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Size Is Just A Number
What’s your personal definition of beauty? I hope everyone just answered, “me!” In my book, beauty is all about believing in yourself, acceptance and being unafraid of who you are physically and mentally. Since I can remember, the fashion catwalk (along with magazines and numerous advertisements) has been littered with super-skinny models that we look up to as our definition of sexy. And they are sexy. However, there’s a whole other world of people living in different body types that are equally as sexy and worthy of walking our runways. The ‘Skinny’ On My Own Body I was actually closest to the super-skinny model body when I was about eleven years…
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Shrinking private space
In the time of lockdown and home office, the line between public and private space is getting thinner and thinner. Fashion – our way of presenting ourselves to the outside world – is a good example of this tendency. This reflection on shrinking private space and fashion is not backed by extensive evidence. It is rather an exercise of the mind, an attempt to understand the important distinction between public and private space. What is public space? Having worked in NGOs for the past year or so, one talks a lot about shrinking public or civic space as a tendency in every corner of the world. While the matter of…
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My Lockdown Transformation: Shopaholic to Conscious Consumer
My shopaholic realisation: Forty-three days ago, when all of this madness began, I, like most girls my age, was a self-confessed shopaholic. My daily hobbies consisted of scrolling through online shops for hours at a time and eagerly waiting for those glorious parcels to arrive at my door. So, as you can imagine, when news of lockdown broke out, I was delighted to have all the time in the world to be doing my favourite pastime completely guilt-free. Before long, I had overloading baskets sprawled across different sites ready for me to buy. “But what was I actually buying these clothes for?” I thought to myself. I had ‘going out…
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Fashion, Suppliers & the Global Crisis
The role of mainstream media during the Covid-19 global pandemic The media is undoubtably an incredible tool which allows news to be presented on a variety of platforms to the entire nation and beyond. Despite its positive implications, the delivery of news through media outlets can often cause negative emotions and provoke panic. This is something that we, as a nation, have experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been criticisms surrounding how Covid-19 news updates have been presented by the media. The focus has heavily been on the negative aspects of the pandemic, without a healthy balance. The positive aspects, such as communities coming together and showing a united…
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COVID-19: Consumer Behaviour and Sustainable Fashion
On the 23rd of March, Boris Johnson ordered a nationwide lockdown due to the growing rate of coronavirus cases in the UK. This lockdown demanded that for the foreseeable future, any non-essential businesses were to be closed to the public, and any non-essential workers now needed to work from home. While supermarkets have continued to serve the public and are struggling to keep up with panic buying demand, other businesses such as those in the fashion industry are struggling to stay afloat in the new climate. The pandemic has led to an estimated 40% drop in average market capitalization from the beginning of January to the end of March, and…
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Sustainability out the Window? Corona is the new Trend
How coronavirus is pushing sustainability to the side Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 back in January 2020, sustainability was becoming a major talking point among fashion retailers, but now Coronavirus has taken over every aspect of our lives. Consumers were becoming hungry for information from their favourite brands in relation to how garments were being created in the fast paced environment. But has COVID-19 caused consumers to forget about sustainability? Post-pandemic The fashion world prior to the outbreak was ready for a change, with big brands focusing on how they can incorporate more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices into their production and supply chain processes. This has come as…
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COVID-19: An Opportunity for Change?
How is the global crisis affecting consumer behaviours towards fashion? It seems an increasingly difficult question. Will the drastic changes we have seen in the short-term result in long-term positive change for the fashion industry? The complexity of our buying habits may need more than a month of lockdown to untangle the skein of consumerism. The complexities of aspirational culture: In an article on luxury fashion in China, the Journal of Retailer and Consumer Services looked at the relationship between the culture of aspiration which drives the luxury goods market and the economic reality behind its incessant growth. They look at fashion as a symbol and how this affects what…
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Covid-19: the Impact on Garment Workers
Covid-19 has instilled panic in so many of us and has impacted a multitude of aspects in our daily lives. The days of shopping until you drop seem like a distant memory as strict lockdown measures keep our high-street stores closed until further notice. Most of us in the Western world have now come to accept our newfound lives. Days filled with online shopping and baking banana bread every chance we get have become the new normal. However, it’s important that we don’t forget about the impact that these changes are having on the people behind our brand-new tie dye sweatshirt. I’m talking about those people who work tirelessly and…
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The COVID-19 Consequences
On December 21st 2019, the first case of an unknown pneumonia surfaced in China. In such a crucial date in the calendar, nobody would have suspected the impact to be encountered 5 months on. The world as we know it has come to a standstill for one disease, COVID-19. Nation to nation, critical measures are put in place to reduce the spread of the disease. Limiting social contact, furloughing millions of employees and the closure of businesses worldwide has led to the current state; lockdown. When will it all end? The answer everybody wants to know, but no one does know. Frustration is on the minds of the world’s population,…
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Social Media Has its Own Pandemic
Imagine you are in quarantine, it shouldn’t be hard as you most likely are. Now imagine you are quarantining in one of the most affected parts of the UK. On top of that, add the fact that six other people are quarantined with you, including your parents. OK, good so far? One more thing: your mother is asthematic and diabetic, vulnerable. The picture you should have in your head right now is a perfect illustration of my situation. Yep, I’m homebound in the city of Sunderland with a mother who is too frightened to even walk out into the garden. So, believe me, I, more than anyone, eagerly consume the…
