Minimalism is a documentary focusing on the life changing benefits and effects of a minimalist lifestyle choice. It’s about the consumer economy, we are fuelled by an illusion on what our lives should look like.

Everyday you see advisement whether it’s beauty, fashion, technology etc. on all types of platforms from large billboards and TV adverts to an Instagram post on your phone. It’s everywhere! It makes you believe that your lives should be perfect, which is far from reality for most of us. It talks about what’s important in life, things that make you happy. We bring things into our lives without a thought we are just told by the media that we need them and it will make us happy.

We have created a habit of buying excessive amount of things that bring no value what so ever to our lives but takes our hard earned money. People living in enormous homes, filling it with objects they never use or need, space they never use but pay for. Fast Fashion, a cycle of 52 seasons per year, they want us to feel like your out of trend so that to you buy again the week after, and this has become a habit most of us are doing without realising. We buy to fulfil a void and we keep looking but it never gets fulfilled. As consumers, we need to be concerned about quality and not quantity. An example was getting rid of any times that can cause you any sort of unnecessary stress such as an overflowing wardrobe of clothes we never wear. This habit of constant need to consume apposed to just thinking about what is necessary in our lives may just be the step in the direction we need to take to ensure a happy life and habitable environment.

 

 

The True Cost film/documentary unveils deep inside the tragedies of the fashion industry. The suffering the population in the developing countries such as India are enduring due to the need and want of cheap clothing and labour.  It taught me the devastating effects of the Bt cotton seed that results in thousands of farmers in serve dept with many of them resulting in suicide. As a pesticide intensive crop,  the chemicals used is also causing life threatening illnesses such as cancer.  The documentary follows a young garment worker who is struggling to make a living by working endless hours a day and earning next to nothing. She is unable to keep her daughter with her in the city due to  the dangerous chemicals therefore she is forced to send her away to a village where she can only visit around once or twice a year.  She speaks out and tells us viewers to think twice before buying cheap clothing, think about who made your clothes and how many people suffered in the process.

Due to constant drop in prices, the cost of labour is decreasing to an unbelievable amount. The garment workers and farmers who produce our clothing deserve a fair wage and fair working conditions, but to keep up with the fast fashion marketing that retailers have created, to keep prices low in the shops they must make the production prices even lower. In my opinion fast fashion is a large contributing factor to the devastating reality of the garment workers, we need to accept that it is not ethical to pay so little for clothing and us as a society need to re-think our shopping habits and re-evaluate where we source our clothing.

 

 

Image from the True Cost Film.

 

Fashion Revolution believe in the values of people, the environment and profit in equal measure in the fashion industry. There goal is to unite people to create a better industry, changing the way we source, produce and consume our clothing for the better. They believe that collaborating between the supply chain, from the farmers to the consumer is the only way to transform the industry and I strongly agree with this statement.

 

Fashion Revolution Day. A year after one of the worst structural disasters in modern history, a garment factory, the Rana Plaza collapsed killing 1,135 people and injuring around 2,500. Fashion Revolution teamed up with the Fair Trade Foundation to create a movement to raise awareness of the problems in the fashion industry. It’s a who made my clothes campaign called ‘Fashion Revolution Day’ where people turn their clothing inside out so that the label is shown and photographs them wearing it, posts it on social media using the hashtag #insideout. It’s to show appreciation to the many people who made that garment and to call out to fashion companies to enclose where our clothes are really made, and by who. 

I love this campaign by Fashion Revolution, the images of the garment workers shown in their working environments makes it very personal. It does make me think, when I wear a garment, that I don’t know who it was made by, most likely by garment workers who are suffering in various countries, these are the factors that we do not consider, which i’m sure fashion revolution wanted to achieve through this campaign.

This documentary really opened my eyes to the truth behind the dark side of the fashion industry, looking into the environmental tragedy of the Aral Sea due to cotton farming was shocking,

Shrinking from the 60s, the Aral Sea was once one of the largest inland sea’s in the world, now it is near enough vanished.  Due to the disappearance of the sea, and without the water evaporating the sun’s heat, the climate has significantly changed turning what was once a fishing community into a desert.

Along with the Aral Sea, the documentary saw the polluting of the chemicals that flowed into the river from many different garment factories. Black coloured chemicals would infuse the river water, killing any living create that lived in it. The local people would use this water for cleaning and drinking purposes, resulting in skin irritation and illnesses. These companies clearly do not care about the effects that their factories are having on the population that lives around them, and this needs to be addressed.

 

What really interested me in this documentary was how little the public knew, or were aware, of the dangers and effects caused by the fashion industry and how it is the second most polluting industry in the world after the oil industry. This is due to the lack of information given from retailers on where their clothes are made and who and what makes them. Stacey visited a sustainability summit in Copenhagen where numerous large retailers attended and not one would inclose any information regarding their production methods.

 

Trekstock is a UK youth cancer charity that exisits to provide support with young adults in their 20s and 30s living with the affects of cancer. We were given a project to come up with an exciting new concept for a UK wide fundraising idea.We were commissioned by the Trekstock charity to come up with a 360 fundraising strategy for both offline/online during the month of June 2018. We had a budget of £10,000 to create the assets needed to get this underway and to promote to the public.

I have developed a concept for NikeiD to collaborate with Trekstock by giving the public the chance to design their own Nike sport garments, using the Trekstock colour palette. With enough advertisement and exposure, the colours will be recognised and help raise awareness to the cause. For every item that is designed through using Trekstock colours 8% of the profit will go to the charity.

I have created an exclusive event to launch the collaboration and promote the charity. The event will take place in a rooftop garden in a venue called ‘The Bethnal Garden’ in central London. I thought it was a great location because it is accessible and as London is such a busy place, it will hopefully attract more people. I have created an eye catching poster to advertise the event with all the information including the location, time and key events that will take place at the launch.

I have also created tickets and a social media page to ensure the event is publicised.

The lauch will be held on the 7th of July, a day event filled with activities for the guests to get involved in. The main idea for the event is to display the possible outcomes that you can create using the NikeID/Trekstock collaboration, gathering people to model the designs that are possible and raising awareness to the cause, along with a DJ who will bring a suitable atmosphere throughout the day. Trekstock are lucky to have such a good panel of ambassadors and patrons including the talented Joe Wicks known for his fitness DVD’s and ‘15 to get lean’ programme who will be directing a live fitness class at the event for the guest to participate in, helping to promote a fit and healthy lifestyle. Trekstock are also fortunate to have the wonderful Ella Woodward, more commonly known as Deliciously Ella who will be providing the food at the event along with a live cooking class to promote wellbeing and inspire people to eat healthy.

Overall the event will certify that the charity becomes highly recognised and promotes the new collaboration with NikeiD, raising awareness to the cause and getting the Trekstock colours acknowledged for its purpose. We aim to attract around 300 guests to the event at the rate of £10 a ticket in hopes of raising £3000.

For this project I decided to look at photoshop in the fashion industry and how it gives people false expectation of what their appearance should look like. Every fashion magazine will re-touch their images in one way or another, whether it’s airbrushing the skin or completely transforming a figure, they are all experts in deceving us making us believe what we see is the truth.

I started researching how to photoshop images and found out how simple it was. Using an iPhone app such as ‘air-brush’ that allows you to transform a face with one click of a button. Should it be this simple?!

This part of the app is called the ‘magic tool’. It gives you the option to lighten or darken the skin, enlarge and brighten the eyes, slim the face and smooth the skin. If it’s this easy to do does this mean everyones social media pictures are altered? Is today’s society pressuring us to look a cetrain way? a way that is unatainbale without editing.

I wanted to create a poster to try and show people the difference between a natural face and what we see on social media today. Encouringing people to embrace their natural beauty and stop inspiring to look like the unrealisitc goals we see in magazines and adverts.

Do people really know the truth behind a gluten free diet? Like fashion, diet trends come and go, but currently one that has become a bit more popular is the gluten free diet. Are people following this diet for what they think is a healthier lifestyle, or do they purely need to follow this diet due to health reasons?

To begin; what is gluten? Well, gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and spelt grain. Gluten is mostly used in products such as bread, cereals and pasta. It acts as a glue that holds food together to help maintain their shape. They also contribute health benefits such as fibre, vitamins and calories which are lost when you switch to a gluten free diet. People have been lead by the media to believe that the diet helps you lose weight, treat autism and boost energy to generally feel healthier, though there is no proven evidence to support this. Gluten free products are also substantially more expensive, therefore people that are doing the diet for these reasons are purely wasting their money (and it tastes worse too, if I may add). So what are you really eating when following a gluten-free diet? Whilst ditching wheat, rye and barley, gluten free bread typically subsidises these with four main starches – corn starch, rice flour, tapioca starch and potato flour. “They have the highest glycaemic indexes (an index of how high blood sugar rises over the 90 minutes after consumption) of all foods. So high, in fact, that gram for gram, ounce for ounce, such gluten-free foods raise blood sugar substantially higher than table sugar and higher than wheat products” said by Dr.William Davis, author of Wheat Belly Total Health.

Celiac disease is a serious genetic autoimmune disorder, and when people who suffer with it eat gluten, their body mounts an immune response that attacks the small intestine. These attacks are very damaging to the villi, which are small finger like projections that line the small intestine which then leads to lack of nutrient absorption. Therefore, a strict gluten free diet is compulsory for someone suffering with celiac disease, as this is currently the only treatment with effective results.

This diet is also beneficial for those who suffer with a gluten intolerance which causes similar symptoms to celiac disease, but has different implications for your health. Have you ever wondered whether a gluten free diet would benefit you? Do you suffer from symptoms such as painful cramps, gas, bloating or diarrhoea? Maybe this is the solution for you. As a sufferer of a non-celiac gluten intolerance, cutting gluten out of my diet has completely changed my day to day life and has eliminated all my symptoms. I was constantly told by doctors and nutritionists that I suffered from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and from talking to other individuals they were also told the same. Gluten intolerance is hard to diagnose therefore many doctors tell their patients that the symptoms sound like IBS. The only way to find out if it is gluten that is causing your symptoms is to eliminate gluten from your diet completely for a minimum of 4 weeks, and see if your symptoms have improved or hopefully disappeared. And you don’t need to worry about the convenience of where to get the products, as most stores including your local supermarket have a wide range of choices e.g Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and M&S. You may have to try a few different brands to identify which one you prefer as they do have a particularly different texture and taste to your normal loaf of bread.

 

Have we been falsely advertised with other diets and supposedly healthy products? Yes; one of the biggest juice companies in the world ‘Naked’, is mostly associated with the current craze of ‘juicing’. Juicing comes from most people’s perception that eating healthy is to indulge in fruit and veg. The company have used a clever method when naming their different types of juices by using motivational words such as “green”, “acai”, “power”, “fresh” and plenty more that attract the more gullible customers. The company have to be honest when labelling their products but people see only what they want to see, therefore your eyes are attracted to the never ending list of fruits that are claimed to be inside the juice drink. Essentially, when looking at the label that says “no sugars added” which could very well be true, you need to pay attention at the amount of sugar that’s already introduced through the fruit. Within some of the juices such as the ‘pure fruit’, that adds up to about 61 grams of sugar which is 20 more grams of sugar than a can of regular Pepsi. Where the sugar comes from is really no concern to your body, whether you’re drinking a Mountain Dew or a Naked juice (which both have the same sugar content), you are consuming more fructose than you should consume in the course of a few days.

If you’re worried about your waistline, stay away from Naked Juice or any other fad juice diets.

Studies show that knitting and crochet Is actually good for you, physically and mentally, who knew?!

 

“Is knitting therapeutic? Heck yes. It’s a proven scientific fact, just like we know chocolate and red wine are good for us. Since turning my life over to yarn, I’ve talked to thousands of knitters who claim it’s cured everything from gout to their weight problems. I can’t speak to all cures, but it can certainly improve one’s mental health. I know it helps mine.”

                                                                               says Clara Parkes, author of the just-released book The Yarn Whisperer: Reflections of a Life in Knitting. Personal testimonies, anecdotal evidence and medical studies back up Clara’s claims.

 

Knitting consists of rhythmic and repetitive movements once mastered. Many knitters reported feeling happier, calmer, less sad, less anxious and more confident when knitting. It gives you a sense of pride when achieving a finished piece, teaching you patience and perseverance whilst encouraging active creativity. Some have even compared the benefits of knitting to the welfares of yoga, research shows that knitting and crocheting share a common ground with meditation and mindfulness which people are referring to as ‘the new yoga’. All these benefits have a positive impact on a healthy mind set and well-being. Knitting is not only an individual activity its also very beneficial to do with a group of friends, this teaches the mind to improve problem-solving and development of hand-eye coordination, also a great excuse to get together! Doing a craft that makes you focus your attention on the present moment and has you engaged in an enjoyable task does wonders for your psychological well-being. Carrie Barron, a psychiatrist at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons stressed that craft, especially knitting, are all wonderful tools for alleviating anxiety and depression.

 

“Using your hands meaningfully triggers healthy engagement and activity in about 60 percent of your brain, said Alton Barron. The rhythmic, mathematical nature of knitting and crocheting keep the mind absorbed in a healthy way, proving an escape from stressful thoughts but allowing for internal reflection.”

 

If you are an individual experiencing anxiety, stress or depression knitting will help you focus on the present and not something that happened in the past or that may or may not happen in the future. Others have likened knitting to entering a state of “flow” which positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes as “a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter”

 

Therapeutic knitting is known as a healthcare tool – unravelling the neuroscience behind its cross midline, automatic movement and the complex combination or physiological, behavioural, social and creative benefits experienced when knitting. A book by Betsan Corkhill called ‘Stitchlinks’ which is a non profit, community interest company set up in 2005 that talks about therapeutic knitting in depth and the work she is doing is pioneering ways to help people address various issues and improve their general wellbeing. It’s raising awareness that health and wellbeing is about much more than isolated symptoms and medication, its about the whole person and the environment they live in. Even if you are fit and healthy Therapeutic Knitting is provided to help you manage the ups and downs of day to day life whether its stress, anxiety, worry, low self esteem or social isolation.

 

“I realised I’d stumbled across something potentially very important. Something that could change the way we treat long-term medical conditions”

 

 

Here are 10 different benefits from crafting with friends that may improve mind and brain wellness:

 

Mental challenge and problem solving

Social connection

Mindfulness

Development of hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and fine motor dexterity

Learning and teaching

Focusing attention and thoughts on a task

Encouraging active creativity

Gives a sense of pride and achievement

Teaches patience and perseverance

Facilitates memory formation and retrieval

The last few days wern’t quite as busy in terms of shows as the first but still plenty to do. On the Sunday the first show I dressed I was given a male model with two outfit changes for the talented designer Nivedita Saboo which was a shared catwalk between three different designers which meant it was pretty hectic backstage. The other two designers hadn’t allocated enough dresses so I ended up dressing around 4 different models, it was insanely stressful but also such a rush!

Here’s one of the beautiful dresses by Saboo, and the male model (Henry) who I was assigned to dress. Saboo’s clothing are smart courture pieces for men and women.

The next show was a two hour ‘walk in’ show by RUN clothing where the models would stand in different positions and walk around every now and again. It was open for people to walk in and out and around the exhibiton, this gave everyone the chance to have a close look at the clothing in detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another show I was given the role to steam whilst I was waiting to dress for another show. The material of the collection that I was assgined to steam was a netted fabric with many creases in it, this took over an hour to steam but the outcome was worth it. It was a collection by the designer Malan Breton from New York.  

The collection coniststed of many structured clothing such as blazers and suit trousers with a decorative use of materials. Also some flamboyant floaty pieces paired with trousers to keep that structured theme throughout the collection. This collection had one of my favo urite pieces from the whole weekend which was this head to toe sequined women’s blazer suit.

Where do I begin?? I’m so glad I got the chance to volunteer backstage for Fashion Scout during London fashion week which was located in the Freemasons Hall in Covent Garden. From getting the opportunity to chat to countless designers, stylists and models to steaming and handling their precious collections, I had the best hands on experience in the fashion industry as I could imagine. I was placed in group B which meant I was working 2pm-9pm most evenings, I was so lucky as those were usually the busiest hours of the day so I got the chance to see everything in full swing stress mode, which as the days went on I realised were the most cruical time of a fashion show. My role was mainly to dress the models before and during the shows, we were assigned a model and given instructions on how the garments were placed, this was always so interesting as you got to see the different elements of each designers collection. As the dressing aspect of the show was the most fun and also most stressful, especially if your model had three changes and only one minute to do each!!! We had other roles to do such as steaming, packing and organsing the clothes to each individual model which was somehow just as exciting due to the fact we got the see and handle the collection before anyone else.

The first show I was dressing was the designer Angel Chen’s incredible collection. I was assigned three models, two females with two looks each and a male with one look, luckly I had the help of another volunteering otherwise I dont think it would have been possible!

(Beware I took MANY photographs!!)

These were the three models I was given with their given looks, these images really helped us dressers to remember how the finish outcome should look. This collection, apart from being amazing, was simple to dress as they were never more than a dress or a top and trousers but the destressed tights were a challenge in the short time we had but we succesfully managed them.  Angel Chen collaborated with Vittorio Ceccoli’s stunning jewelry headpieces to finish off her collection for the runway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was only the second day and I had be chosen to dress a German supermodel in the Rohmir show. I was so nervous when I was told she was a supermodel but also so happy that I was chosen to dress her. The only problem I had was that she was a twin who was also modelling in the same show and were walking one behind the other, so dressing the right one when she got off was my main worry! Rohmir is a privetly owned luxury brand that specialises in beautiful gowns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Freemason’s hall has two runways, one called the gallery which had very little space backstage but a huge white runway with white benches which looked amazing and upstairs was the vestibule which had more of an insentric vibe with black gates and wooden flooring. Backstage was always the most hectic place to be with not only the stylist, models and dressers but also the make-up and hair team and photographers all trying to get at the models. One word to describe the atmosphere, exhilarating!!!

If we were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time you were able to dress multible shows in one day. I made sure I was always ready dress as it was one of the most exiting things i’ve ever done and could’nt wait to do it again. The next show I dressed was in the late evening, the collection was by the designer Han Wen who won the merit award. His collection was by far my favourite I had seen. The collection was unlike anything I have seen before, it had so many different elements to each look. The designer was very very particualr on how the final outcome would be presented, it was definitely the hardest collection to dress as there were so many components on each individual look.

We were given thorough instructions on how to place the garments on. This was the first look I did which I loved along with another three which I also helped dress, they had so many materials and components such as leather, buckles, studs, sheer and pleats which really showed the designers amazing talent and creativity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also got to watch the models rehersing in the collection’s shoes as they were very difficult to walk after speaking to the models they all seemed very keen/nervous to practise before the show, there were a few falls but luckly it was only in rehersals and the show went perfectly.

Here’s a photo of the designer Han Wen with all his models in the collection after the show.