I remembered as the news has hit about many of the events they mentioned within the documentary, a huge building collapses as low paid workers get trapped under the rubble, a huge fire that rips through factories with no proper health and safety procedures in place. I did not however realise how many of the main brands made their clothes within these very factories, GAP and Primark to name a few. It is all well and good that the brands offer their condolences and false promises of improvements however as the documentary shoes these are not isolated events. They are fairly often and so devastating to communities.

There are over 40 million garment factory workers in the world at the moment, with 10% of them working in Bangladesh. It is spoken as an issue mainly for female workers as 85% of these factory workers are female. They earn less than £3 a day. In England, that is the price of an average lunch. It is pocket change whilst for some they have to raise a family on that money alone. The ideas of unions are only just emerging, workers demands barely getting listened to and reports of violence and abuse have risen out of many factories. The documentary featured a worker retelling how they were locked in a room and attacked with chairs and other furniture items, unlike the UK where policing is high, these workers still had to go back the next day and work for these same employers as they needed the money.

Livia Firth, a big campaigner at the moment, has been urging the fashion industry to make changes that last. She has been using her platform to critique fast fashion and to right the 'social justice destruction' that has been happening.

In addition to the human cost, the effects the fashion industry has on the environment is shocking. Clothing factories are dumping tons of dyes and chemicals into local water works, the same streams and rivers in which people rely on for drinking and bathing. That polluted water is being consumed by those who cannot afford to filter or pay for luxury bottled water. They have no choice and are most likely oblivious to the effects that the chemicals can do to themselves and their families.

With 1 in 6 working in the global fashion industry, we need to do more to protect those without a voice. They are silenced due to their low social standing and desperate to do anything that might protect their families. We need to do more.

To sum it up in one word I would have to say the show was memorable. It was shocking and magical with an ere of mystery to it too. It was well planned and gorgeous and gory and just fascinating to watch, Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele did an amazing job at making a show to put Gucci in history books.



The first glimpse I had of the show was on @diet_pradas Instagram story. It was a short video that featured a masked thing covered in expensive almost oriental looking designs and I was as shocked as I was fascinated. If it wasn't for the embellishments and subtle touches I never would have believed it was Gucci, it seemed way too out there for the brand to do as it completely turned it's back on the high elegance and sophisticated cuts that the brand normally display.
The thing that made the most headlines were the special effects and the catwalks design itself. It was set up in a Surgery room where the models walked past a surgery table and equipment. The accessories where a little different from the normal clutch bags and earnings, instead models held replicas of their own heads, chameleons and even dragons.

In my recent project, I was comparing Cath Kinston to the idea of 'Britishness', doing so multiple times without ever really considering exactly what this 'Britishness' means. After being prompt to doing so by my lecturer, I have really been comparing the 'then' and 'now' of a British identity. 

I think Britain has never been able to shake the 1950's 'cheerio'stereotypes of Brits all being related to the queen somehow and all avid tea drinkers. I really think that Brits and Britain have changed, this was my argument on why no one rates Cath Kinston anymore. We are more diverse, more aware and much more travelled nowadays, we have all seen the world and the mix of diversity means that British culture no longer just 'white British' identity. 

Instead, when I meet people from other countries and they ask me about how it feels to be British, the queen and castles are no longer the first things I am asked about. Instead, they ask about the British Grime scene, street style fashions, Oxford Street and my accent. It feels like Britain now has earned its place, rather than when it just went to countries and demanded it. Grime especially has blown up in these past few years and is known internationally.

I would definitely say I am proud to be British when it is put this way, when people talk about my British heritage I am very grateful for my background and the upbringing that being British has allowed me to have. That is why I get aggravated when people from other countries ask me about Kate Middleton's children as if I personally knew them (?)

I found that deeply considering the term "Britishness" really helped me into the context stage of my project, now I know my feelings on the term I could see how to develop this.

  

I was never one for watching the TV, but since the TV became accessible through  the internet I have developed an unhealthy addiction. I have watched countless programmes, some awful and some brilliant but none have ever stuck with me the way Black Mirror does. It is so hard to attach a genre to it but it does have underlying tones of horror, shocking its audience with its intelligence every single episode.
I began watching it on Channel 4, done through recommendation by my brother as he told me mad plot points that sounded too explicit and simply too mad for television. He was certainly correct and I became hooked from that first satirical, dark and twisted episode- for all those who watched it I'm sure you've never looked at the Prime Minister nor a pig the same. The writers were not shy and went further than anyone ever had to portray interesting messages to the audience.



Since Netflix's takeover, the only change has seen the show become even more high resolution, more Americanised and higher budgeted. It sees a few well known names join the cast as they continue to play out complex and thought provoking episodes. This recent series has received huge media attention for attacking such big problems such as parents policing their children through technology and what happens when technology advances, will it get so far that one coder could be in complete control of lives? It is the topics that makes the show what it is, everyone can relate to a story in one way or another or has questioned a similar topic that the show tackles. 



If you have never watched the show I hope this has helped to convince you to try it.

If you have watched it, what do you think?