DUCFS 2020 Proposal

With the rise of social media over the last decade, almost every industry is having to exert an online presence. This includes the fashion industry. Whilst this has meant that some of the traditional forms of retail and marketing in the fashion industry have had to adapt, ultimately I believe it has made the ‘allure’ of high fashion more accessible to those who previously did not know what terms like ‘haute couture’ meant. Additionally it has meant that we can have instant access to the newest trends and looks off of the catwalk with aid from apps such as Instagram. I want to draw attention to the wider theme of fashion and technology. This includes all aspects of technology: social media, artificial intelligence, the technology involved in the making of garments and online shopping to name a few. The e-commerce industry has boomed and fashion has contributed to this massively, with more people buying their clothes online than ever before. Ultimately it has got to the point whereby the term high-street shopping should be replaced with the online-street. Surprisingly, this has even translated to luxury shopping, with brands such as net-a-porter, Farfetch and Matchesfashion taking over. Millenials are now even renting designer items of clothing for events – an area which counteracts the damning effects of fast fashion (please look at my article on this!).

I therefore believe that the breadth of areas within fashion and technology could be a potential theme of the 2020 DUCFS fashion show. Below I will elaborate on my creative vision for the fashion show and sub-categories of the wider theme of technology. Please also look at some of my recent blogposts where I explore these themes further.

Social media – As briefly mentioned above, the rapid rise in social media over the past decade has transformed the fashion industry, in both good and bad ways. I believe this could be a sub-category to the theme of technology and fashion. Firstly, social media has allowed greater access to high fashion brands. One can now view the latest runway collections from their bedrooms on platforms such as Instagram with IGTV and Live streams, making it accessible to everyone. This is further facilitated by models’ accounts (Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Kaia Gerber, for example) who, with their millions of followers, have the power to advertise brands and set new trends. Social media has the power to influence what people will buy both online and on the high-street. Thus, it is now extremely important for brands to get right. Yet this authority can be interpreted negatively too. Stereotypes can quickly be enforced on how you are meant to look and act, impacting people mentally and creating a false image of how people live their lives. However, there is a movement slowly infiltrating through the fashion industry via social media of changing these stereotypes, with more diversity and inclusivity both in appearance and ethnicity appearing on social media and translating to the runway. This was most potently seen in Cosmopolitan’s October 2018 magazine, which showed Tess Holliday, a ‘plus-size’ model, on the front cover – something distinguishable in comparison to the homogenous models on other covers. Whilst it sparked concern regarding whether it was promoting a healthy body type, ultimately it generated conversation on stereotypes in the fashion industry which I believe was crucial. Potentially in DUCFS this could be translated to having a walk dedicated to diversity, including people of different ethnicities and shapes.

Fast fashion – With greater availability of technology, not only are we creating clothing more rapidly but we are also wasting a lot too. Fast fashion is designed to be replaced quickly, not so much by desire but by need. Often cheaper clothing is constructed of poor materials, meaning it wears quicker and falls apart, driving consumers to buy more. However it means that these used clothes get sent to landfills; in the US 13 trillion tons of clothes are sent and are left to contaminate local soil. Contrastingly, the slow fashion community has found that investing in fewer higher quality clothes actually saves us money because each piece lasts longer – sometimes up to a lifetime. Avoiding fast fashion could be a strong emphasis of the DUCFS 2020 campaign.

Online shopping vs traditional forms of shopping – Technology has also enabled us to purchase clothes online and receive them within days of seeing them on a computer screen. Recently, luxury e-commerce brands have emerged which exist as platforms which culminate hundreds of brands to one site, making shopping so much easier for the consumer. Instead of having to go to Bond Street to find outfits from Gucci, Dior and Prada, the latest outfits now exist on one website. Farfetch is the perfect example of this. Stocking products from over 700 boutiques and brands from around the world, the company is part of the luxury goods market, which is worth $307 billion today. Such a topic could be explored as part of DUCFS, with talks from industry experts from sites such as Farfetch, Net-a-porter and Matches Fashion. Furthermore, I envisage photoshoots prior to the show revolving around delivery companies, linking to the topic of fast fashion enabled by technology. Whilst it sounds strange on the face of it, my inspiration comes from Vetements’ famous DHL t-shirt which gained mass popularity in 2016.

End of ownership – As I elaborate on in my article on my homepage, we are increasingly seeing brands emerge which provide a loaning service of clothing. Often we are confronted with the question: will I ever wear this item again? This could become an issue of the past if we were able to rent items of clothing for events online. Not only would this be more sustainable as we would not be wasting clothes, it would also cost us less money as we would not splurge on a trend-based item which we only use once. I have recently discovered two companies which are already providing a service similar to the one I describe: FrontRow and ForDays. I believe that this could be a sub-category of the wider theme of technology and fashion. DUCFS could potentially reach out to one of these brands and use their clothing in one of the runway collections. Furthermore, it could be a topic for a talk hosted at the DUCFS Festival of Technology.

Charity – As part of the theme includes social media, a focus for the chosen charity could be on mental health. Almost everyone knows someone affected by mental health issues and it is such a relevant topic at the moment. Thus, choosing a charity such as Heads Together, Mind or Samaritans will create conversations about mental health – something crucial for everyone with a social media presence. It will fit in with the theme as with technological advancement comes responsibility to use it appropriately and in a way that is not detrimental to your health. Alternatively, another charity which DUCFS could fundraise for throughout the year is one concerning access to technology in developing countries.

A potential tag line of this theme (similar to your ‘pull the thread’ one last year) could be something around ‘being up in the clouds’. This idea is related to the technological clouds which store all of our data, such as the Google cloud and Apple Icloud. Like with our data, in fashion this includes information and outfits (seen on Instagram) and also clothes, with the increasing trend of borrowing or loaning clothes. Furthermore, the graphics of the social media campaign could be around a computer circuit board, fitting in with the theme of technology.

3 Changes to be made from 2019 DUCFS

1. I would love to see a greater emphasis on the designers behind the clothes in the sections of the actual DUCFS show. There could potentially be some text in the graphics introducing the designer before the models come out, or even an introduction by the comperes/hosts. I have noticed that particular emphasis on the designers has been apparent on your social media (namely Instagram) after the fashion show instead of before it. The whole theme of the fashion show could be linked to a greater extent by speaking more about the designers.
2. Another change which I believe would be beneficial to the success of DUCFS 2020 is having a different dynamic for the comperes/hosts of the show. Instead of having 3 comperes who run the whole night – which is in itself a tough task to keep everyone entertained for that long – there could instead be one host and then guests to come up and talk about the next collections and walks beforehand. The sole host could be entertaining everyone, whilst others come up to introduce the collections throughout the night. This is similar to the Brit awards dynamic this year, for example. Jack Whitehall presented the night, yet celebrities and personalities came out to introduce the awards (in the fashion show’s case it would be the designers and collections). Hopefully this would grasp people’s attention to a greater extent as there would be more variety, rather than having 3 comperes for the whole night.
3. Finally, I believe that DUCFS 2020 could benefit from having more diversity. Whilst I recognise that this is a sensitive topic which is hard to get right, I think that there could be more diversity in terms of body-shape especially. I recently spoke to a friend in third year, and he interestingly said to me that he decided not to come to the fashion show this year as he found issue in the whole inclusivity aspect to it. Thus, through the sub-category of social media in my theme proposal and focus on a mental health charity, there could be a walk dedicated to inclusivity or more variety in terms of body shape embedded throughout the show.