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Dress for Success: How Fashion Can Empower Women
Dress for Success: What do your clothes say about you? What does it mean to dress for success? Your clothes are a reflection of you. They are a visual statement of how you see yourself. The first impression you can make on a person whether that’s in the workplace or personal life. Clothes tell the world a story. They give strangers an insight into your values, personality traits, beliefs, and mood. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. Yet in reality several industries profit off our desire for beautiful product packaging, eye-catching colour combinations and appealing book sleeves. Thus, it seems although we are reluctant…
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I Don’t Care for One-Time-Wear: 3 Ways to Kick the Habit
Fashion trends arrive and vanish at an inconceivable rate and the pressure to keep up is mounted on the shoulders of each man and women every day. Let us not pretend men don’t feel this burden too. The social pressure of constantly buying into seasonal clothing is a concern we need to un- learn. It is far too easy to believe that those jeans you bought last year are now “out of style” and that the dress you bought for a wedding will never be worn again. In both examples all it takes is a little change of perspective and bam! You have an outfit you can wear for months,…
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Trend Forecasting: Method Behind the Madness
What is a Trend Forecaster? Trend forecasters are lifestyle detectives; they spend their time detecting patterns or shifts in consumer attitudes, mind-sets and lifestyle opinions. Trend forecasting requires curiosity and interest in a wide array of subjects ranging from art and design, science and technology, socio-economics, food and travel (just to name a few!). The globally recognised career focuses on upcoming trends, predicting the colours, fabrics, textures, materials, prints, graphics, beauty, accessories, footwear, street style, and other styles that will be presented on the runway and in the stores for the upcoming seasons. Research – Making Sense of the Truth Trend forecasters use a sequence of techniques; gathering cultural and social…
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The ‘one-time-wear’ pandemic: fashion’s dirty secret
Whilst the world is currently aware of one global pandemic, there is another that has gone under the radar. One-time-wear and fast fashion have gone hand in hand to create their own pandemic within the fashion industry. One-time-wear is wearing an item of clothing once before eventually banishing it to a landfill site. But do we truly understand the impact this is having on our planet? Making just one pair of jeans can create as much greenhouse gas a car driving for 80 miles. One t-shirt takes 2,700 litres of water to make, the equivalent of 1,350 days of drinking water for one person. Imagine having this much impact on…
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The psychology behind our fast fashion addiction
At this time of year our fast fashion addiction is more apparent than ever; we’re caught up in the craziness of Christmas and our consumption hits an all-time high. In this article, Emma Cartmel of Fashion Psychology explores how the fast fashion model is fuelling our consumption and how it can impact our mental health. Many of us know Carrie Bradshaw’s iconic shoe collection, but while her obsession with shoes is often described in a comedic, self-deprecating way, shopping addiction is unfortunately a serious psychological condition. Research has indicated that shopping addiction is estimated to be effecting 5-7% of the adult population in developed countries (Maraz, Griffiths, & Demetrovics, 2015;…
