Maria Buongiorno

I’m now at the end of this unit, reflecting about my project outcome and my personal development. I will start to say thank you to the better live unit which gave me the opportunity to open my eyes more to the themes of social responsibility, inclusivity and sustainability and even if we had to change method of study, I’m really happy with the outcome of my project. This unit made me being even more creative while I’m staying home due the COVID-19. I tried to avoid the unpleasant emotions that situation was giving me and I escaped from it with creativity and I felt free. My chosed subject for this unit is “Navigating through clothing” project, which means communicate meaning visually through clothing, creating character design for a performance. We had to look at “Hansel and Gretel” fairy tale text and re-interpreted our character from the story and then we had to be able to develop in a sustainable way a final custom design. I have chosen Gretel as character.

For the project we have been also asked to look at our surrounding and finding 3 objects that have contrasted textures and use it to develop our final design.

I have started to research about the fairy tale in a deepest way, finding out that was set in medieval Germany period ( 1315-1321) which drove many people to desperate deeds. I wanted to look at the way of dressing in that period. Women wore a loose or fitted dress called kirtle which was usually worn over a chemise. Analysing the fairy tale and Gretel’s character I ended up recreating a dress with green tulle texture, raschel knit fabric (raschel bags to wrap onion), yellow sponge, green satin ribbon, orange satin ribbon. I did my final design playing with colours and different fabrics being inspired from the ginger bread house and the forest. After this project I realised how creative I can be without buying materials but using what I already have. It was challanging and I will sure use sustainability in my future projects.

After following all the lectures of this unit, I could say that the Better lives themes of sustainability, social responsibility and diversity gave me the opportunity to shape my way of thinking and it also encouraged me to open up to others, to share and to communicate. Being deeply aware of what is happening around us really helped me understand that I have the power to change the world. I always tried to be more sustainable and socially responsible in my everyday life. Although, I realise that I need to educate myself more in order to act in a right way. Many lectures caught my interest and made me reflect; I’ve been spending money only for the desires of getting access to cheap products without actually knowing what there is behind it in terms of work condition and salaries. As a consumer, I want to revisit my well-being and challenge my self to do better. What I consider important now is the awareness of what we doing, how we can make this planet sustainable and reduce any waste. Any step we take cannot be wrong anymore as there is no more time to waste.
I feel like I never really thought about diversity in fashion. One of my challenge will be now exploring more the concept of identity and break the barriers to promote self acceptance and embrace differences. I will work on the representation of reality and not on what we see on social media. Most of the time we hide ourselves, because we don’t accept our body type or aesthetic. This happens also because many fashion brands are not showing inclusivity, making us feel like we need to change in order to be accepted in our society. Brands will not shift consumers shopping habits towards more consciousess if they refuse to represent the diverse array of consumers that exist. The first step is to change the fashion system in order to be open and listen to the voices of those who feel under-represented.
As a fashion stylist student i will try to produce sustainable work, using recycled clothes or collaborating with sustainable fashion brands, buying second hand products and remaking them my own. In Lorrain Gamman’s lecture, she argues about empathy, I feel like I need to be also more emphatic with who i collaborate, understanding their needed and creating strong concepts.

At the beginning of Better Lives unit I felt a little bit lost. I was confused by the structure of the units and also by all the emotions that I was feeling from the lectures. Somehow, each discourse gave me the possibility of extending my knowledges, and made me reflect differently about certain topics. In fact, I chose to analyse Nature lecture by Kate Fletcher.In Kate Fletcher’s lectures, she wanted to explain how we are responsible for the actions that we take in our everyday life and for the connection of ecological systems – of nature – to daily life. Although, there is a disconnection that we don’t see. We have to gain knowledge about what changes that need to be made. She also made me reflect about how human see themselves at the center of everything and, often not realising how it is important to look around and understand that we are here thanks to nature. There are too many human activities and at moment we are living on a planet that is crumbling  because of us. There are many limits of what we can do and what we can’t do, limits that I started to explore. As Kate Fletcher argues, Nature is the fundament that enabler the fashion system . Therefore, us as students we should be able to realise our potential and to change our future and the impact on the environment.

Kate Fletcher gave us a piece of research that was made in 2008 in the stock Home Resilience Center, which called planetary boundaries explaining landmark studies; this made us reflect about the challenges that we had to face. The scientists created a list of nine boundaries which were important for us in order to find a good balance and live in a safe planet. They also explain the transgression of three boundaries, which are the rate of human interference in the nitrogen cycles, climate change and the rate of biodiversity loss. We are facing a period of uncertainly and instability. “We are burning the library of life” she said. It’s true; this me feel so bad. We must know how fast our actions consequences are. The fashion industry is one of the major polluting industries in the world. The natural world is a constant source of inspiration for textile and fashion designers. This can be joyous, desirable, but it all too easy to forget the huge damage the fashion industry inflicts on nature. It is heartbreaking when I think that we are destroying our planet with our hands and we are not gonna have a second one to live on. Let’s find solutions, let’s stop fashion pollution, slow down consumption and slow down production. Let’s find connection and let’s be aware of how big and fast our actions are.