Emily Marin

After reading several different blogs that my peers had written I realised that everyone had a different response one way or another to how they understood the content of all the Better Lives lectures. For my fourth blog, I have chosen to analyse Chisun An’s third blog,  this piece of writing stood out to me because it is very relevant to the situation we are all currently dealing with.

Chisun begins her blog by telling us her unit choice, which is ‘Critical Design’ and what her assignment is. She tells us that her main focus was healthcare problems and due to the Covid 19 crisis she has a great use of a very current and significant example that everyone could relate to. I thought this was a good idea as it is very suitable and puts out a direct message out about the situation. I definitely reached an agreement with some of her arguments. 

She explains how she struggled to begin with her blog due to having anger towards the situation, and with that coming across in her writing. However after the constructive feedback she received from both her peers and her tutors, she narrowed down her ideas to create a stronger message, that then also supported her underlying concept. She pulled new insight and learnings from the ‘Emerging Technologies in Fashion’ Lecture by Nick Almond, that  went hand in hand with her concept, and then built her message from there. Chisum is clear throughout her whole thought process, behind the making of her trailer within her blog. Another point that is mentioned is, she started the base of her trailer up with the help of similar work from other students and work already published. I thought this was good as it shows that she has put in the research and had a bit of help to broaden her view  which then advanced her thinking behind her final outcome. 

I agree with the statement of interactions, instead of face to face meetings like usual, technology like VR or AR is being used so work and communication could still be upheld, and there was minimal disruption. However I think this would have been a great area to point out how this would actually be better for the atmosphere with less transport being used, more here to discuss the sustainable theme. I thought it was fascinating to really fast forward to future fashion and see her opinion on how the current pandemic will affect the daily wear. The thought of gloves and masks being worn as an everyday common item everywhere you go, it would have been an outlandish statement a few months ago. Nevertheless with the pandemic going on now, makes it completely believable, this really invites you deeper into their work.

My feedback would be to relate back to the Better Lives themes a little bit more. To really dive into diversity and sustainability and see how it would open up more of a discussion within her work process.

Being on the Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics for Performance course, I have always had a love for makeup and how it has no creative limits. This is what enticed me to do the ‘Makeup Breakdown’ for my Better Lives unit. I wanted to stick with what I loved but see it from a completely new angle. 

When starting this unit a few weeks ago, I was really starting to get a feel of the new environment and individual insight to this course. However due to the Covid 19 crisis, I have since found keeping up with this unit a little difficult. I am a hands on learner and I struggled to sit and listen to the lectures due to them all being online. Despite this change of learning, the university still provided us with all the help needed and kept its cool while managing the situation. I had surprised myself by keeping up with the lectures, due to being in such a different learning environment and having so much going on around, as I usually struggle to keep my focus. 

My goal through this unit was to be quite different and create a piece that was more unusual. When creating my final outcome, I had the running themes of ‘Complimentary colours’ in relation to the colour wheel and  also combined it with the theme of ‘Imperfection’. I felt the style of imperfection went hand in hand with diversity. I was trying to create something distinctive so  I was aiming to open my mind to a different kind of art. My thought process behind this was that, in this day and age to be classed ‘beautiful’ you need to portray a really unrealistic and artificial look. This is then published and also normalised over and over again by social media. These altered looks are so unhealthy for the younger states of minds but are so convincing as it is plastered over every social media page. Everyone needs to see the beauty in a diverse face instead of all trying to have the same one, this is a damaging and unachievable goal. By adding the theme complimentary colours, I could make it stand out even more, I used my eyes as a starting out as they are blue. Then continued the look using shades of blue and orange as they are opposites on the colour wheel and make each other pop. I reached into these themes as I wanted to strengthen my knowledge and therefore hone my skill. 

During the weeks we attended workshops, this shaped my personal development in various ways as we were encouraged to work as groups. We are all from different educational and cultural backgrounds so this was a great learning experience, also this has helped with communication and people skills as we had to work together and discuss our work. 

Overall the Better Lives unit has had a positive effect on my learning and I will continue to approach any future work with the thought of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility at the forefront of my mind.

During the better lives lectures we focused on the three main themes running through the  two weeks. These themes were social responsibility, sustainability and diversity. Learning about these different values has really made me reconsider and reflect on all angles of the fashion industry.

As creative individuals it is crucial for the future that we educate ourselves on these themes. We are very lucky that our university has created this unit so we can focus from an early start to our education and begin to develop our ideas on these subjects to better enhance the fashion industry in the future. Over the last few weeks I have had the privilege to work with different students of various courses and it has been a huge insight to witness different styles of creativity amongst my group. 

I feel there is a lack in the issue of diversity and it needs to be fully recognised. This is a definition of diversity  ‘a range of different things’, I believe that it is completely necessary for all sorts of different people from a range of different backgrounds and cultures to come together and learn from each other. Everyone has a different story to tell and in the fashion industry this can blossom into beautiful work, that is not only socially responsible but educational. Including this in future work will then create a broader audience, so the message that is being portrayed is then spread all over the media.

Another issue coming to light is sustainability. I refuse to ignore this up and coming matter, I feel it’s essential for this to be relevant in all of the various stages of production and development of the fashion industry. The definition of sustainability is ‘an avoidance of the depletion of the natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance’. From here on out I will aim to hunt for eco-friendly brands that are watchful about how their products are sourced, produced and advertised. So many companies make claims to be slightly ‘greener’ than another but then the packaging is full of plastic and other materials that can not be recycled. I will try my best to explore eco-friendly brands that really pride themselves on being sustainable from all of these angles. 

Social responsibility is the final theme. I believe that many companies are already aware of this and use this to promote positive angles of their brand. However it is so easy to pick and choose what they want magnified, which can then shadow other elements that might need to be considered. In my opinion, to be socially responsible, you need to be 100% honest about all stages of the development of all products within the fashion industry. Social responsibility is a factor that works parallel to both diversity and sustainability, and neither of these will work if you’re not socially responsible.

To finish, when I approach any future work I will be conscious to think of these 3 constructive themes, not only to elevate my work but also to be socially responsible and to better all lives.

I have now watched a number of the different Better Lives lectures, these have opened my mind to new insights of different areas that I hadn’t really explored before and has now created more of an understanding of this issue. The lecture I felt I connected with most was Kate Fletcher’s lecture regarding ‘Nature’.

I have always felt very passionately towards the impacts we as humans have affected the ecosphere, however I did not have the knowledge to support how I felt. The need for change is non-negotiable and it truly baffles me that it’s not on the frontlines of the news and social media today. Listening to Kate tell us about the extreme weather conditions that hit new records only in February 2019, the polar vortex dropping to -40C located in North America, in comparison to the heatwave in Australia hitting a high of +40C, and to top it off both of these severe conditions happening in the same week, is going down a dark path for the planet and it will be catastrophic if things do not change. 

“There’ll be no politics to be done on a dead planet.” 

This is a quote Kate said that really stuck with me. She informed us that if we do not make drastic changes to our daily lifestyle in the next 10 years then there will be irreversible damage to the ecosystem. This next statement can truly display how much of an impact human greed and selfishness has on our surroundings “half of the world’s animals have gone since 1970” if we don’t take more social responsibility of the world around us, these extinctions are just going to grow and this will take a blow to the ecological communities.

Kate also talks about how disconnected we are as humans to the nature around us. Our race believes it is the center of the universe and how all life; whether its animals, plantlife and land are there to be ravished and worn down to benefit the lives that we live. It begs the question, if we are so reliant on the ecosystem and its resources, how can we believe that we are above it? 

After listening to this lecture it has shaped my thinking as to query where different fashion products are from and how they were made. I am consciously asking myself questions that I never used to before, is it healthy for the planet? Was there a more sustainable choice I could have made? Is the fashion I buy recyclable? Is it an eco-friendly brand? These small changes from enough people will slowly but surely change the world. Another quote springs to mind from another lecture “All changes started from a small group of people”. Fashion as an industry is huge and if everyone gets on board with these healthy changes then we can truly make a difference. 

I am more mindful of how to live my day to day life with the understanding of how my choices will affect a healthy environment for all life in the future. 

Fletcher, K. (2020) ‘Nature’ [Lecture] Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 12 February.