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Creative minds and the pressure to succeed
Creative minds live in fast forward. Flares of inspiration and passion are the driving force for some of the world’s more inspirational people. Above all, their working routine is revealing a damaging effect on their mental wellbeing. A personal headache. To explore this, fashion’s global stage and its workforce is becoming the light of accepting how working patterns are added pressures for success. Pen to paper, needle to runway Pen to paper, needle to runway – only part of the mechanism that keeps creators ticking. From intense meetings to jet-setting for fashion week, designers are in the fast lane. These are words that live in the forefront of the minds of…
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How Does Fashion Make You Feel?
Mental hygiene is crucial Mental health is something that most of us never learn to focus on and take care of. Our lives are more stressful than ever due to often demanding working environment and difficult relationships. Finally, the stress we are facing every day has made us notice the need for mental hygiene. For each of us, mental hygiene means a different thing. For someone, it might be meditation or yoga while for others it’s re-watching the favourite series or going out with friends. No matter what way we decide to use while dealing with stress, we must not forget to try our best to find the mental balance.…
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Use and Abuse: Fashion’s Mental Health Problem
Use and abuse culture Use and abuse culture facing graduates and young professionals as they enter the fashion industry is often the source of poor mental health. Having experienced several unpaid internships myself within the industry, I have seen first-hand how long, relentless hours can take their toll on personal wellbeing. Graduates and students bursting with fresh creative talent and youthful enthusiasm are over-used and thrown out on a continuous cycle. The high stress environment with constant pressure to stay ahead of trends and work at top-speed is impossible to maintain. Sadly, unpaid work in fashion has become normal. We see internships as the holy grail merely get your foot in…
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Under pressure: Keeping up with fashion trends
E-Girls with chains, plaid skirts and oversized band t-shirts. Instagram baddies flexing in bodysuits and high waist skinny jeans. And VSCO girl scrunchies, Kånken backpacks and overpriced water bottles – are we feeling under pressure to keep up with fashion trends? Fashion as a sport Each of these fashion trends have come and gone within the last couple of months, with popular app TikTok facilitating many of them. No matter what your feed looks like, who you follow or interact with you’re sure to have come across one or two of these fashion trends in your daily social media habits. Whether you have friends who have suddenly started listening to…
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Maintaining Good Mental Health Whilst Working in The Fashion Industry
Why does this industry affect our mental health? Mental health in the fashion industry is a conflicted subject. Despite the evidence for a relationship between creativity and mental health being inconclusive, many mental health issues in employees across the fashion industry have been reported. 25% of people in the UK suffer with a mental health problem each year, and statistics show that those working in creative industries are 25% more likely to suffer than employees in different industries. The fast fashion industry employs people across many job sectors, running from designers to machinists, buyers to models. Brands are required to produce new and more collections each year meaning there is…
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Goodbye plastic mannequins
Fashion is the world of creativity, art and style. A world to be ourselves by showing our identity through our appearance. Sadly, its approach is so heavily focused on visual aesthetics, so its history is encased in a dark cloud of poor representation and diversity. However, social media has adapted fashion’s traditional methods and is adhering to society’s dialogue about demanding realistic representations. People with disabilities face many barriers within fashion, but, their voices are helping to re-shape ingrained representations. Here’s how an image conscious industry has taken conscious steps to an all-inclusive world. Holding up the mirror Do you ever ask yourself, but what would that look like on…
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The Long and Winding Road: Fashion Brands’ Journey to Diversity
The fashion industry has changed in many ways during the last few decades. Although the evolvement of fast fashion has resulted in a variety of complexities, some positive developments have occurred as well. Slowly, the fashion product offer has begun to diversify and serve more than one or two body types. More recently, the marketing of fashion has allowed a more diverse range of models to be seen by consumers. Narrow size ranges Many fashion brands from high street to luxury have had a narrow clothing size offer in the past. Those size ranges have not reflected the needs of many fashion consumers. By choosing to offer clothes in sizes…
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Hijab-Wearing Models Take Their Place on the Catwalk
For a very long time, not only in fashion but the world, there has been a sort of disliking towards Muslims. A woman wearing a hijab signifies that they are Muslim. It is a large visible indicator that they cannot escape from. So, having them strut the catwalk in recent years is a big step into opening the minds of close-minded people. Such close-minded people view hijab women as oppressed from the men in the religion but also the religion itself. As a Muslim woman myself, I can confirm that this is untrue for most women. In Islam, women should only wear the hijab if they want to devote their…
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The Key to the Path of Fashion: Diversity
In the past, people were always used to putting fashion in certain specific scenes, such as the shows in Paris and the street styles in Milan. However, fashion is like weeds that break through various settings and grow arbitrarily in different places. Try to look back on human life, see how people went to different countries and meet different people by accident. It is clear that changes in fashion is the inevitable result of the advance of human civilization and is also a mirror of social progress. Mentioning fashion models, what is the first image that flashes into your mind? Is it a fair-skinned young lady? Or a slender thin…
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Is The Fashion Industry Ignoring Disability?
We all have different expectations from our clothes – we want pieces that fit well. We use clothing to express our personalities and fit in with our friendship groups, so we need it to be fashionable and trend setting. When we find the right outfit, it enhances our appearance by making us feel good and boosting our confidence. Buying clothes that make us look and feel good is something we all have a right to do, disabled or not. We’ve seen brands responding to calls for greater diversity regarding gender, race, and body shape. But it seems there’s still a long way to go when it comes to representing those…
