Continuing on the line of Trends, I wanted to use the View Magazine to discover what the focus for 2020 would be and if the fashion industry were really taking on the idea of ‘Sustainability’ and it wasn’t going to be forgotten about in 2019!

The View Magazine qoutes ‘ Vintage is in vogue – literally so, since Uk Vogue asked in its May issue: “Does your dress look Vintage?” Kim Kardashion wore second-hand Azzedine Alaïa to the Paris Fashion Week, while pre-natal Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wore 1960s Dior to a christening’ (Textile View Magazine (2019, pp.7-8)). This statement is encouraging to viewers as celebrities are taking on the importance of re-using luxury items. Stores such as H&M, Arket and &other stories also announced that they would trial a second hand scheme to allow a Second Life for quality items.

The facts stated in View are: In 2018 64% of women were willing to buy pre-owned pieces and by 2028 13% of clothes will be second hand in women’s wardrobes. With these facts it is thought that resale will be faster than apparel sale in the future, which is great for the planet and the industry (Textile View Magazine (2019, pp.7-8)).

If designers and the industry continue to highlight the importance of being able to ‘wear something again’, it would help the planet hugely. Many young people feel the need for a new outfit for every occasion, which causes harm to the planet with each purchase. By trending ‘Vintage’ in the future, younger people will start to understand that new purchases are not necessary and in-fact wearing something older is much more trendy.

The textile view magazine gives a trend forecast for each of the upcoming three seasons including color, material, design and styling. It analyses street and retail reports, merchandising, consumer behavior, fabrics and fashion.

In Autumn/Winter 19/20 Textile View, they include a big section of trends, designers and fabrics which are ECO.

The first trend looks into Tactile Neutrals which is a combination of natural, soft functional pieces that are 100% natural and sustainable. This features designers such as Zadig & Voltaire and Hozweiler. Zadig & Voltaire aim to use naturally smart wools such as Alpaca, as well as promoting the ban of single use plastics. (Textile View Magazine (2018, pp.188-189))

Another trend looks at Re-cycled Primaries which shows how synthetics are a way of preserving natural resources as recycling becomes more complex. It also includes graphic prints which communicate fears and messages about the future (Textile View Magazine (2018, pp.192-193)). This included brand Balenciaga where the company teamed up with FarFetch to release a new line where donations would go to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This aims to bring awareness to customers of all the threatened species including white rhinoceros, asian elephants and many others (Pinkvilla, 2019).

Magazines such as the Textile View, help to promote brands that are being sustainable in different ways. They help show people how being sustainable is becoming fashionable and it encourages other designers and people to look into the meaning of collections.

I was rather interested in Biomimicry Design in Fashion which involved technology behind it helping interpret Nature and the natural environment. I think this is a key way in which humans could understand the impact that Fashion is having on our planet and the fast and changing effects which is happening to the planet.

One great example of this is ‘Fall’ by Birce Özkan which aimed to showcase how the fashion industry could become more dynamic and create clothes that could react to the world around them. Özkan said “I want clothing to have more responsiveness to the environment, so that instead of people always changing their clothes, the clothes can sometimes change themselves”. ‘Fall’ was created through a question which involved asking ‘What if the temperature got hot suddenly, would our clothes start to break apart in response?’ which formed an design of an interactive garment which would shed similar to that of a tree loosing its leaves. The design used technology, where light would activate small motors; the less light available the more leaves would fall off. The leaves were attached with wax and the motors were attached with small wires, so when there was little light, the motor would pull on the wire, breaking the wax and the leaf would fall off. (Faris (2016))

You can watch this garment in action by clicking here.

Another design created by Özkan was the ‘Augmented Jacket’ which includes an electronic compass and an embedded motor that makes the feathers on the shoulders of the jacket rise up when the wearer walks North. This was inspired by the embedded compass birds have when they fly during migration and how as humans we rely on our smart devices to get to unknown places. This reliance on our smartphones means we miss out on experiences and the awareness of the world around us. (Faris (2016))

You can watch the garment in action by clicking here.

Birce Özkan is a wonderful designer who has taken on inspiration from nature and the damaging effects we as humans have on the environment and turned these feelings into great biomimicry designs. Little Fashion Designers do this today, and if many more took on this challenge and combined their work with technology, great works of art could be formed, as well as greater awareness.

‘Biomimicry’ Design ‘derives inspiration for solutions to human problems through the study of natural designs, systems and processes'( Anzabi (2016) ).

Nature provides many different colors, patterns and shapes which form sources of inspiration for design. Biomimicry design could lead to next level bio-fashion where scientists will discover how natures genetic skin make-up could form new materials for fashion. For example, innovation labs are producing silk from spiders, textiles from pineapples and oranges and leather from mushrooms. ( Arnualt (2018) )

The future of fashion the the form of materials is huge and is said to “expect the unexpected”. Future garments will become like a second skin and will change with the environment that surrounds it. It is thought that the next generation of luxury items will include property values such as self healing, deflection of damaging radiations and pollutions and protection from injury. ( Arnualt (2018) )

After discussion with my lecturer about my previous question, based on H&M, I was asked why I was influenced by the Sustainable Topic. My initial response was my visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to see the Fashion from Nature exhibition and how the designers were influenced by the nature around them and the future for the fashion industry. We discussed this further and came to the conclusion that my focus should be more around this point. I have therefore changed my dissertation title too –

“How is the Fashion Industry using Nature to deliver a Sustainable message?”

My first real love for fashion came from the designer Alexander McQueen who was extremely unique, bold and daring but many of his designs were inspired by his surroundings. I therefore want to conduct a case study into McQueen and how his designs influenced the audience.

I will conduct a research Survey that gathers peoples thoughts about designers work and ask them to discuss how or if designers are delivering a sustainable message through their work.

I will also look into other designers such as Stella McCartney, Katherine Hamnett, Christopher Raeburn and many more; to understand their way of delivering a Sustainable message.

I would also like to include research into the word ‘biomimicry’ within fashion design which would help to overview my dissertation title.

Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability, H&M Group – “Big change requires bold actions and the courage to aim high. At the same time, we have to be humble to the challenges our planet is facing. So if we want to make real change we have to be brave, push the boundaries and not be afraid to fail”

H & M’s sustainable work has a longterm approach to it which in hand comes with dealing with complex sustainability issues. They consider the needs of the present and the future generations and are aware of how the business needs to be conducted in a way that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. By stating their ambitions and goals boldly and clearly on their website reinforces how strong their intentions are to make them a reality.

The brand also believes in the importance of holding an ongoing and open dialogue with all its stake holders. The more voices and insights combined will help them to innovate and priorities actions towards their sustainable work within the company.

The Value Chain at H&M is vastly connected to many people, communities, ecosystems and other business’ around the world and they aim for their business impacts to be as significant and positive as possible. This shows that if their sustainable business model works on such large scales then this model can inspire many other brands all over the world to do the same and take inspiration from it to create their own.

H&M’s Vision and Strategy showcases a mission which is overall to democratise fashion! But the only way to do this is by making it sustainable! H&M therefore believe that the only way to keep making great fashion available for everyone is by doing so in a sustainable form.

Lastly, H&M’s Code of Ethics all comply with the rules and regulations of each country which they operate in and they emphasize that they do not accept any form of corruption. This ensures all people that are contracted by H&M are treated equally and fairly.

By looking into H&M’s Sustainable Strategy I am able to understand what makes their business model so great. I am also able to gain an insight into how fast fashion brands are impacting on the environment and how they can change this by using the H&M Model.

In another post I want to look into each part of the strategy further to understand them in depth and see where other brands can use parts to make the brand more efficient for the environment.

Whilst being at Uni over the past 2 years, I have become increasingly interested in sustainability in Fashion. I have been undertaking an internship with a company called Fortis Clothing who manufacture all their clothing and sourcing all their fabrics in the UK making them 100% British. This has opened my eyes into a sector of the industry that I had never really thought about – sustainable fashion. With Fortis being able to manufacture all their products on site, their cloth being sourced from the UK and being able to repair garments that have been well used makes them highly sustainable! Although this word ‘sustianable’ had been drilled into my head from when I had started my fashion degree, it hasn’t become known to me since it becoming a huge trend in the last year. I therefore want to research this ‘sustainable’ fashion idea further and investigate how brands are becoming or developing into sustainable fashion.

My dissertation question is as follows :

How are brands such as H&M becoming a model for sustainable development in the fashion industry?

I chose H&M as they are the first biggest high street brand to take on sustainability from the people who make the clothes to the environment. They offer a conscious collection which showcases a range of garments that have all been made using sustainable materials as well as offering a garment recycling service across all stores since 2013. The model they have created is quite outstanding and I would like to research how this brand can inspire other brands to do something similar.

I would also like to look into fast fashion and the effects this is having on the environment and how fast fashion brands could take on ideas from H&M to make their part have a greater positive effect on the environment than a negative one.

I look forward to researching into brands and sustainability in fashion and discovering what the future holds for turning fashion green!!

Visual Culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images, which involves cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy and anthropology.

Visual Culture and Media

Visual Culture can be seen in Media as a variety of forms such as – Fine Art, Photography, Film, Tv, New Media/Apps where visual events that give information and meaning is given with performance.

Visual Culture and Iconology

Visual Culture can also be understood using Panofskys Iconology Theory in 1939 which helps us discover symbols or symbolism attached to Visual Culture. We can do this by breaking it down into 3 steps –

1. Identify the very basic subject matter of the image (atmosphere, time, location)
2. Interpretate the image ( is anything symbolic in the image?)
3. Is there any intrinsic meaning or background to the image? (class, wealth, religion)

Visual Culture and Form

We can also understand Visual Culture by looking at form which is concerned with how images are presented rather than what is being shown. It can communicate a meaning as well as content simultaneously. Mainly Modern Art and Abstract art falls into the Form category.

Roger Fry’s theory of Elements of Design help us understand Modern and Abstract art in Form using 5 factors –

1. Rhythm of Line (delineates the object)
2. Mass (bulk or volume communicated)
3. Space (the way the size is represented on a canvas)
4. Light and Shade (alters in response to the same or different objects)
5. Colour (has a direct emotional effect)

Visual Culture and Art History

Art History is the academic study of history and development of painting, sculpture and other visual arts. Ernst Gombrich wanted ‘to help the reader to bring intelligible order to the often confusing history of art’. His book ‘Story of Art’ analyses this throughly, but in short…

1. it puts art into historical context
2. it states there is no such thing as art only artists
3. examples are real works of art therefore carry more artistic merit
4. it is to be enjoyed as a story and begins from where art began

Visual Culture and Ideology

Ideology is another factor of Visual Culture which was formed from the philosophical and political debates of the French Revolution. It can be defined as a set of beliefs or a large group of people who widely share the same beliefs. John Berger in the book ‘Ways of Seeing 1972’ claimed “images give us an unrivaled insight into the past snd in respect are more precise and richer than literature”.

Visual Culture and Semiotics

The last factor of looking and defining Visual Culture is semiotics. Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and how it is communicated. Anything that is used to communicate is defined as a sign e.g a gesture, facial expression, clothes, food, music, advertising, cars we choose to drive. Sausser has a system to help break semiotics down –

1. The Signifier (something that stands for something else – a picture of a dog)
2. The Signified (the idea of the thing it stands for – the word dog)
3. The Sign ( the union of the two – the picture of the dog and the word dog)

Overall, these few factors that help us to understand Visual Culture will help me dissect my research question and look into all these factors in depth.