Back in December of last year, I was assigned a style ensemble for my Fashion Visuals class. I was super excited for this project as it was the first time I was ever going to be running a photoshoot and styling the models myself! We were instructed to follow a theme of our choice, that in one way or another, connected to the fashion industry.
I chose an overall theme of pollution and the effect it is having on the Earth/nature. More specifically, I chose to focus on the insect of the butterfly.
Here is an excerpt from my final paper titled “The Wilting Butterflies” that will give an introduction to the idea behind the ensemble:
Picture this:
It is a beautiful, warm, sunny day in the summer. As you soak up the sun you observe nature and all of its beauty. You look up and you see a butterfly gracefully flying through the air and wonder how a creature could be so small, yet so powerful and beautiful.
Flash forward a year or two from now. There’s not a butterfly in sight. We can spitefully “thank” the fashion industry for this. Over the course of the last few years there has been an overwhelming rapid rise of what we now call fast fashion. It not only has a negative impact on garment factory workers, but also the environment. Specifically, the destruction of trees, land, and rainforests. The fashion industry is the second largest pollutant in the world. If we don’t start to make a change in the way we consume, beautiful creatures such as butterflies will be completely extinct from the Earth, and there will be no going back.
My theme represents the negative impact the fashion industry currently has on our planet. The Earth is deteriorating due to the rise in pollution. I specifically chose to use the symbol of a butterfly because not only are they directly affected by the fashion industries actions, but they are also representative of change. Believe it or not there is still hope for our planet, but in order to fix the current problems, society must change as a whole.
The main colors I focused on for my entire project were gray, orange, blue, and brown. The color gray represents pollution. In the style ensemble the model dressed in black and gray is representative of pollution and how it is killing the other colors (or butterflies). The other brighter colors (orange, blue, and brown) represent the butterflies. In the style ensemble, these three colors are wilting away on the ground because the pollution is taking over.
Let the symbol of a butterfly be a reminder that change is still possible if we all work hard enough to achieve it. I don’t know about you, but I would like to keep this world a beautiful place!
Pictured below you can see the mood board that inspired the style ensemble.
