One of our workshops during this week was to portray a character from a made up tribe based on 21st century youth culture responding to climate change. We was then put in to random groups, which for me is beneficial when developing on to skills like team work, creativity, communication skills and critical thinking. Working in groups allows me to explore other peoples creativity and ideas and for me to learn on working collaboratively efficiently as well as how other people portray ideas. In the Fashion Industry, you normally work with others very closely and collaborate with one another. So it’s a very important skill, and for me has developed well since being in University.

As a group we worked together to brainstorm ideas for our character and their tribe. We all individually was drawn to the idea of using denim. As denim material is very damaging to make and struggles to be sustainable, this is because the process wastes a lot of water. Although, denim is very durable, known to have a long life expectancy. As well as Denim never goes out of trend, decreasing over consumption and waste, slowing down the encouragement and urge of contributing to the damage the industry causes. We then linked the idea of Denim and the Colour Blue, and for our aim to respond to climate change, we automatically linked the ideas of water, blue and denim to the ocean.  We discussed further ideas from the ocean and originally wanted to use a green screen behind the model of water, and use draping of fabrics to portray the movement of the ocean. However due to time and limited equipment, our idea wasn’t able to become reality. We continued to think of our backstory and tribe. We wanted our tribe to portray a strict rule of only using denim, showing the durability of the material and therefore decreasing over consumption, as this is the only material they wear. They think about the earth and do not want to encourage landfills and other damaging aspects. And if they only wear denim, they can’t be encouraged to over consume in fast paced trends and cheap bad quality items.

We styled our model using the technique of layering. Our photo process behind this was due to the character and their tribe spending a lot of their time outside and in colder wetter conditions. Due to our strict rule of only denim, we layered the model in a pair of baggy jeans, a skirt, another pair of denims styled into a top and then finally a denim jacket. This was a successful choice, and I liked how all the different shades of blue worked together, also portraying different colours of the ocean.

First we decided to use an original thought of draping blue fabric in the background to portray water and the movement. We used our surrounding area to pin the blue fabric to other fabrics like curtains etc. We took a few shots however as a group we decided our idea turned out to be not as successful as we hoped! We then searched for other suitable locations, but we couldn’t agree on something that would portray our ideas and thoughts, and show the viewers the character and their tribe. We was finally drawn to the outside, due to our character and their tribe being an outdoor group. Our model posed sat on a wall near a tree, showing the audience their close relationship to nature.

Unfortunately as a group we wasn’t overall impressed with our final shots, as we wanted to use our original idea of using a green screen and creating lighting and successful draping effects to portray our model in the ocean. However, the workshop was still beneficial when developing my skills of working in a group and learning to collaborate efficiently.