' All Walks Beyond the Catwalk is an initiative founded by Caryn Franklin; Debra Bourne and Erin O'Connor working with influential Catwalk designers and top industry creatives to celebrate more diversity within the fashion industry '
The idea of the competition was to inspire creative students to produce a piece of work highlighting important issues within the fashion industry related to the need for diversity of image.
I chose to write a journalistic piece as I wanted to express my opinion on this occasion in words. I feel passionately about design and in particular fashion yet I also feel there is an ' unfairness' that has permeated its way into the industry, leaving many of its consumers feeling discontented with their 'look'. Unattainable imagery seems to be the order of the day and aspirational marketing, whilst not a totally bad idea, is being used today in such a damaging way, that the health of the industries fashion consumers is at risk of being seriously damaged.
Where did I start? ...
Analysis of my brief focused me more directly to the task I had to fulfil:
Here's my angle ...
Body ideal
Fear insecurity
Emotional craving
Individualistic attitude
Writing and
thinking that ‘shines a light’ on the way forward
‘Challenging
belief’ that only one body ideal is ‘aspirational and market worthy’
What drives
‘fashion’?
Who makes it
work?
Who does
fashion influence?
What
responsibilities if any, does fashion have?
Who is
fashion responsible to?
What causes
‘change’ in social attitude?
What is
image?
1.
im·age
/ˈimij/
Noun
|
||||||
Verb
|
||||||
Synonyms
|
Wanted: Fashionable Female Aged 50+ (Possible title?)
‘Polemic argument’ – thought provoking journalism
Dr. Ben Barry - work
A child of the sixties, I am by definition a ‘baby boomer’,
A brief
analysis of current culture of beauty and body ideals (from my perspective) – a
thoughtful or adventurous journey through or about image
A quick word association around image and the fashion industry - this is what I came up with ...
Fear; emotional insecurity; fitting in vs. standing out; poor
lifestyle choices; image dictatorship – tells you who to be; what to do/ say;
how to do/say it; lack of individualistic thinking/being; seeking acceptance/
reassurances – self-doubt; shock value;
Psychological suppression; collaborative thinking;
collective conditioning; self-promotion
The competition wants me to see this as the angle from which to write my piece:
So here is my sketchbook showing all the research I collected; edited and composed into a story from which I was able to write my editorial piece.
By the way, I must have drafted it and edited and re-drafted about 20 times till I got it just how I wanted it!
