PROJECT 1 - CONTEXTUALIZATION
"Generally, to contextualize an idea, statement or event is to place it within its larger setting in which it acquires its true and complete meaning. Contextualization aids comprehension. For example, an arithmetic problem may not seem very practical until it is seen within a story problem;"
https://www.gotquestions.org/contextualization.html
https://www.gotquestions.org/contextualization.html
This is the first project in Apollo where I had a partner. Emily Diaz and I worked together to research and plan a project around the exploitation of women, specifically, women of color in the fashion industry. We started this project off knowing that Emily wanted to make crochet clothing and I wanted to do something fashion related. Together we worked together to build this project that combines both of our interests and brings awareness to a really important issue in society.
English
For every subject of our project, we divided our topics into questions. We used English to answer the where and the when questions. Our main topics of research were fashion hierarchies, how the industrial revolution impacted the fashion industry, the history of crochet, the history of modeling, the history of the exploitation of women of color in the industry, and the study of beauty. There was a lot to unpack in the beginning stages of our project. The sheer number of aspects to our topic that we wished to look at were at times overwhelming but that is where our partnership works best. We were able to rely on one another to assure that we would get the project done on time but also done with good quality.
Once we nailed down our research direction, we had to then choose what product we would like to make. I saw a really cool article published by Vogue about Kim Kardashian. Not only was the article beautiful aesthetically, but the writing was great as well. This inspired me to want to head in the direction of almost an editorial-style write-up for our project. Together, we landed on creating our own fashion magazine depicting all the information we had learned and the clothes that Emily made and we designed. Our magazine is called Vague and is broken down into each of our research topics.
The main article is the last one titled “Who Am I To You?” In this article, we summarize and bring all the context that we explained in earlier articles together and we relate it back to our main topic: the exploitation of women of color in the fashion industry. The history that impacts today is also discussed and is related to the main topic. “Who am I to You?” is a great starting point when diving into our entire topic and all that we have learned and created. It answers a lot of the questions that come to many people’s minds when they hear our topic and it provides the necessary background to understand why we choose this topic and how our other subject products connect back to the main idea.
Once we nailed down our research direction, we had to then choose what product we would like to make. I saw a really cool article published by Vogue about Kim Kardashian. Not only was the article beautiful aesthetically, but the writing was great as well. This inspired me to want to head in the direction of almost an editorial-style write-up for our project. Together, we landed on creating our own fashion magazine depicting all the information we had learned and the clothes that Emily made and we designed. Our magazine is called Vague and is broken down into each of our research topics.
The main article is the last one titled “Who Am I To You?” In this article, we summarize and bring all the context that we explained in earlier articles together and we relate it back to our main topic: the exploitation of women of color in the fashion industry. The history that impacts today is also discussed and is related to the main topic. “Who am I to You?” is a great starting point when diving into our entire topic and all that we have learned and created. It answers a lot of the questions that come to many people’s minds when they hear our topic and it provides the necessary background to understand why we choose this topic and how our other subject products connect back to the main idea.
ART
In the artistic portion of our project, we decided to do a more obvious product for our topic - a fashion collection. Though it is simply three outfits, these are handmade and handcrafted pieces of art that we made in order to bring out inner beauty for each of our individuals.
For the illusive brown top with the brown square pants, we crafted it to highlight the best parts of the model Rebecca. She has the personality of someone who is very fashionable and really likes to have an array of looks on any given day. She also speaks her mind, so rather than having both the model and the outfit compete for attention, we calmed the outfit down to let the beautiful mind of this young woman speak for herself.
For the sunshine top with the two-toned denim pants, our model has a very bright and bubbly personality which is perfectly shown in this outfit. With her beautiful skin tone, we wanted to choose a color like yellows and white to stand out, but also highlight this young woman’s great potential and brightness.
The all-white look was actually designed for the co-creator of this fashion collection, Renee. Willing to push the boundaries of comfort levels, we designed the pants especially to show off her calming personality but to have some spunk in her step.
What is really crucial to this line was the context of our project - how women of color are exploited in this fashion industry. Rather than being hidden in the background, each outfit was designed for women of color from people of minority backgrounds. What is truly remarkable about this line is that each item was either refurbished and up-cycled, or crocheted by Emily. In total, our expenses totaled to be $56 for items that can be easily retailed for ten times the price!
For the illusive brown top with the brown square pants, we crafted it to highlight the best parts of the model Rebecca. She has the personality of someone who is very fashionable and really likes to have an array of looks on any given day. She also speaks her mind, so rather than having both the model and the outfit compete for attention, we calmed the outfit down to let the beautiful mind of this young woman speak for herself.
For the sunshine top with the two-toned denim pants, our model has a very bright and bubbly personality which is perfectly shown in this outfit. With her beautiful skin tone, we wanted to choose a color like yellows and white to stand out, but also highlight this young woman’s great potential and brightness.
The all-white look was actually designed for the co-creator of this fashion collection, Renee. Willing to push the boundaries of comfort levels, we designed the pants especially to show off her calming personality but to have some spunk in her step.
What is really crucial to this line was the context of our project - how women of color are exploited in this fashion industry. Rather than being hidden in the background, each outfit was designed for women of color from people of minority backgrounds. What is truly remarkable about this line is that each item was either refurbished and up-cycled, or crocheted by Emily. In total, our expenses totaled to be $56 for items that can be easily retailed for ten times the price!
Social Studies
Within our social studies course, we are studying “Self in Modern World” which has really personalized our learning experience. We took this course area as a way of boosting our ideas further with many aspects of our project.Unlike Art or English, we took the context of the present problems in fast fashion and applied it to our project.
In Social Studies, we allied ourselves with the magazine we wrote for English by taking quotes from the magazine and creating posts on Instagram centered around the topic of the selected quotes. We paired that with pictures, either taken by ourselves or from the internet. We have 5 posts total on the Instagram page (@venust_ed.re). The posts vary in topic from overconsumption and waste within the fashion industry to the exploitation of women of color in the industry. However, each post relates to our magazine and to the original designs and outfits created for art.
Moreover, the captions are where we really dived into “Self in Modern World”. We explained and annotated each quote, but we aligned it with how such topics affect us. How does sustainability and the exploitation of women affect the younger generations, us included, today? Social media is a wonderful resource to share loads of information in digestible ways to reach an unbelievable number of people. Because of this, Instagram was the perfect platform to use to answer that very question. Each post is like an individual window that lets you see the different angles of context we pursued but also to see how we as individuals felt about the topic and its effects on our lives.
The beauty of this project was that everything ties into everything. There is not one subject product that doesn't need the other two subject products or research to be complete. Throughout everything we created for this topic, we have been able to pull and borrow information and context from the different subjects to build a cohesive presentation of the realities and truths hidden throughout the fashion industry.
In Social Studies, we allied ourselves with the magazine we wrote for English by taking quotes from the magazine and creating posts on Instagram centered around the topic of the selected quotes. We paired that with pictures, either taken by ourselves or from the internet. We have 5 posts total on the Instagram page (@venust_ed.re). The posts vary in topic from overconsumption and waste within the fashion industry to the exploitation of women of color in the industry. However, each post relates to our magazine and to the original designs and outfits created for art.
Moreover, the captions are where we really dived into “Self in Modern World”. We explained and annotated each quote, but we aligned it with how such topics affect us. How does sustainability and the exploitation of women affect the younger generations, us included, today? Social media is a wonderful resource to share loads of information in digestible ways to reach an unbelievable number of people. Because of this, Instagram was the perfect platform to use to answer that very question. Each post is like an individual window that lets you see the different angles of context we pursued but also to see how we as individuals felt about the topic and its effects on our lives.
The beauty of this project was that everything ties into everything. There is not one subject product that doesn't need the other two subject products or research to be complete. Throughout everything we created for this topic, we have been able to pull and borrow information and context from the different subjects to build a cohesive presentation of the realities and truths hidden throughout the fashion industry.