module 1 - fashion evolution

First half of my zine

Looking into the historical context of fast fashion

• Looking into the triangle shirtwaist factory fire and what proceeded because of that horrible incident. Why its still relevant today and how it still to this day impacts our lives. It was a tragedy that opened the nations eyes to how truly awful the working conditions in garment factories was. Activists and labor unions like the International Ladies Garment Workers Union were at the forefront of this push for reforms. In1911 New York State did the most thorough investigation of factory conditions in U.S history. This bought new standards of workers rights throughout the country and has since been built up over many years. Although from looking at this fire and researching the horrific conditions these migrant workers were put you might think we’ve come such a long way, but your very much mistaken as we still have such a long way to go. For example a more recent event was the 2013 garment factory collapse in Bangladesh killing 1,129 people.
• I am also going to be looking into Pret-a-porter (ready to wear) and the development of the internet and online shopping and how the clothing production line has just completely rocketed over the last century. 
• 1979 – It all began when Michael Aldrich ‘invented’ online shopping.  Using videotex, a two way message service, it revolutionised businesses. We now know this as e-commerce.
• 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee created the first WWW server and browser.  This started a whole new revolution. Nearly 25 years on, he is today still working hard at guiding the development and spread of the web, using the mantra ‘If it isn’t on the web then it isn’t happening’.
• 1991 – The internet is commercialised and we saw the birth of e-commerce.
• By the year 2000, around 100 million people had access to the internet, and it became quite common for people to be engaged socially online.
• In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched what would soon become the social media giant that would set the bar for all other social media services.
• Twitter was launched in 2006
• Instagram was launched in 2010
• The internet and especially social media sites had a huge impact on the rise of fast fashion as many clothing companies took this as an opportunity to advertise; and it worked. 
• Sites such as instagram and Twitter have now almost completely taken over as more and more companies are using ‘instagram models’ and reality stars to advertise their clothes and appeal to a younger audience who will want to copy what their idols wear. Many are sucked into a very fake world where models and celebs change their style and looks constantly and thats one of the reasons why we live in a ‘throwaway fashion’ era. 
• Asos was launched in 2000
• Ready to wear or ‘Pret-a-porter’: factory-made clothing made in standardised sizes and sold in a finished condition compared to bespoke or made to measure clothing tailored specifically to one persons body. They use standard patterns, standard factory equipment and faster construction techniques to keep the cots as low as possible. 
• Ready to wear was really the start of the ‘fast fashion era’ however so many more aspects contributed to what we have in the present day and these are what I’m going to be looking at through my zine. I will be looking at all the factors that made fashion the way it is today and how it is turned into such a throw away generation where we are taught to only wear things a couple time then to throw them. In my second half of my zine I will then be looking at how far we’ve come in terms of child labour and trying to become more (or less) ethical and environmentally friendly. It will mainly be a negative stance on how badly we are doing as a community to change the way things are at the moment but also negatively looking at how hard it is especially as a younger generation to shop ethically and make a difference. I’m going to look at:   
  • How social media and the internet has affected advertising, such as instagram influencers 
  • The