This has been a difficult year for many students, lecturers and teachers all over the world. Covid-19 isolated each and everyone of us in our own bubble with distance learning, but we should also remember that some people got it even worse.
In poorer countries many children were unable to keep on taking their classes, Covid-19 devasted many families, left orphaned children behind and fuelled child labor. Students who followed distance learning classes in Western countries were more privileged as, many of them were still able to get on with their schoolwork.
That said, if by chance you found yourself walking near the impromptu educational station installed in your house where your kids, nephews and nieces, younger siblings or cousins were having their lessons, you would have also realised that the loss of attention was often produced by a combination of issues that went from technical problems to the boredom generated by some classes.
After trying to listen to the Maths teacher engaging in one of his long monologue for over 1 hour, one of my nephews organised next to his desk a pile of vintage comics and simply decided that there was only way to survive Covid and Maths – reading comic books. My eldest nephew resorted to browsing the Internet for news about American politics (one of his passions) interspersed with long sessions of "Among Us" played online with absolute strangers he accidentally bumped in. After all, what was the point of listening to his philosophy teacher explaining the intricacies of logics when he could have answered his mock exam questions with the knowledge gathered a few years ago while playing with the Professor Layton saga? Urged to follow the lesson, he replied: "do you seriously want me to listen to this old man ranting?" which sounded a bit unfair considering the teacher in question is in his 40s, but I could suddenly see my nephew's point after I was told the man is an anti-abortionist with a penchant for conservative politicians claiming the role of women is to be mothers. But I'm digressing here.
And so I realised that it wasn't only kids who, being bombarded with information, images and visual stimuli get easily distracted, but the truth is that we, as teachers, lecturers, educators and grown-ups in general may not be able to engage them with intriguing lessons, providing them with content they may find useful and stimulating.
In creative disciplines distance learning also proved difficult: usually even when you teach creative subjects in presence you are a facilitator, you may suggest students to read this or that book, check this or that artist, architect or designer, but you're not there to turn their vision into your own vision. That said, you wonder if something should be changed in teaching methods or in the contents of what we teach.
I get often contacted by students from all over the world (who have no connections with educational projects I have been following or developing): some of them have questions about research materials, dissertation topics, comparisons and connections. I reply whenever I can and provide explanations and materials at times.
Yet there is a sensitive topic in which I may have failed: I have often written about copyright infringement, but I'm now coming to terms with the fact that, rather than raising awareness, young people may have taken my long explanations, features and comparisons as invitations to engage in reckless copying sessions.
Sampling like a DJ became popular in fashion the '90s; then came the practice of heavily remixing things, but now we are blatantly copying each other or trying to find an easy way to produce a collection by borrowing and stealing.
I guess this mainly happens because young people studying fashion are aware that even luxury houses aren't trying hard enough to produce terrifically new collections and that designers often steal from each others or even from folders sent by students applying for jobs and internships, so why should they try and look for something desperately new?
The copying loop is infinite and constant, so it is not rare to see Margiela-isms and Gucci-isms at graduate shows, and in the last couple of days I have glimpsed a bed dress moment on the Central Saint Martins BA in Fashion runway show that may have been a tribute to the orginal "bed dress"(1986) by Cinzia Ruggeri, remixed throughout the years by Viktor & Rolf, combined with a reference to lockdown fashion with its pillow challenges and quilted evening gowns.
Bizarrely the next day I spotted another student on the Cinzia Ruggeri bandwagon which is now incredibly crowded: without acknowledging the source, a Master student at the Antwerp Academy of Fashion came up with a new version of Ruggeri's Italy's boots and Sicily and Sardinia clutches, a surreal and material metaphor of the expression "Italian boot". It seems that, while copying Ruggeri has become a trend, forgetting to mention sources is also another habit.
Now, while Ms Ruggeri wasn't usually bothered by people copying her (after all, as Oscar Wilde said, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"), you wonder why a young student would think it is possible to steal ideas from the past and recreate them now.
Sure, it is not the educators' fault if students produce designs "heavily inspired" by past creations thinking they can get away with it, but as educators (even when we may not be able to spot the source of a student's design) we should remind fashion design students that the fashion industry is not a happy place, a green and bucolic pasture where everybody has reached the nirvana stage and is in peace with themselves and the rest of the world, but a stressful, highly competitive, restless and aggressive space where, yes, copying may not be attacked even by critics and journalists, but will not guarantee your longevity nor your name being written in the history of fashion.
And so, while students should be urged to study more and unglue their eyes from their screens and Pinterest boards (in particular if they study fashion and design), as lecturers we should maybe remind ourselves to try and do our part in more dynamic, lively and encouraging ways, without forgetting about providing the students with honest feedback and constructive and clear criticism that will allow them to grow up, behave in a more mature way, get better at what they do and eventually achieve new goals.
Images credit in this post
Photographs of Cinzia Ruggeri's Italy boots and clutches (fourth image in this post) by Aldo Lanzini.