This week I’ve participated in Fashion Revolution Week in many ways. I’ve posted a love story on Instagram about some clothes I own as part of the campaign #LovedClothesLast. I’ve listened to podcasts and participated in on-line open studios listening to and watching young designers teach skills and talk about the incredibly creative and collaborative way they have been developing as ethical and thoughtful designers. I’ve been filled with an overpowering need to work with my hands and started some upcycling projects. Since I love words I’ve taken up a childhood skill again: embroidery and writing with thread. I’ve reached out and made contact with women I feel have an intelligent approach and who by all they do clearly see fashion as a social “practice”. I have two calls scheduled with them for the upcoming week. The practice of fashion is a function of both knowledge and “doing” or the application and that is how I have “practiced” fashion this week. I’ve come to see there is a great deal of science involved when one seeks to understand what sustainability really means when it comes to sustainability and fashion.
In my practice as a social worker and a professor (I always viewed teaching as a performative practice), I often read articles and debates about whether or not these activities should be characterized as an art or a science. As both are “applied” professions, I always believed they were both/and art and science. They have a code of ethics. Both are practice-based professions and academic disciplines where research is applied to the practice of it. Yet it is in the individual relationships, the unique social and ecological context, that moment of application that the art part comes in. Because each and every time you apply what you know there is always an element of improvisation and experimentation and thus to me, it becomes an art form. Each individual act of applying it is not reproducible. You practice, you reflect, you re-imagine, do the process again and again. It is in and through the process, not the desired outcome, that change occurs. That real art happens.
The definition of social work goes on to state that the practice of it should promote social change and development, and the empowerment and liberation of people. It engages people and structures to address challenges and enhance well-being. Nothing in that definition precludes fashion from being used as a tool in service of the practice. There is nothing to preclude fashion from striving for those outcomes too. Something I have long maintained to be true. I’ve been finding examples where this happens and nothing has to be compromised.
One of the podcasts I listened to this week, and I recommend the whole series, is Wardrobe Crisis by Clare Press, Vogue Australia’s sustainability editor. In this particular podcast, she interviews three young British designers, all fantastic, but I direct your attention to the first one, Bethany Williams. I found out about her a couple of months ago as I was looking for ways to integrate my two loves, Social Welfare and Fashion. She is a stunning example of how fashion can be used as a tool to achieve all of the goals we strive to achieve. It is an example of a fashion practice that embodies the ethics and the goals of social work practice I presented above. She is also an example of how in the moment of application the creativity of the practitioner raises the application to art.
Bethany William’s last words in her interview were, “If I wasn’t a fashion designer I would be a social worker”. To which I replied, “If I wasn’t a social worker I would be a fashion designer”.
I invite you to explore her work and let’s have a chat about it.
Wardrobe Crisis: New Power Generation: London’s Rising Stars
Bethany Williams’ Spring 2020 Campaign is an Ode to Community and Collaboration
Bethany Williams: A Fusion of Fashion and Activism
This is a little off point, but I was struck by your inclination to write with thread and remembering many of the older textiles from Southeast Asia I’ve collected that incorporate the written word. Often they are Islamic, but not always. Some are embroidered, but the finest portray words in batik or weaving. Wish I could send photo examples here…
I do too! Would you mind sending me a couple of photos via email?
If I wasn’t an artist, I’d be a social worker. They are intertwined. Art helps people connect with their inner beings. Art is a practice just like social work is a practice. I love your though process.
Yes those “professional” silos are artificial, I hope they all dissolve and crumble away.
Do you follow #tinypricks ? Embroidered social commentary!
Thank you, I will look into this.
Your post hit the mark today. While I am not a master of the written word you touched my heart today.
My passion is fashion and quilting. During these past few months my craft has taken me away from quilting and onto making masks. The need is great. While these are in no way medical grade, they are a form of protection. My desire to help has touched many from the medical community to people concerned about their safety. All the while I’m praying for those at the front line and for the experts to find a cure.
Take care everyone and stay well.
I find it so interesting the way people are using and making masks for both protection but also as a tool of social activism and a way to feel our need to help in the face of such powerlessness. I expect to see many creative versions in the world as I suspect we will be wearing them for quite a long time.
My original college degree was in art and literature, but my career was in education–specifically, mostly within aWaldorf school. Waldorf education is completely based on “the art of education”–which very much aligns with how you describe social work as an art.
Alongside this, I have dabbled most of my life in clothing design and embellishment. For the last three years, my passion has been upcycling used clothing (my own, and things I specifically thrift for this purpose) and using them as a canvas for threadpainting. If you are interested in seeing some of that work, you can see it here: https://www.pinterest.com/lindacbraun/embroidered/my-work/
Thank you for sharing this.
In this time of pause and contemplation, perhaps there can be some consideration/reflection on the concept of comfort as it pertains to fashion. While I generally think of fashion in terms of appearance (color, drape, line), comfort seems to be secondary. All older women, regardless of size and level of fitness have common traits. Skin is thinner and more sensitive. Certain areas “droop” (under arms, thighs and buttocks, necks). Ergo designers should accommodate with looser sleeves, leave out quarter zips in tops, allow room in thighs, hips and drape the body in a way that FEELS good. There is a social and psychological significance to fashion that feels pleasurable in the wearing. And of course both physiological and psychological (and political) repercussions when clothing, shoes, etc. restrict, pinch, hurt. Think of the history of corsets and feet binding as it relates to the subjugation of women.
Yes, your points are very well taken and I find myself gravitating to softer textures like silk and organic cotton. And I do wish someone would make very cool t-shirts with three quarter length sleeves. There is a researcher in the UK who takes up the issues you raise. Her name is Julia Twigg if you were interested in exploring what she is researching.
Working in social ministry for almost 20 years in my parish and maintaining a personal interest in fashion was always in conflict with my conscience. Now I see the two merging together to bring a social conscience to the forefront in the clothing industry. I would like to give a “shout out” for Eileen Fisher. Her company has been among the first in the United States to take the lead in this area and mentors clothing industries worldwide in how to practice sustainable clothing production. Her latest blog gives information on how her company supports the farmers who produce natural fibers for her industry.
Yes, Eileen Fisher is a true pioneer in the world of sustainable fashion. What I love about Bethany Williams’s model is that she is giving employment and voice to women who are unseen. It is a way to lift women out of poverty shows this has enormous benefit to their children and their community.nd research clearly
I truly enjoy this website! You remind me so much of my mother, she was a classic beauty. She was also a fashion aficionado.
Please let me know about the outfit you are wearing 4-24-20 picture. I absolutely adore the style.
Your help is most appreciated!
Be safe!
The outfit is a tunic from a very wonderful sustainable brand from the UK called Mother of Pearl. I am wearing an old pair of jeans and a pair of velvet slippers I got from a very talented tailor who I met when I went to Shanghai China.
I can totally relate to the concept of “The Practice of Fashion.” I remember when my first son was born, how I called my mother in tears because I could no longer wear “nice clothes.” It was pointless, with a diaper slung over my shoulder and a t-shirt and jeans as my new go-to outfit for the day, every day. I struggled to keep up with the latest fashions for about a year and a half, before giving up for the next 30 years as I became a mother to two rambuncious boys, teacher, counselor, and SOCIAL WORKER. I kid you not. Now at 55, I’m learning to sew my own clothes and trying to lose weight so that I can actually fit into them, lol. Clothing is truly a form of self-expression that I believe is both an art as well as a science… and for some of us a form of self-exploration and analysis… of who we are and who we want to become. It can go even deeper than that in some cases. For me, my clothes can reflect my inner child or my mixed emotions or my “adulting” professional self. Anyway, I appreciate your commercials and your website. Thank you for you positive influence in the world of fashion.
Yes when we reflect on practice, including what we chose to wear and why it does become an art and a science.
first, thank you for introducing us to Bethany! second…do you have more than 24 hours in your day? and finally, fashion has been my outlet through these surreal days. i am dressing and posting almost every day…more than i did when i actually had somewhere to go! i recognize it as a language of communication and it even seems like there are many more languages in fashion than in reality. or it is really close. thank you for your presence.
No, I am actually trying now to have a schedule and I have been trying to walk 10-12,000 steps a day and now have the time to listen to podcasts while I do!
I think you would like to meet a lady called Jude I have been following for years. She used to publish a blog called Slow Work and now she is writing one that is excellent called Spirit Cloth. She uses all kinds of upcycled or recycled, hand-dyed (and she often makes her own dyes) large works as she is working with now, and also unconstructed boro-type garments. I am sure she will help you to start at the beginning of where she is writing now and it is perfect because she loves to write the things she is thinking about and supplements them with the things she is creating. They really say it all I believe. You and she are my favorite writers about cloth/fashion/stitching. You always have really interesting things to think about. Thank you so much. Always, Anne
Listened to Bethany Williams. I have been struggling with my love of fashion and going totally minimalistic. I love the proactive attempt which I think is still hard to do in the world we live. Hoping we all get more sense and learn from this pandemic. Bethany will succeed through it all.
Yes, she offers a good model for those of us who love fashion yet share a concern for the welfare of all and the earth.
This post hit me at just the right time. Before I became a stay at home mom, I was in Theatrical costuming, and now I’m going into my second career as a Licensed Professional Counselor (there is a lot of cross over with social work.) I had started to doubt my upcycled wardrobe as “professional attire.” This reminds me to show up as authentic in the world. Thanks.
I used to have this conversation with my students all the time. It has been shown that regardless of intervention type the most significant variable when it comes to outcome in counseling is the relationship between you and the client. If you are wearing clothes you are not comfortable in and do not convey who you are you will not come across as genuine and authentic. The wearing of the “professional’ dress is a way to attain status and reliability when true practice is messy and unreliable. for