#allwalks

[de1162elliekateharkins]

SUMMER BRIEF.

In semester 1 of year 2, we will be running an exciting live national brief with All Walks Beyond the Catwalk as part of the Editorial Journalism module: http://allwalks.org/

During the module, you will be asked to generate powerful fashion writing and imagery tackling themes as AGE, BODY IMAGE, GENDER & SEXUALITY. We wil be studying the digital environment and its impact on fashion commentary and you will be challenged to produce thought-provoking and critical content that the world will want to see. 

So over the summer months, we want you to: 

Set up your own Tumblr blog using the naming convention: DE1162[student name]* e.g. DE1162IsabelleFields.

Begin researching and posting your ideas, observations and experiences on the above themes and how you see these issues in evidence within the fashion industry. Have fun - set yourself a photo brief, write a critical review, draw, write, shoot, blog.... you can post exhibition reviews, street photography, sketches and of course, what you spot at the international fashion weeks in September. Your blog should be personal and professional, showing your critical response and evidence of whether you think the fashion industry is open-minded and ethical in its representations of age, gender, sexuality and body shape. 

[fashcomprom-blog]

ALL WALKS: BEYOND THE CATWALK

We watched a lecture by Caryn Franklin on  All Walks: Beyond The Catwalk. We were asked to watch this lecture to help us with the What Is Beauty brief.

All Walks is about promoting diversity in the fashion and beauty industry and was founded in 2009 by Debra Bourne, Erin 'O' Connor and Caryn Franklin.

Quotes from the lecture....

  "Style is about being individual"

                                            "seeing diversity & individuality in our          media is good for self esteem"

               "men have body image anxieties too"

                                 "fashion is boring when everyone looks the same"

  "consumers are diverse and want to feel good"

  Things I took from this lecture...

  What models a brand chooses to use on a catwalk connotes what they want to say.

Perhaps fashion promotes conformity

Rick Owens has addressed fashion conformity on the catwalk by using diverse models in his shows.

Perhaps it is more interesting and inspiring for a brand to diversify in their campaigns and catwalk shows.

The power of the brand has increased due to new technology and digital platforms which can reach a mass market instantly. Were as in the past they had to wait for their catwalk shows and campaigns to be featured in magazines months later.

[tailoredbyabi]

ALL WALKS BEYOND THE CATWALK

These images are the final images that were selected for our college's exhibition as part of the All walks beyond the catwalk celebrating diversity within individuals. Diversity comes in many ways for example body shape; catwalks stereotypically only feature very very skinny models suggesting that this is what 'beauty' looks like when in reality these body shapes are unnatural and unachievable by you or I. Diversity also comes in the form of ethnicity, another stereotype of the average model is a skinny white girl. For our model we wanted to celebrate how beautiful skin colour is whatever colour it is. We used Beth as  a model. We chose two outfits which were beautiful bright colours to engage with the idea it should be about the clothes and the individual. Other examples of diversity celebrated with fashion photography was age with groups using models of a variety of ages such as "hip hop grannies" which was a photo shoot based on clothes from the 80s hip hop era featured in programmes such as the fresh prince of Bel air. They had ladies in their 70's and 80's rocking outfits next to college students of 17!