himynameisgraceskelton-blog

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The Slow Fashion Movement

Think about the clothes you are wearing right now. What is the brand? Who are the made by? Where is it from? Most likely the clothing you are wearing right now has been made by someone who is living in a third world country, working in unsafe conditions, and getting paid a very unfair wage. This is the hard reality of the world of fashion.

If you are shopping at brands like Forever 21, H&M, and even Target, you are shopping fast fashion. But what is fast fashion? “Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed,” says writer, Solene Rauturier. Fast fashion sounds great at first… it’s cheap, stylish, and every-changing, but in reality it has a major problem. It not only has a very negative effect on the environment, but it also harms other human beings. The garment workers of the fast fashion industry are treated horribly. The working environments can be very dangerous, the wages are extremely low, and they are at risk of being abused. The films Clothes To Die For and The True Cost exemplify all of these problems and more, showing the harm that the fast fashion industry puts on this Earth.

The True Cost is a documentary film made in 2015 and directed by Andrew Morgan. This documentary focuses on the harms and horrible side effects of fast fashion. The documentary is a collage of many different and unique people like garment workers, designers, environmentalist, and factory owners. It explores different problems of the fast fashion industry by interviewing these people. The film goes into great depth about low-wage garment workers in third world countries and the effects that fast fashion has on them. It discusses the harmful effects it causes like disease/death, river and soil pollution, and abuse towards the workers. The film also highlights the horrible industrial disaster that happened in Bangladesh at the Rana Plaza in 2013.  

Another film that highlights the harm that the fast fashion industry has caused is Clothes To Die For. Clothes To Die For is another documentary film, that was created in 2014 and directed by Zara Hayes. The True Cost, and the film, Clothes To Die For both focus mainly on the industrial disaster of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. This film goes deeper into this horrible disaster by explaining the painful details of what happened. The collapse of this garment factory killed 1100 people and injured 2400. The film interviews survivors of this horrific incident, further exploiting the fast fashion industry.

Both of these films bring great awareness to the harms of the fast fashion industry. Both The True Cost and Clothes To Die For, give people who have been greatly affected a voice to speak up about the struggles that the fast fashion industry has put them through. With many compelling interviews and imagery these films bring light to a situation that is truy affecting all of us. From now on, people need to start recognizing the harmful effects of fast fashion. People need to realize that there are human beings, being treated poorly, behind the trendy clothes that they are wearing. The new movement is, “the slow fashion movement”. 

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It’s a Fashion Revolution!

For my revolutionized garment I turned a pair of drab skinny jeans into pair of fun and crazy bell bottoms! Recently, I have been seeing a bell bottom trend among the stores I shop at, social media accounts I follow, and my peers at VCU! This inspired me to create my own. I also wanted to use white denim to create these bell bottoms because of the spring and summer season coming up. Another inspiration I had for this project was my love for the fashion of the 1970’s era. Bell bottoms from the ‘70s have always been a go-to look for me, so I was ecstatic to create my own pair.

I first started this whole project out with just an idea and the inspiration to make bell bottoms. After a long while of thrifting and consignment shopping, I finally found the perfect pair of white skinny jeans, that surprisingly fit me very well! I grabbed another pair of cheap white jeans and left the goodwill feeling inspired. I went home and immediately started cutting up the second pair of jeans, which will later be used as the flare at the bottom. I cut the legs off of both sides of the jeans and then I proceeded to cut each leg down the middle of the seam to make two big pieces of white denim fabric. Now that I had two pieces of fabric, I had the start of the flare. Next, I proceeded to sew the top of the fabric into a scrunchie/ruffle effect, so I would be able to attach it to the original skinny jeans in an efficient manner. After doing this to both pieces of the flare fabric, I hot-glued the scrunchie part of the fabric to one leg, 40 centimeters up from the very bottom of the skinny jeans. I then proceeded to do the same thing to the other leg. After I hot-glued the flare onto the skinny jeans, I was practically finished! All I had left to do was make sure everything was intact and accessorize! My final touch was adding a colorful scarf as a makeshift belt and I was complete!

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Global Business Relationships between the U.S. and Italy

Italy is one of the top countries importing to the United States. Italy and the United States have created a strong international business relationship due to Italy’s extreme economic growth. Both the United States and Italy benefit from a close knit economic relationship. In fact, the United States is one of Italy’s most critical international trading partners. The two-way trade totaled to over $80 billion, in 2015. Italy does most of its trading with other European markets, but the U.S. is still one of their most important trading partners. The U.S. is Italy’s biggest, non-European, import and export market and Italy is the United State’s 12th biggest trading partner. Italy’s economic growth reflects what their exports are. Italy’s main exports to the United States are wine, machinery, and pharmaceuticals.

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The Debate between Faux and Real...

The debate between faux fur and real fur is a tough one. Both faux and real have many pros and cons to them. While it might be morally wrong to wear real fur, it is environmentally wrong to wear fake fur. So what is the best solution? Ethically I believe that faux fur is 100% the better choice over real fur…Of course I don’t want to kill 50 minks for one jacket, that is just horrible! I believe that it would be morally wrong to kill animals for their fur because we have a seemingly good alternative, faux fur! Also, in todays world, faux fur looks and feels so much like the real thing, why not go faux! It is not cheap-looking, uncomfortable or itchy, rather, faux fur is soft, luxurious, realistic, and inexpensive (most of the time). Although there has been research done on how faux fur is environmentally unfriendly, an article by Refinery 29 says that, “The pro-faux study showed that producing one kilogram of mink fur has a higher negative environmental impact than producing one kilogram of other textiles in 17 of the 18 environmental categories, including climate change, eutrophication, and toxic emissions.” This quote proves that producing faux fur is not absolutely horrible for the environment, which is another pro in the faux category. Another positive for the faux fur community is that many top designers have been using only faux fur like, Versace, Gucci, and Micheal Kors. Although this debate has many pros and cons for both sides of either real or faux, it honestly comes down to your own personal and moral opinion of which is right and which is wrong. The following images are some beautiful examples of faux fur.

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Natural or Manufactured Fabrics?

Free People or Urban Outfitters clothing items take up most of the space in my closet (Yes I know, I need to branch out more...). These brands have clothing pieces that mostly consist of manufactured fabrics. Although I have a couple pieces that are 100% cotton, most of clothing items have regenerated and synthetic fibers in them like rayon, polyester, nylon and spandex. A lot of my blouses, cute t-shirts, and oversized sweaters are blends of cotton and regenerated fibers. Most of my jeans and jean dresses are 100% cotton. Here are some examples that mirror some of the clothing items in my closet.   

Most of my clothes consist of blends of regenerated fibers with cotton. Although most of the fibers that make up the fabrics in my clothes from stores like Free People, Urban Outfitters, and many others, are made of synthetic fibers I have noticed a more eco-friendly approach from these stores. The Good On You blog stated that, “Free People’s parent company URBN has taken some steps to lower its carbon output across its portfolio”. Overall more companies are starting to take a more eco-friendly approach rather than submitting to fast fashion. 

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All About Me...

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am a very enthusiastic student of VCU and I am honored to be apart of the Fashion Merchandising department here. I am from Mechanicsville, Virginia, a small town twenty minutes outside of Richmond and I could not be more thrilled to finally be living in the city. Although I miss the crazy environment of living with my big family back home, I am ecstatic to be at VCU. I have worked in a lovely store, known as South Moon Under, as a sales associate. Working in the clothing business was a blast for me and I loved to help people find what they liked and felt confident in. My absolute favorite store is Free People. Boho-chic clothing is what I would describe my style as. The era of the 1970s truly inspires all of my outfits. I love big and flowy t-shirts, blouses, sweaters, and really anything that has an oversized fit. A flowy and fun dress, paired with some chunky, platformed boots is my ideal outfit. I have a true love for fashion! Fashion inspires me and gives me confidence in my everyday life. I am so captivated by the fashion community here at VCU and I am genuinely so thankful to be apart of it! I cannot wait to see what VCU and the world of fashion has in store for me.