This week I gained a new deeper curiosity for the sphere of Fashion. The brief overview of the industry through class discussions was helpful in explaining my perspective, but I have to account the documentary True Cost for providing a foundational level of understanding of the logistics. As I was viewing it for the first time, I had to keep pausing and replaying the statistics. I pondered how the clothing I order on taobao did not come from some Magic Box, and how I never once before took the time to be a continuous consumer while online shopping, or any type of clothing shopping for the matter. It was a wakeup call.
The world around us is vast. The population is growing and so is the industrial transformation of nature. I am a curious person, and I like to explore topics of relevance to today’s society. I cannot believe how quickly the world is developing around me and to slow down my thought flow I use the method of mind mapping. I use a large A3 paper and some colourful markers and I jot down words and phrases in relation to what is on my mind. I like to see the collage and draw parallels and other relations. Fun fact: the majority of the conclusions I derive to in fact state that “everything is in unity because all is related in one way or another”. As I was exploring some key concepts from the documentary I thought I would be great to try something like that for our Topic Presentation. The activity itself is very encouraging because there is no “right answer” and it can draw different students to different interest focuses, rather than guiding their understanding with specific questions. Even looking at the board (*picture attached*) and seeing how the phrases relate suggest the circulation of this industry to be very profit orientated. I have never before had such a strong feeling of a relationship between the Fashion industry and the concept of oppression. I want to explore this by gaining further understanding in the course of how the industry operates.
Dipping a toe into the sea of Fashion has provoked me to question my own moral values and opinions. I think that is the most important thing I hope to gain from higher education; to be able to learn the ability to question everything, and most importantly yourself.
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