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  At first, I was unsure and curious about what The Better Lives Unit would teach me about Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Diversity, however, through the course of these lectures, I felt that it had broadened my perspective and invoked curiosity in me that made me research and come to the realization that brands are no more about solely the merchandise they manufacture but more importantly the values and message they put out to the world.

The lecture that really spoke to me and that I will be reflecting on is Shahida Bari’s lecture on diversity. During the lecture Shahida made a statement that really stuck with me “Diversity is not only about race”. As a young brown girl I have always felt underrepresented in the fashion/beauty industry, however, in recent years there has been an increase in the representation of people of color in the industry which had previously made me believe that the fashion industry is progressing and changing its ways, however, after attending Shahida’s lecture and hearing her speak about how there is limited inclusion of people in the industry who have different body types, people of different ages, people from the LGBTQ community and in the representation of the disabled community, made me realize the fashion industry has a long way to go for every person to feel represented and for it to be labeled as“diverse”.

Fashion brands need to up their game and ensure that every community is represented and celebrated as Shahida rightly said: “fashion is a visible and creative medium which means it’s presenting a vision of the world” therefore, including different minority groups, will not only boost sales but make every community seen, represented, respected and make the world a BETTER,kinder place. In addition to this Shahida spoke about how diversity is not a trend and should not be an exception to the rule but should be a part of our practice, which I found extremely interesting as we so often witness fashion brands labeling themselves as diverse as a mere marketing strategy or to seem “niche” and trendy, but their actions paint another picture, for example – The Gucci black balaclava jumper that resembles blackface.”Diversity is a buzzword with very little action”

There is no doubt that the fashion industry is trying to change its ways, but it needs to be inclusive when the press and its audience are watching but also behind the scenes, where they are not.

REFERENCES

Shahida Bari (2020),’Diversity Intro’,[Lecture].Better Lives,London College Of Fashion.Acessed on 10/04/2020

The main 3 themes from better lives lectures are Diversity, Social responsibility and Sustainability which we always talked about and sensitive. I think learning somethings new ( which we didn’t know it before) is fun and fresh, but learning somethings that have often been talked about can seem boring. However during last few weeks, I have not felt bored. It’s because all the lectures were deeply analysed and developed.

Anyway even we had  high quality lecturers the main point is how do we go to adapt those things to our life styles and fashion industry. I usually wondering ‘Do we really 2 times of ready to wear( spring and summer, autumn and winter), 2 times of haute couture( spring and fall), and resort collections in a year?’ What I mean is do we really have to show those amazing pieces and looks with massive scales of virtual show. On the ecology view, it caused tremendous carbon foot prints, more than a thousand people are taking a flight and train to come to main key cities and also taking a taxi to get fashion show location. Furthermore, on the sustainability view, designers from luxurious brands are consuming all the materials just once to show beautiful garments. For instance, Raf Simons used a million of flowers for 2012 Christian Dior haute couture show and Jacquemus shaved four rows of lavender fields to make a space for publics. I tried to find out how Dior handled those flowers after show and how Jacquemus controlled lavender fields after show but they never reveal these answers. 

  Now, as COVID – 19 happened students are taking their online class, companies doing their works at home, having a meeting through zoom and fashion brands are also doing their shoot through online materials. I was especially surprised at fashion shoot could be done at home without practical meetings. All we did at university and will do in the future are collaborations with various people. And as a fashion student sometimes when I had actual meetings with designers or photographers we could not reach to our own ideal and disappointed to each others. However, I have got lessons from Claire swift’s collaboration lecture. To go through our journey we have to building trust within our team and attribute. Even we really want to give up, we still have to remind our end vision in mind and maintain it. 

I don’t know about post covid-19 life, but I am sure that we might could not have a life we had before. And as a fashion student what I have to be changed is believing my team members ability and protect our end visions. 

In response to: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/10/blog-2-themes-reflection-21/

After reading Jordan Stamp’s blog post related to the reflection of the themes, I found that we are likely to be drawn to one of the themes. 

Her opening statement is well written and gives a fascinating overview of the themes and how they are linked partially to her personal life. Still, I would have also included what kind of work you so, stylist, makeup or photography to know how that influences the themes. 

I find interesting the way Jordan has to describe the meaning behind each other themes. She goes in-depth about diversity, really relating it to her own experience but also furthering from what she has learned in the lectures. Even though her explanations are deep are well connected to her, I believe that they should be more connection to her process and work. She explains what she would do in her projects in the third paragraph when she talks about sustainability. Still, it would have been interesting to know how she will approach social responsibility and diversity in her own work. For example, when she talks about diversity, she could have talked about getting involved in projects that help to promote more diversity in the industry, or working with other creatives that are interested in the same movement. 

On her third paragraph, she starts saying “Lifestyles without sustainability leave no room for life at the end of the day. The urge for it has never been greater, and it is clear that survival relies on this change.” This statement is powerful and creates an excellent fluidity to add then the ways she will incorporate it in the future. 

Even though this blog post is meant to be short, I think there is an imbalance of the topics and focus too much in one of them. I think the social responsibility theme could have been explored a little more as the statement seems to be a bit broad. 

I would also be interested in reading a final small statement that summarises her feelings about all the themes in general or how the better lives unit as a whole will change her process. 

Overall I think this is a well-written piece of work, but I think it is missing the connection to her process which I think it was one of the main links to be made in this post, responding on how the themes are going to influence your work in the future. 

Who knew that we would be hit with a worldwide pandemic that would force us to say at home and change everything we took for granted. One of the themes that we have covered in Better Lives is Social Responsibility. I think right now more than ever we need to be socially responsible, not just in fashion, but in our everyday life.

I believe that this one has been some of the most challenging times for me, mentally, physically and creatively. Having to work on a make-up look without any make-up, it can be challenging, but it has helped me to think outside of the box. The activities we did in class helped me to think quick, which will help me in my projects as I go forward in photoshoots. Sometimes things don’t go the way they are supposed to, and you need to act fast with what you have around you, which is what I had to do in the activity of “ 2 looks in 2 hours” (pictures 1-2). While we all had to do the work in our own houses and didn’t see everyone’s process, it was interesting to see how different everyone replies to the same project. While photography is something you do alone, it is you and a camera; I want to work more collaboratively because they are so many ideas that can improve with just another mind put into work. 

For his project, I chose to combine the better lives topic of social responsibility with the in-class theme of imperfection, choosing to represent the key workers, mainly in the health care industry. A few days before having to do this make-up look, I was watching the news and heard about a doctor that got her car trashed a graffiti with the words RATA CONTAGIOSA (English translation: contagious rat). It made me feel angry, and that there should something be done about it, but because I couldn’t leave my house, I decided to represent it in this make-up look. 

They are different parts of this look (picture 3):

-The face mask: only protection the nurses and doctors have.  

-The eyeshadow: representation of sickness and tiredness. 

-The tears: even though they are working day and night to keep us safe, they are being attacked by their neighbours because they are “carrying” the virus. 

-The wings: in reality, they are the only ones that can save us from this pandemic as there is no cure or vaccination. 

Making a piece of artwork that you like, it always makes you feel good, but when that piece of artwork can mean so much, it becomes much more, its a statement.

When we were first told about the better lives unit, one of the themes was stuck with me the most, diversity. With no surprise, I was drawn immediately to hear the lecture on representation by Teleica Kirkland. This lecture focused on the viewpoint of the black community and how it has been represented in the media. More than ever right now, we are trying to break the eurocentric wall. Social Media has helped to give light to minorities that had not been represented in media the way they should have been. 

One of the things that I learned and found fascinating was when she talked about outraged marketing. It’s hard for me to get my head around the fact that people and brands will hurt minority groups on purpose just so their brands are talked about. I guess like everything in society and especially in fashion, money is more important than the social responsibility they have. But its good to see big luxury brands like Gucci, correcting their mistakes and making sure that it will not happen in the future. This is the mentality that brands should have to make sure that the voices of diverse groups are being heard and represented in fashion and media. This lecture has opened my eyes to understand more clearly the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Both are separated by a very small like, but now more than ever we have to tools to know what is right from what is wrong. 

Overall I think representation is essential, but it has to be done correctly. If you are going to do something, do it with people that are part of the culture, that understand it because if you are going to hurt and disrespect people on the way, do not do it.

After this lecture, I was eager to learn a little more about representation but in other minorities groups, like Asian culture, the lgbtq+ community and also different sizes. There is a lot we can do being part of the fashion industry that will help them feel more comfortable with who they are and whom they want to become. There is something happening at the moment in our society, we are changing, but this change is going to take long, but the more people involved, the better it will be.

For the final blog post, we were asked to review peer blogs and see how they interpreted the Better Live themes. It was interesting to look through the different posts because I realized that not only did everyone understand the themes differently, but they also came up with very different ideas to express their thoughts on the topics. The blog I chose to reflect on is written by Annabel Jones. She is my peer in my PR course as well as the Fashion Activism course, and in her third blog post, she reflects on how her group used these themes to create a moving image for their assigned brand.

I thought it was a good idea to review a peer from the same course because since our points are very similar, it is much easier to see the commonalities and differences between her interpretation of the themes and mine. Firstly, I thought it was fascinating that she and her group decided to use Tik Tok as an outlet for their moving image. She talks about the fact that the reason they chose to use Tik Tok was not only because their brands target consumers, Millenials, and gen z, find it popular, but also because of the strict restriction quarantine has put on them due to COVID 19. They were placed in a position where they couldn’t come together in person, and realize the idea that they initially had. I connected with that, because my group went through the same struggles. We were all put into a position where we were spread out in different countries and time zones, which meant that we also had to let go of our original idea, and come up with a plan B. 

I also really liked the fact that the group highlighted the themes of sustainability and diversity in their video. Annabel mentions that they were assigned the brand Triad, a second-hand store that can be found across London. Since it is a second-hand store, they prioritize sustainability as well as reusing and recycling clothing. And while there could have been many different ways of interpreting these themes, their group decided to do something very unique and fun. In the video, you can see that the girls are all wearing different outfits, which are all based on their family member’s clothing pieces. Whether it be a vest, or coat, or jeans, they all came up with their unique way to wear the pieces. I thought that was so fun to watch, especially since outfit videos are very popular on Tik Tok. I also loved that they highlighted their individuality, and made it easy to see the range of diversity their group had. 

Overall, I think that their group did a great job reflecting on the themes through their video and that Annabel did a great job learning more about the Better Live themes as well as creative direction. She makes it clear at the end of her blog that she enjoyed the experience, and that she looks forward to doing it again.

Annabel’s blog had my attention for the 3rd blog post reflecting her project outcome when choosing fashion activism as for her area for better lives unit. I previously do not have a very clear mind on what the unit was about, Annabel explained that what the subject creative direction was about clearly in her blogpost. She also shared her interesting learning details and processes in her blog post, which she and her groupmates were not able to perform their original plan due to the COVID19 situation and still managed to completed the task without meeting up and made use of other platforms. I enjoyed her blogpost as she shared how they did not frustrated with the situation and able to achieve a satisfying outcome and congratulations on winning the best casting awards!

For the other 2 blogs that she had written about the lecture of Empathy and the other two themes, Social responsibility and sustainability. Annabel has a great understanding of knowing the importance of applying these 3 concepts into a brand / a company’s daily practices, which I agreed with her and had mentioned in my own blog post above. I felt like Annabel could include more contents about sustainability. 

Themes reflection 

reflecting on how the Better Lives themes 

The fashion world has always been changing and it will always continue to. We have gone through many substantial changes, some greater than the other. Diversity has been and still is a huge topic in the fashion industry, it’s what has widely been missing across all the platforms of creativity. Vogue came about in 1901 and all the models were socialites. When looking back at magazines it was obvious that there was no diversity as only white models were used at all times and only in 1959 China Machado,  was the first model of colour to appear in the magazine. This has greatly improved over time however to this day we still have issues with this topic, which sparks questions whether artists carefully think through their choices when creating a result. There have been many times where artists or photographers treat people of colour differently than others in the same work environment. As a practitioner, I would never want to create such an atmosphere in a creative workspace and my intentions are to treat people with respect despite what their ethnicity is. Acceptance and equality are still missing within the fashion industry and I hope through my actions of respect it will create a domino effect on other practitioners.

Another huge issue we face in fashion is sustainability. One of the major big changes has been how we produce clothes, as there are many large companies which manufacture clothing which creates consequences that we did not have to face previously. It creates massive causes to the environment such as waste pollution and carbon emissions. Most are aware of these causes but choose to do nothing to help this issue be improved. Many fashion designers right now are working with sustainable materials and really considering how we can reuse materials in a smart and creative way to even possibly push this idea further onto other designers as well as artists. This should definitely have a great influence on the fashion industry and society as we should be more considerate of our choices with clothing. Many people including myself have started to purchase clothing from charity shops for a change and this has initiated a massive difference in how much fast fast-fashion we consume. When planning for my own shoots I always turn to charity shops for styling pieces as you can find some rare and unique items. As these are usually used clothing items I don’t feel as bad experimenting with them by painting or cutting them up, which makes the whole creative process more fun. Overall this is one of the elements that gives me the freedom to do whatever I want and form diverse image outcomes.

Annabel’s blog had my attention for the 3rd blog post reflecting her project outcome when choosing fashion activism as for her area for better lives unit. I previously do not have a very clear mind on what the unit was about, Annabel explained that what the subject creative direction was about clearly in her blogpost. She also shared her interesting learning details and processes in her blog post, which she and her groupmates were not able to perform their original plan due to the COVID19 situation and still managed to completed the task without meeting up and made use of other platforms. I enjoyed her blogpost as she shared how they did not frustrated with the situation and able to achieve a satisfying outcome and congratulations for winning the best casting awards!

For the other 2 blogs that she had written about the lecture of Empathy and the other two themes, Social responsibility and sustainability. Annabel has a great understanding of knowing the importance of applying these 3 concepts into a brand / a company’s daily practices, which I agreed with her and had mentioned in my own blog post above. I felt like Annabel could include more contents about sustainability. 

Peer review task

We were asked to reflect on one of our peers’ work and how they incorporated better lives themes. I have chosen to reflect on Desi Bogdanova blogs. I will be mainly looking at the third blog post as it striked me the most. In the first blog post Desi is referring back to one of the lectures about empathy, and how social responsibility plays a part when confronting issues. It really creates a link with the final look she created and the idea behind it. References of relevant artists are mentioned which show a clear understanding of who is involved with these themes and how they are further evolving.

I choose to mainly reflect on the third blog post as it refers to an issue that is relevant to all of us at the moment (COVID19). I thought that the way this theme was approached was really fun and a clever way to explore the theme and portray a narrative using the items around the home. The look “quarantine queen” was quite prop-based which made it a lot more engaging to a viewer and the choice of minimal makeup suited this look well and let the props speak for themselves.

I thought the elements such as the tissue paper and face mask made you look at the photo more just because of how they were placed which reflected on the themes of fashion mistake and social responsibility effectively. 

From a fashion photographers point of view, the images formed when capturing this look are captivating, it grabs your attention instantly. I also think that the angles and crops chosen for the photos work really well and overall form a series of strong images which could be seen in an editorial. I particularly found it interesting to read her take on the pandemic and how the panic of the public was unnecessary leaving others in worse conditions. Looking at Desis blogs I can definitely see how she has taken what she has learned from the Better Lives lectures and applied it to create her final look. I particularly like the choice of the topic being about global pandemic as it is something that all of us are dealing with at the moment. I think it was approached in a well thought out way as it focused on a serious issue however portraying this in a more free and creative way.

It would have been quite interesting to see how this idea and look could have been taken further and if this issue could be portrayed in another creative way. I hope that Desi is committed to exploring the themes of better lives in her further works.