Final Major Project – WEEK 2

I began this week with my first tutorial in our crit groups. The tutorial was based around brainstorming ideas for primary and secondary research. This was really helpful as in general for my research I tend to stick to taking photographs or images from library resources. Due to this I resulted in a lack of primary research, however, now I am aiming to conduct interviews, document personal experiences and take photographs to aid my primary research. For my secondary research I watched a range of documentaries, taking screenshots of certain scenes to extract shapes and textures in my research sketchbook. I also conducted designer research and used library resources such as books and plan to delve deep into the materials library to construct a list of potential sustainable or recycled fabrics/materials.

During the tutorial we were also asked to create a customer profile type design board in order to have a better understanding of my target audience. This task made me realise I should target social media influencers with my project. The largest group of fast fashion consumers consist of young women who look for advice and up to these big influencers to work with fast fashion brands to push their products. If I can change the spending habits of these influencers or make them realise the impact they are having on the environment, they then are able to pass this information on to their audience to impact their spending habits and hopefully reduce the impact fast fashion has on the environment.

Mid week I encountered a dilemma as I had planned for my work to include textiles that I ruined with the same chemicals that ruin these rivers in developing countries. But I realised that I was being just as bad as these factories by using the chemicals and instead I should focus on creating something that does not impact negatively on the environment and instead make others realise the severity of the industry with images possibly created into a film and alongside it the alternative to fast fashion: sustainable and recycled fashion.