rebecca.neary

The True Cost of Oil

2012-02-29T10:32:00.001-08:00

Everyone should take the time to watch this video... it's mind blowing and so informing. We really are killing our habitats and earth for the sake of making money.

http://www.ted.com/talks/garth_lenz_images_of_beauty_and_devastation.html

Respect the planet dude - and say no to this kind of destruction - even if you don't think you care about global warming - i bet you didn't expect effects on this scale....and we as human beings are inflicting this on ourselves.

VOGUE ITALIA TALENTS - featured my Pre-Collection

2012-01-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

Here is my pre-collection featured on Vogue Italia Talents.

http://www.vogue.it/en/talents/blog-from/2012/01/impressions-from-royal-college-of-art

A DRAWING WORKSHOP - with tutor Niall Laverty.

2012-01-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

I have done this workshop for the past two days and found it really hard to loosen up - but I think I found my feet in the last session. Really enjoyed it and hope to include this kind of thing in my work again!

I love continuous line drawing and I never knew.

Any feedback welcome!

WORK IN PROGRESS - PREVIEW - My Precollection

2012-01-15T04:59:00.000-08:00

FEATURED IN THIS EXHIBITION IS MY WAXED ANATOMICAL PARKA,

A PRINTED COTTON JESKA SHIRT AND A L/S THICK JERSEY TOP.

My work is based around the anatomy, archived garments and print.

Any feedback welcome!!

WORK IN PROGRESS EXHIBITIONS STARTS TOMORROW

2012-01-10T03:51:00.000-08:00

FASHION AND TEXTILES EXHIBITION

WORK IN PROGRESS EXHIBITION

PRIVATE VIEW: Wednesday 11th January 2012

@ 6.30pm

12th - 19th January 2012

10am - 8pm

MY PRE-COLLECTION WORK WILL BE FEATURED IN THIS EXHIBITION ALONG THIS ALL WOMENSWEAR, MENSWEAR, ACCESSORIES AND TEXTILES CURRENTLY STUDYING AT THE RCA.

The Royal College of Art Fashion Show 2012: SAVE THE DATE

2011-11-17T01:55:00.000-08:00

My MA Collection with preview on the

30th-31st May 2012

in the Henry Moore Gallery

The Royal College of Art, London.

_30TH MAY : 2PM, 4PM + 6.15PM FOR 7PM CHAMPAGNE_

_31ST MAY : 12NOON PRESS SHOW + 6.30PM FOR 7.30PM GALA SHOW_

If you would like anymore information on the RCASHOW then please get in touch or look out for news on my twitter @nearyrebecca, or alternatively use the contact information above.

For any Show enquiries please check the RCA website:

http://www.rca.ac.uk/

Thanks for reading!Look forward to seeing you at the Show.

George Harrison by Martin Scorcese

2011-11-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this film. I have never known that much about George Harrison before this film and its real eye opener.

Whether it is accurate or not is up to people closest to him but it portrayed him as a guy with a big heart and and lust for more creativity and friendship. The one thing that struck me in it was his wife's acknowledgement that he had a way of enhancing and perfecting moments.

For some reason this has really stuck with me.

Take a look; you won't be disappointed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/8799615/George-Harrison-Living-in-the-Material-World-trailer.html

The Museum of Everything - Joyce Scott

2011-10-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Really profound exhibition by The Museum of Everything.

Joyce Scott wraps different objects..If you get chance you have to go and see this.

Great exhibition space too.

Good-One - Contemporary 'Green'?

2011-09-06T03:58:00.001-07:00

This is Nin Castle, founder of Good-One. I met her at London Fashion Week last September, a really nice girl and really passionate about what she does.

I feel like Good-One is a real player in the contemporary 'green' fashion industry.I myself would love to wear some of this - still out of my price bracket a little but the stuff looks really comfortable and contemporary. Tell me what you think.....

http://www.goodone.co.uk/

cool...

2011-08-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

Metamorphosis- The North Circular

2011-08-25T03:17:00.000-07:00

http://vimeo.com/26066536

take a sneaky peek at this awesome video - debuted at Estethica's 5th Birthday by The North Circular.

Enjoy!!

The Waste Makers by Vance Packard

2011-08-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

This is a great book!! THE WASTE MAKERS was published in 1961 and it still rings loud and clear today. Here are some poignant quotes I have taken from it.

" ...the nation faces the hazard of developing a healthy economy within the confines of a psychologically sick and impoverished society" pg 316.

This links to the ever mounting consumption habits and the governing notion that a 'growing' economy is a 'healthy' thing. Fiscally, maybe but this isn't necessarily the case for us individuals. It has been found time and time again that consumption of objects does not give us happiness or fulfillment (as it is marketed to).

People ,"...gain their feelings of significance in life from these acts of consumption rather than from...achievements...personal worth and service to others."

This is another quote from Packard, and I think it can only be reinforced by the riots that were based on personal gain and looting as people feel like they are entitled to objects as wealth should not be a limitation. A very skewed sense of entitlement indeed, no pride in the journey towards achieving goals, some individuals it seems see the final goal and wish to have it served on a plate to them.

Really recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in consumer behaviour and the idea of planned obsolescence. Makes you think about the free market economy in a very different way....
For me it's volatile and opportunistic - definitely not efficient or well-grounded.

Amelia's Magazine - My Brioni Coat Collaboration

2011-06-18T03:54:00.001-07:00

Take a look!!

http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/fashion/royal-college-of-art-fashion-design-graduate-show-2011-review-menswear/2011/06/15/

My Brioni Coat Collaboration

2011-06-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

Brioni Coat Collaboration - by Rebecca Neary

as featured on Wallpaper:

http://www.wallpaper.com/gallery/fashion/royal-college-of-art-graduate-fashion-show-2011/17052486/45886#45894

Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories by Chapman and Gant

2011-05-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is a great book for anyone wanting to look at ideas surrounding sustainable living and design; getting people involved and interested in the subject.

There are some great quotes in here:

"...a singular ideology should actually be avoided, as this would serve to indoctrinate and stifle an otherwise abundant and free-flowing creative culture of critique and innovation."

I really agree with this statement, as so many people feel as though they are being indoctrinated into a green way of thinking, and this is done by making them feel guilty about their personal impacts on the environment.

BUT, and this is a big but, indoctrination isn't productive or positive!!!

And as designers it does tend to pigeon hole you into A category that limits their creativity before they even start to explore their design capacity.

"Marketing is part of the design process, where sustainable attributes of product outputs are to be identified and celebrated, leading by example to make sustainability the new consumer language of desire and obsession"

This is what I am trying to question in my research, as at the high end of fashion not much thought is given to marketing ploys and overt green design. Rather that the design should primarily speak for itself and the green/sustainable attribute be something that is used where possible.

Into The Wild | This film blew me away.....

2011-05-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Into The Wild

I watched this film for the first time this weekend. The journey that this guy took is

just phenomenal....I did find it really sad though. He dies on his way to finding love, happiness

and acceptance. Sean Penn captures this story like nothing I have ever seen before.

This is the best and most moving film that I have ever watched....

COOL IT|a great book by Bjorn Llomborg|check it out

2011-05-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

" I would like it to be cool to be impassioned about doing the best first for the planet"

"With a language of 'fear terror and disaster' climate change has captured most of our attention. But I say we need to cool it. We want to help the world-great. But is not a given that the best way to help is to cut CO2."

"I hope we can look future generations squarely in the eye and say that we didn't just do what seemed to be fashionably good; we massively and thoroughly changed the world for the better through simple, tested and cool strategies. We didn't just do something that made us feel good; we did something that actually did good."

These are some of the poignant quotes that I pulled out of Llomborg's book. Although he is framed as a climate change sceptic I think he has a clear sense of positive action enabling us to see past fear mongering and find plausible solutions to the world's biggest issues. Although people oppose him to green campaigner Al Gore, I don't think that this is really correct; they both have the same positive goals to achieve but set out to obtain them in very different ways.

It brings me back to the age old saying "There's more than one way to skin a cat"....

Pluralism of methodology is a great thing and it drives competition and with a positive mindset might achieve different things but to the same end.

I think you have to acknowledge all the positive things that you do and feed off that energy to carry on... that's what I propose to do.

An Interview with Katherine Poulton Co-Director at The North Circular

2011-05-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

The North Circular

http://thenorthcircular.com/index.html

I got to know the team at TNC when I interned for them last summer! They are a great little knitwear company with great grannies and ethics attached....Katherine agreed to have a little chat with me about my dissertation..we like a good eco-powow session to boost our moral! Here are some of the things we discussed in park over lunch!

*Fashion is a celebration of the new and the opposite!Backlash is a part of the fashion cycle, the rebel within us.

*Scepticism is needed for objective design and a pluralist society. Criticism is something that we need to encounter in order to improve our designs.

*TNC focuses on the personal touch rather than the green. Their product labels do not state the wool is

organic rather who is was made by and registers its process.

*However, if you do not expose the 'green' part of your product to the consumer how will they know any different and register a different way of thinking? This exposure might make people question their consumption habits.

*Green has an unquantifiable nature- does this let the sceptics loose?

*Green certifications are becoming increasingly difficult to attain and it can send companies abroad to India for sourcing wool rather than using the abundance that we have in the British Isles. The Indian product might be more certified than the British one, but is it greener in practice. In this case you have to consider air miles and add this impact to the manufacturing process!What is better?

*Katherine recommended that I watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?". This is a great documentary film which frames mega corporation ExxonMobil for burying the perfect electric car which was developed in the 90's. They bought out the design and destroyed it leaving not traces. There are obvious motivations for EM to do this, they would loose out massively on oil so they even rigged the media paying them to undermine the electric car until the government intervened to say that the electric car should no longer be produced.

This is corporate corruption rather than plural design for all, and it is limiting in every aspect. It also puts in to question whether what we are exposed to is controlled by big corporations who have plenty of money at their disposal. Is there a fashion equivalent to the electric car?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJAlrYjGz8

*Retailers such as Primark survive off the back of the fact that it is socially acceptable even for fashionista's to shop there in 'aid' of fashion.

These are just a few of the topics that we covered in our chat. Katherine thinks that being ethical and to a large extent green has benefitted TNC massively as consumers see it is a positive alternative.If you have any comments on the content of our discussion I would be open to anyone's opinion! The more the merrier!!!

Thanks to Katherine for a great chat....may the sessions continue!

Tony Fry - Design Futuring....a new approach to design

2011-05-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Tony Fry - Design Futuring is a great book for any practitioners in design that want to consider a different approach to the way we design to make it more efficient and sustainable.
It is philosophical in text and not the easiest read but has great concepts and an honesty about it which is quite inspiring. Some of the more poignant quotes that I have taken from it are:

"Design as such cannot be disaggregated from the world around us and presented as a thing-in-itself."

"Design has to be understand anthropologically. It names our ability to prefigure what we create before the act of creation..."

"Our species auto-destructive mode of being is neither fundamentally recognised nor redirectively engaged. Myopically, the guiding forces of the status-quo continue to sacrifice the future to sustain the excesses of the present."

"To name and face the situation as briefly outlined is not 'doomsaying' but realism. Problems cannot be solved unless they are confronted and if they are to be solved it will not be by chance, but by design."

I think these statements are really poignant. For any designer this is a vote of confidence in your ability to reflect on what you do and how you could maybe do things differently. It's a can-do mentality and a challenge for the next generation of designers. I think Fry wants to prompt a new era in design.....do you think it will happen?

Lucy Seigle - another eco-commentator worth knowing...

2011-05-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

Seigle works at the guardian newspaper writing about all the quanderies that we might face contemplate as green consumers...Above is her new book 'To Die For' all about what is fashion costing the earth. Her recent article in the guardian,

Why fast fashion is slow death for the planet

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/08/fast-fashion-death-for-planet

took my interest! It displays our consumer habits and how these have changed over the past decade. This particular excerpt grabbed my attention...

"Our ways of buying fashion and our relationship with the garments we own started changing in the mid-1980s. By 2005, academic research was picking up on the salient points. Louise R Morgan and Grete Birtwistle set up eight consumer focus groups, surveying 71 women about their purchasing habits. Nearly all confessed to spending more than they used to, but what's really notable is that they had absolutely no plan as to how long they intended to keep any of their purchases. They also admitted that when "cheap" fashion tore or became stained, its likely destination was not the washbasket, but the rubbish bin. The old way of buying clothes, in harmony with one's income and the seasons, the way people wore, washed carefully and darned, has nothing in common with the way we now consume."

I think it is really important to recognise this difference in our consumption habits so that we can actually evaluate what we are spending our money on. As a designer I do take pride in what I buy and wear and quality and therefore longevity is something that I strive for in every purchase. I was taught, 'A bargain isn't a bargain if you aren't going to get any wear out of it.'... Some say that us northerners are very good at being frugal with our money but in any case I think this is a really valuable lesson to swallow, digest and learn from....

Money isn't something that is always knocking about these days for many people and 'acheiving a look' isn't a top priority, rather looking nice and feeling confident in something that you know you will wear over and over again!

Take a look at the rest of her article at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/08/fast-fashion-death-for-planet

www.monbiot.com - something to ponder...

2011-05-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

I am currently on my dissertation reading and research week and I came across George Monbiot's site. He's a great commentator on environmental issues and things surrounding all the issues. Here's a small snipit of one of his articles called 'Power Trips',

"It also encourages the superman myth: that a few powerful people can save the planet. In reality, only big social movements, emphasising solidarity and collective effort, are likely to be effective. Those who are rich and powerful already will frame their environmentalism in terms that reinforce their wealth and power, ensuring that the system which has rewarded them so lavishly remains unchallenged. I doubt that anyone who works for the Observer believes the superman myth, but they pretend to do so, because power lists – like every other species of celebrity trivia – are popular and easy to read.

Worst of all, it represents another attempt to tame and package this movement. As Paul Kingsnorth puts it:

“Capitalism, always so effective at absorbing and defanging dissenters, is transforming an existential challenge into yet another opportunity for shopping.”

Environmentalism is one of the last hold-outs against celebrity culture. It’s not untainted by this plague, but more resistant to it than any other sector. If the papers have their way, they will trivialise and capture us, just as they have done to everything else that once had substance." (http://www.monbiot.com/2011/01/18/power-trips/)

This is a really poignant excerpt I think! He gets straight to the point. On how this relates to me, I have to say that it would discourage me to use celebrity for personal gain....but would that aid me as a designer in this time and space?

Love this image from the Insight website...

2011-04-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

check it out on http://www.insight51.com/

Getting to know me, getting to know you....

2011-04-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Rebecca Neary.

I am currently studying Menswear at The Royal College of Art. I am really interested in Ecology and Sustainability aswell as Photography and people participation on the subjects that really matter and an individuals general opinions and their personal ideology!OR just somebody's reaction to something!!...

Currently in my design work I am focusing my attention on the anatomy and producing a garments with a higher sense of function. I have a real belief in 'Form Follows Function'. I think intelligent design in this era is really important to look to the future without necessarily considering trend but considering physiological needs and functions! This anatomical stage is part of my journey so far on my MA which I plan to expand upon.

From a theoretical viewpoint I am currently reading A LOT for my second dissertation in 'green' fashion...books that I might include or reference might give you a glimpse into what I find poignant and interesting...

In this blog I hope to document my journey as both a Menswear Designer and keen Ecologist and find out how these paradoxes might merge OR not.....
If you have anything that you can recommend or if you would just like to contact me my email is:
rebecca.neary@network.rca.ac.uk
I look forward to hearing your opinions or ideas!I am always open to a discussion or chat!