Lily Pipe

Within this final blog post, I will review a peer’s blog, to see how they interpreted and explored the Better Live themes throughout this unit. I found it to be insightful looking through the different posts and realising not only did everyone consider the themes in regard to the wider fashion industry, but also how they were able to adapt and implement them into their practice. The ideas and concepts people explored under the bracket of these themes were vast, and I found it extremely interesting to learn about many different designers, projects, causes etc. in line with these three topics — sustainability, social responsibility and diversity. 
People’s final outcomes of this project were vastly different and often personal. After reading many posts I decided to review Lynn Nwosu’s as I felt their writing was informative, insightful and responsible in regard to their outcome. 

I initially was interested in Lynn’s blog as they stated how the exploration of Messaging Fashion was a new and unknown venture, how they admire “ the business side of the industry” and felt having this knowledge was essential. This concept of learning about a new facet of the fashion industry you had no prior experience with, can make for an interesting journey, something I believe Lynn successfully documented in a clear and informative structure. 

The journey throughout this project was interesting to follow, it felt like an honest progression of research and outcome, with diversity and social responsibility at its core. I was particularly interested to learn about the brand Patta who base much of their work around, in Lynn’s words “initiate(ing) projects in aim to inspire youth to entrepreneurship, to be the role models of the next generation.” After an unsure start in regard to the integrity of the brand, Lynn’s proactive first hand research in the soho store proved to inspire and fuel the project.

For me the most interesting part of this blog post was to learn about the way in which Lynn and group copped with the changing times of COVID-19. The adjustment of working methods and final presentation format was key in ensuring this project was carried out to the best possible standard in this difficult time. It was with resilience and compromise Lynn and group were able to finalise an outcome that had the three themes at its core, whilst being socially responsive in a state of emergency, adapting using collaborative methods such as “Instagram live conversations”. 

The final outcome of the project was, as Lynn states “far from what we first intended” however with the final idea being “a fundraiser enabling us to give back to the NHS” – where in “the idea was to organise a mini-festival” to combat loneliness in this disparate time, fully embodied the ideas of inclusivity and being socially responsible whilst also noting the importance of a “diverse and inclusive lineup” shows a journey of development throughout this project.

One thing I would perhaps like to know more about, is the way in which Lynn would implement these practices learnt through the overcoming of many obstacles within this project into their future work, as well as how the better lives themes could be considered in everyday life and further practice.

Over the course of my project, I have noticed a great deal of personal development in my ideas regarding the three main themes. Within this project my own growth has also been realised in regard to refining techniques and processes in an illustration based medium. 
The tutorials have transformed the way I view a body, and the taught mark making and stylistic techniques have enabled me to refine my illustration style in order to better tell a story and portray a scene.
Encouraged by my tutor, I researched into creatives, whose work focuses around one or more of the better lives themes. After the lecture series the themes I was most interested in were sustainability and social responsibility, how they worked together and how they can be considered in the wider fashion industry. 
After carrying out research into several designers, artists and brands who vitalised these topics in their work, I decided to narrow it down and focus on two brands which I thought explored sustainability and social responsibility in innovative ways. 

As previously mentioned (in blog post 2) the fashion and textiles industry have a great impact on the world’s water consumption and contamination – this often is a direct effect of material dying and chemical waste dumping. This prompted my research into forms of natural dying as a more ethical and sustainable alternative. Cara Marie Piazza – a Brooklyn based artist – uses waste flowers from florists or personal occasions to dye vintage one off silk pieces. Her ethos is to create beautiful garments which are sustainable, ethical and timeless, that can be kept and treasured. 
To better explore this form of natural dying and further illustrate this story of sustainable water consumption, I wanted to experiment with this process myself.

The process itself was very simple and effective – steaming the silk wrapped flowers over salt water. It used only waste products, as the flowers were from a dying bouquet and the silk was  off cuts from a vintage dress I altered. The only new materials were the water and salt but even this can be reused after in cooking etc. The overall effect was very magical and unexpected, illustrating a journey of sustainable process through abstract mark making. 

After considering material further, I looked at the brand Vin and Omi whose colourful shows use innovative sustainable materials to create fun and playful looks. Specifically they have developed a material called rPET bonded silk. Their collection of their rPET textiles are made from waste plastics collected from “existing clean up projects, or (they) initiate (their) own projects to clean up rivers or areas of ocean or beaches”. I wanted to illustrate and take inspiration from their “A/W RESIST” show, using the online tutorial guides to capture figure and form as well as draping and shape, in combination with the fabric I created, through digital manipulation. 

Through reflecting upon the lectures I was able to gain a better understanding into the importance of the three main themes of this unit, sustainability, diversity, and social responsibility. I was also able to analyse the importance of these issues within modern society and how these points specifically relate to the fashion industry. Considering all practices in regard to the garment process, from initial ideas to the hand of the consumer : design, construction, production, distribution and marketing are all areas in which these themes can be considered and implemented. I found it important viewing how others are considering these themes in their work and businesses, and reviewing how I will be able to approach more ethical ways of working in the future.

All three themes are vital in securing a more sustainable, ethical and diverse future within the fashion industry. However it would appear that many of the world’s leading fashion houses and largest highstreet brands, are making very little effort to change their often harmful ways. In 2020 these three concepts are talked about a lot within mass media, with groups such as H&M producing transparency reports and sustainability pledges, we do see some companies making positive changes. However we have to look at societal structure and the industry as a whole to determine what can be done and who has to change their ways to make a true difference.  

Through researching the themes of social responsibility and sustainability I was interested to learn that the fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide (UNECE), and the textile dyeing industry being the second-largest polluter of water, second to the oil industry. (UNEP).  Aftering the concerning connotations of these statistics we are led to question who is behind the problem of these issues. While often many companies take the blame for unethical garment manufacturing, and in many cases rightly so, we have to consider the bigger picture – who is buying these clothes? And are they aware of the consequences?

As an ever growing industry, we see people buying more and more – specifically buying 60% more garments in 2014 than in 2000, just to keep them only half as long. (McKinsey & Company) With trends suggesting this increase will not stop anytime soon we see a greater need to lessen the 85% of textiles going into landfills each year. (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), World Resources Institute (WRI)). 

This chicken and egg situation of consumer demand to produce higher volumes of lower cost garments, pushes brands to supply for this demand. However without demand there will be no supply, the phrase “supply and demand” remains true. This is where we need to see a shift in consumer attitudes towards making more mindful and ethical consumption of fashion, buying from brands whose core values are focused around socially responsible ethics and  sustainable processes. 

In fairness we all need to do our part, no total blame can be placed on one party. For my personal journey towards a more sustainable and socially responsible future I want to reeducate myself, focusing more on what me and the people around me can do to make a positive change. Moreover, I hope to implement these changes within my everyday life, work and mindset, being more conscious of purchasing decisions and choosing more environmentally-friendly, sustainable materials to work with when making and designing my own clothes. The change of the future industry begins with everyone changing their mind-set and taking their consumer power to demand this positive change.

“What do you think of when you hear the words social and fashion together?”
My initial thoughts regarding this opening question were, social media, political change, rights movements and equality within the industry.

During the lecture Katelyn Toth Fejel touched on ‘throwaway’ culture, specifically the exploitive conditions fast fashion promotes and produces. Brands and companies that perpetuate these features, are often what is promoted by influencers on Instagram. This results in mass consummation, accounting for the some 100 billion garments produced in 2015. When Fejel noted this figure in comparison to the global population of only 7 billion people, we then begin to see fast fashion as a real issue and in fact we as consumers are buying 60% more garments than little over a decade ago.
Movements like Fashion Revelation and the Copenhagen Fashion Summit have increasing social awareness and impact in this day and age, with sustainable fashion becoming a major trend and talking headline in recent years. However this “trend”/movement has not yet deterred the public from reducing consumption and making a collective conscious effort to eradicate unsustainable production methods, and take an interest into social, environmental and economical issues effecting humans around the world, for the sake of their Primark maxi dresses.

In Lorraine Gamman’s lecture she discussed topics of empathy and how there is a huge lack of it within the fashion industry.
One case discussed by Gamman; the 2010 Calvin Klein Lara Stone Campaign which was highly criticised for its depiction of sexual assault. An issue which is massively insensitive to anyone working in the fashion industry or beyond, who has experienced sexual assault.

This idea of lacking empathy within fashion can be related to Fejel’s points on ‘throwaway’ fashion. There is a lack of empathy as consumers are driving the fast fashion industry forward, by buying the goods, whilst companies are doing little to change, causing social issues regarding the exploitation of workers, cheap labor and poor working condition.

From an environmental perspective there is a lack of empathy also, this again is down to consumer wants and from this the industry will provide. For example, overproduction of cotton in Uzbekistan has caused the Aral Sea, once one of the fourth largest lakes and home to 24 species of fish and surrounding villages and ecosystems, to dry up.
A true example to where lack of empathy in the fashion industry has had detrimental impacts on innocent people/animals, changing the landscape and habitability of an area forever.

In relation to better lives, as a community from consumer to supplier, we need to come up with sustainable solutions to ‘throwaway’ culture. Sustainability and mindfulness of consequence, should be at the forefront of every company and in the mind of every consumer. Whether this change is a generation of new renewable low cost materials, or changing the way in which people shop, any reduced/mindful consumption within the industry would have a positive environmental impact and help to preserve the planet, on a social and environmental level.

L I L I P I P E