Samantha Cairns

Research and concept building using the themes of better lives along with the concepts of the fashion mistake, imperfections, contouring and colour theory that we covered resulted in very different experimentation outcomes. Narrowing the end of the project the tasks given to us became more abstract and helped us to really explore how we can create a striking look with a strong concept. One of our last exercises was creating two looks using materials found at home. Makeup could be used but primarily it was to utilise other objects to create shape, meaning and interesting looks. Items such a cling film, tape, paper clips, flowers, foil and beads were amongst the items I considered during some brainstorming. One look was to represent the fashion mistake and the other was imperfection. For my first look I played around with cling film and tape to place them where you would typically contour. The shine on the cling film represents a super glossy, highlight look. A trend that is very popular nowadays is an extremely shimmery and highlighted face. The tape created shape as well as holding the cling film in place. I put it in the hollows of my cheek were a contour colour would typically be placed and thought it would create nice shape. For my second look I decided to stick coffee beans on my face in place of beads which I didn’t have at home. The look of beads and jewels stuck on the face is something others played around with and it also featured in some of the pictures of inspiration that were shown to us as examples. I thought behind the coffee beans could also reflect a coffee obsession. I drink at least two a day and especially with this global pandemic I think everyones sleep schedules are out of sync. There is a lot of stress and anxiety playing on peoples minds and I’ve definitely felt like I need a coffee pick me up during the day to focus on my work. I think with the themes of this unit, we can comment on issues such as pollution, ocean plastic, landfills, air pollution, covid-19 gender inequality and other social issues and represent them within symbolic items, writing and and styling. We have a padlet page where everyone uploads their looks to and I thought it was amazing to see everyone’s work as we all had completely different takes on the tasks. Some students were so creative with someone placing forget-me-not flowers on her lips (which I thought was very symbolic). Another student created a look called ‘quarantine queen’ which I thought was amazing. She used cleaning products like a Dettol bottle, toilet paper, masks and canned goods along with tiara. I thought this was such an imaginative and brilliant concept carried out beautifully. Even the way she took her pictures was so strong. A very tongue in cheek way to showcase societies intense reaction to this global pandemic as a fashion story. 

The better lives unit is something that has very much interested me as I think that the topics it covers is a much needed discussion, especially as we will be the future of this industry. It will give us a chance to experience other courses and challenge ourselves. During the first two weeks of better lives we are required to watch three lectures per week and one unit briefing. I watched the lectures at home and dowloaded the slides to help me create in depth notes. The first lecture I watched was the one on Power by Julia Crew. I found this was a great start to discuss power within fashion, money, media, consumer, protests and ourselves. She talked about where dominance lays and why, looking through history, advertising and consumer and protests. This was a very engaging lecture to start off the unit and I felt that it created some energy and peaked my interest. It is clear how important each of the lectures are in creating a dialogue and how there are so many factors that effect the industry and what the future holds for us. The Inclusion lecture by Laura Salisbury especially is very insightful as to what the future of technology and fashion could do to benefit and aid in assisting people who have suffered from a stroke to facilitate the recovery of upper limb functions with the use of smart textiles. Laura’s research on brain stimulation techniques integrated within a smart wearable textile has been an incredible development. Fashion touches every single person in one way or another. To have ingenuity be used within textiles to be inclusive of those with a condition of some kind wether that be a disability or restriction after an accident, this technology could help so many people carry out everyday functions with more ease and improve someones quality of life. There are limitations but also opportunities such as the example of Yves Béhar’s Fuse project. He is a Swiss designer with an award winning design called the Aura Power-suit. A suit that produces wearable strength. Motors, sensors and AI embedded into a lightweight, flexible fabric assist in creating movement. For example, core strength declines with age. The power suit augments yours strength by aligning electric muscles with your natural muscles, actuating at the same time to assist in you movement. From a position of sitting to the transition of standing, the suit will help support the torso, legs and hips by creating shocks that assist the muscles strength. This particular example shows the possibilities that could be made with this sort of technology in the future. I think this lecture has given me an insight in to designs that could spark creativity and ingenuity within this industry and help in creating better lives.