes are Diversity, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability while still using fashion to examine the past and future importance to build a sustainable future and improve the way we live before it’s too late.

The lecture about ‘Power’ from Julia Crew the course leader of MA fashion Design raised some very alarming points in my opinion. Fashion has always been a medium to show wealth and power, for example, there is 62 billionaires in the world and 6 of those own the largest fashion houses around today, for example, Zara, h&m and Louie Vuitton, although there are many different interties of power especially in the fashion industry, for example, Malcolm X once said that “the media is the most powerful entity.”

Due to our smartphones everything and anything being accessible online now, from buying clothes to being exposed to 4,00 – 10,00 adverts a day. Julia told us the astonishing jump in misguided sales by a 40% increase just by being the advert sponsoring LOVE ISLAND every night. This proves that the consumerism drive is what humans are abusing. This inspired me to do more research into consumerism in the UK and I found that 38 million items of new clothing are bought every week and 11 million go to landfills according to wrap.org. This shows that the media and advertising are driving consumption and consumerism of fashion products to a completely unsustainable level.

Although we as customers have the power to stand up and empower our voices, as we are the people that drive the trends. We’re voting with our wallets we, speak, brands will listen. Many sustainable companies have started campaigns to help our environment and the current state of the industry like LOVE NOT LANDFILL which was set up to swap and trade clothes that have been donated via clothing banks and Trade which is a second-hand clothes store that donates to charities. We also have the power to boycott brands if we believe they are being unethical in any way, for example, Ivanka Trump fashion brand was paid poverty wages and women’s rights were violated. After the customer started to boycott, in July 2018 she closed the brand. This shows that we do have the power to make a change but with the evolving technology it might not be enough.

In Nick Almond’s lecture on Emerging technologies in Fashion he mentioned the use of artificial intelligence, AI is pattern-seeking software, Fashion trends are patterns. AI’s are able to predict what consumers like before they even know they like it and use ‘Generative Design’ is just around the corner which is digital clothing which allow people to ‘try it on’ before it’s even made, this will lower the job opportunities if this takes off because we won’t need fashion stores anymore like the Futurist, Thomas Frey: Thinks that 2 billion jobs will disappear by 2030 if AI becoming popular. One popular AI is Lil Miquela, a model, and musician created by California robotics and A.I. start-up Brud. Lil Miquela has more than 1.8 million followers across her social platforms, with the bulk coming from Instagram. On the platform, she has a 2.54% engagement rate on recent posts, putting her squarely on par with the typical human influencer, according to CreatorIQ’s analytics. This shows that the stigma is gone in 2020, we want to follow and support a human-looking advertisement AI. Which Google, Apple and Elon Musk for Tessler will see and invest more money and time into their creation? 

Overall, the ‘better lives’ unit has opened my eyes into seeing how the world should be evolving but us humans have affected the natural flow of our environment because of our nasty spending habits and our constant need for innovation however in the fashion industry we want to be able to innovate our ideas although at the same time having empathy for the environment because there is no fashion on a dying plant. 

By Rebekah Pavey