Emma's EPQ

Social media influencers are often seen displaying the new trends and being paid to promote fast fashion brands. Often, reality TV stars eg. Love Island, release collections with online fashion brands like 'PrettyLittleThing' and 'Misspap' weeks after they leave the show. As with all fast fashion products, the items are made quickly and aren't designed to be worn more than once and are sold very cheaply. When they aren't actually promoting a brand, 'influencers' still contribute to the fast fashion industry as the clothes that they wear quickly become trends due to their large platforms. I have looked on Instagram at the brands that celebrities promote/work with. I have found that more female celebrities than male celebrities promote fashion brands. I also found that often, these influencers give their followers a discount code, making it even easier for consumers to buy a large amount of clothes extremely cheaply. Even if the posts were...

Social media influencers are often seen displaying the new trends and being paid to promote fast fashion brands. Often, reality TV stars eg. Love Island, release collections with online fashion brands like 'PrettyLittleThing' and 'Misspap' weeks after they leave the show. As with all fast fashion products, the items are made quickly and aren't designed to be worn more than once and are sold very cheaply. When they aren't actually promoting a brand, 'influencers' still contribute to the fast fashion industry as the clothes that they wear quickly become trends due to their large platforms. I have looked on Instagram at the brands that celebrities promote/work with. I have found that more female celebrities than male celebrities promote fashion brands. I also found that often, these influencers give their followers a discount code, making it even easier for consumers to buy a large amount of clothes extremely cheaply. Even if the posts were...

This week, I have listened to Fashion Fix . I listened to the 3 episodes that were more focussed on fast fashion and the ethics of clothes to fit with my research. They were ' Sustainable Streetwear with Emmanuel Enemokwu', 'Ethical Denim with Molly Hopwood and Tansy Hoskins' and 'Garment Worker Rights with Kalpona Akter'. I chose to only look at these episodes as the other episodes in the series were about different aspects of the industry that didn't fit my topic of Fast Fashion. The podcast interviews people who work within the industry, mostly by trying to create sustainable brands which has given me insight into the issues that these brands have to think about eg. sourcing the most sustainable materials at a good cost. The episode about garment worker's rights has provided me with a lot of information about the treatment of workers and what companies can/should do to be more ethical. I have also found this podcast useful for gaining statistics abo...

I have chosen to do my EPQ as a dissertation because I think it is most suited to my chosen project as I will be able to research, in detail, the positives and negatives of fast fashion and see how easy it is to shop more sustainably. A dissertation will allow me to do this because I will be able to discuss different sources, gather a large amount of data and come to conclusions about how we can shop better.

I have decided to remove the dates from my timeline as I have found that the tasks I'm able to do each week don't fit with my current timetable. I'm going to create a to do list for each month without dates so that I can easily pick tasks that I can fit in with my subject from other workloads. I am also going to adapt some of the tasks that I have set for January onwards as the direction of my project has changed slightly so some tasks are no longer relevant. November - Decide what Primary research I am going to do  Listen to Fashion Fix Look at whether more expensive does usually = more sustainable and more ethical Do research into to the role that social media/influencers have on the fast fashion industry. Find statistics about the amount of clothes we buy, how much is wasted, the materials most commonly used etc. December - See how the fashion industry has changed to become fast fashion Find YouTube videos about fast fashion/ethical fashion Look at the...

Good On You is an app that rates clothing brands on how ethical they are, helping consumers to make better fashion choices. They rate brands according to how good they are ethically on 3 categories - impact on the planet, use of animal products and treatment of workers. In this piece of research, I have looked at how reliable the information they provide is and whether they're biased in the brands they say are ethical. I have found that they rate brands based on set criteria which is good as all the brands are rated in the same way. They get their information from 50 certification schemes, making the information they provide reliable as it takes many sources into account. This app has been a useful resource as I have been able to see the ethics of brands that have all been rated in the same way. This source should be reliable as it uses information from a large range of places to decide on the rating of a brand. They are funded by sponsored posts and affiliate links to b...

Since starting my project, I have learnt that reducing the amount of fast fashion that we buy is more difficult than I thought it would be. My research has shown me that sustainable clothing brands are significantly more expensive than fast fashion brands, making them inaccessible and I've also learnt that fast fashion brands don't usually say what they're doing for sustainability so consumers can't make better choices. Over the last 2 months, I have been able to complete all the research that I have set for myself, however, I have swapped some tasks to different weeks to fit with my other workload.  Next, I want to look at the resources that are available for consumers to find out more about the ethics of fast fashion brands, look into shopping habits and also find more ethical, 'slow' fashion brands that are more reasonably priced, looking at what they're doing differently to other brands.