CHIA-HSUN Yu

In the past few weeks, I have seen many people’s blogs. Everyone has different learning experiences and achievements in this project. I enjoy the moment of appreciating the works of others because I can understand different ideas from me.

Among them, I am most interested in the work of Beatrice Bredikyte, a student from Navigating Through Clothing, and her work is designed a costume for the witch in the story of Hansel and Gretel. The unique part of her work is that the material of the clothes she designed comes from the garbage she made, which is very relevant to the concept of sustainability and nature that she is concerned.

Because of the impact of this global epidemic-COVID 19 disrupted her original plan, but also made her work more unique. She not only made a costume but also made a film to introduce her work, and the film was shot in a real forest, which shocked me a lot.

She used a variety of different angles to shoot costume and matched a bit of weird music, which made me feel like the atmosphere where the witch was going to play. It was great! She also used a drone to capture some views from the sky, creating a real feeling of Hansel and Gretel scene. The clothes she made are also very interesting. Part of the robe used old sheets, and the decorations on the body, such as animal feathers were collected in the forest. He used many natural things to decorate the garment, making this work more like a witch living in the woods.

This is also relevant to her chosen theme of sustainability and nature. She had a lot of ideas pretty creative and helped me broaden my thinking about designing costumes. I can feel her imagination and energy when reading her blog, and she creates a scene that you can enter and enjoy within.

All in all, this is a perfect experience learning new knowledge as well as knows other students from different course.

Over the past few weeks in better lives, I have been exploring my chosen subject, Navigating Through Clothing. We have been learning how to analyze characters and design costumes that match the characters. Rather than merely focusing on clothing, this course focuses on exploring how to create suitable clothing for different characters.

When we went to the National Theater in the second week, I was shocked by the development and technology of costumes. It seems that there are such big secrets in ordinary clothes. As a styling student, I think clothing and props are essential. This kind of learning experience allows me to have better understanding of how to express nuances in character traits through costume designs, and clever use of props hidden in the costumes to make the characters more vivid. I have seen many designs for costumes, both the outlines and the fabric of clothing are matched with the personality of the characters. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the tension of the figure on the stage, and it needs a combination of many aspects to complete. This is also my new understanding of costumes.  Our project is to design costumes for a classic story – Hansel and Gretel. I chose the stepmother as my design character, which I thought was challenging. The stepmother is not a pleasant character, and the story presents a bitter and selfish image. At the same time, their family is impoverished, so I was a little limited in designing costumes. I want to add sustainable elements to the garment, so the materials I choose are all the things I will use in my life, using these materials to present a daily and comfortable feeling. When researching how to design characters, a series named a singular beauty of Vogue Italia 2008 inspired me.

The modelling of the model in the photo is very in line with my character, allowing me better to imagine the connection between the costume and the stepmother.

Finally, I designed the finished product, the part of the upper body, which was inspired by old clothes that I had worn for a long time. I wanted to use the loose neckline and yellowed cloth to present the atmosphere of poverty. The belt is made of hemp rope, and the inspiration for the dress comes from the plastic bags I have used. I think it is a good choice to use plastic bags as the fabric, which is waterproof and durable and can also show the feature of reuse.

Overall, I am delighted to join in this project. After several weeks of study, have gained a deeper understanding of costumes, how to present effects on stage and how to use costumes to show characters. I regret that I cannot go back to school to learn more details at this moment due to the outbreak of COVID-19. I will definitely participate if there appears to be a costume workshop.

Reference: Paolo, R. (2008) A singular beauty [Photograph]

Chia-hsun, Y. (2020) Stepmother costume [Photograph]

Better lives has informed me about the importance of Diversity, Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the fashion industry. As a styling and production student, I have researched sustainability issues in my previous works, so I pay more attention to sustainable development. Sustainability started from our everyday life, rather than being specially carried out of the behaviour. For example, I do waste sorting, for instance paper recycling or bottle sorting in my daily life. Although some people think that such action will not help the environment much, if everyone does it, the cumulative results will be tremendous. In the previous blog, I mentioned that Fashion is a vast industry, and the scope of coverage is also extensive. Many companies ignore the damage to the environment in order to obtain benefits, whether it is water pollution caused by making clothes or the destruction of too many unsalable goods has caused severe damage.

These are the current status of the fashion industry. As students who want to enter the industry in the future, from my point of view, we have the responsibility to change as fashion is an industry with great influence, which can profoundly influence people’s thoughts.
Through this lecture, I was thinking about how to make my work more sustainable. In my previous job, I collected a lot of garbage produced in daily life as my material, such as plastic bottles or paper cups. I try not to buy the materials I need to make my work more consistent with the theme of sustainability.
In the fashion industry, some brands set sustainable development as a future goal. Take the well-known fashion brand H & M as an example. H & M Conscious is a product line that aims to reduce the impact on the environment. Most of the clothes are using organic cotton or recycled polyester.
They also have an excellent project. You can donate your unwanted clothing at H & M, not only you can reuse the clothes but also get some discounts. In my view, this is what other brands can learn. The essential thing to achieve sustainable development is reuse. To reuse paper or plastic can greatly help the environment. In addition, the upcycling and reconstruction of items is also a good method.
Another perfect example is Stella McCartney. They have committed to environmental protection, have never used leather or fur and continue to develop new alternative materials. Moreover, they want to challenge and make ‘beautiful and sustainable’ products. I believe they have achieved that.
Fashion is indeed a controversial industry in terms of environmental protection. Still, it has been slowly changing the business model, no longer just pursuing benefits but for a balance between business and environment, also promoting sustainability. In the future, I would say more and more people or brands will join the ranks and contribute to the planet.
Reference: Stella McCartney (2020) Mission statement, Available at: https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/us/sustainability/themes/mission-statement/
(Accessed: 06 May 2020)

At the beginning of this semester, we have a new unit – better lives, which I find quite challenging. In four different lectures I participated in, I learned about the various aspects of the fashion industry and problems in our world. Among these, I am most interested in the theme of society taught by Katelyn Toth-Fejel.

During the lecture, she mentioned many issues which I also pay close attention to throughout my everyday life, in particularly clothing. Nowadays, clothes worn by online influencers and celebrities have great influence on how teenagers dress themselves. They follow trends, hoping to be on the fashion cutting edge. However, the fact that many celebrities wear luxuries, indirectly affects younger generation’s system of values. Instead of showing their characteristics, they think that wearing the same clothes as celebrities and holding the same bags is fashionable. Such an ethos proliferates among young people, who pursue famous brands and buy expensive goods, but many of them are unable to afford such expenditures.

However, some people think that such behaviour is acceptable. They believe that by purchasing luxury goods to enhance their status or to package themselves, they will not be marginalized in society. As Katelyn said, dressing is a social act, where we create a specific identity and communicating things like our personal aesthetic taste beauty or sex appeal. I also agree with her.

Secondly, she also talked about the social problems caused by fast fashion in the fashion industry. Fast fashion is a phrase, which was coined to describe inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends; garments are manufactured cheaply and expected to have a short life.

Fast fashion is a commercial means that must launch new products rapidly and continuously to attract customers to buy. Therefore, large number of factories and workers are required to make clothes. However, these low-level workers’ salary is weak and are the most exploited people in this industry.

Besides, some companies will employ child labour to reduce costs, which is very unethical. Not only do they not have sufficient wages, but they also work overtime. These problems have caused a negative impact on the fashion industry. While some people may find this situation not as serious as they are not the population suffering from this problem, I see it as a human rights violation.

In the lecture, the teacher also mentioned how to combine society and sustainable development. The current environmental pollution is severe; we must start to change our habits and reduce the damage to the environment. Taking the fashion industry as an example, some companies have introduced the use of organic cotton to make clothes, which significantly reduce the pollution caused by growing cotton. At the same time, we can learn to have better understanding of ecological footprint to make smarter choices when consuming goods, therefore, minimize the pollution we create.

In the end, I think these lectures have given me a better understanding of the practical issues, and at the same time, triggered the idea that I want to further research. Fashion is a huge industry, worth exploring and improving.