Culture

Words by Chloe Ward   Within the ever growing world of social media, the fashion industry is under more scrutiny than ever before for its environmentally polluting practices, which includes the rise of cheap and frequent consumption and short-lived garment use, also known as micro-trends. ‘Micro-trend’ is a difficult term to define, instead it is made up of multiple factors, including, but not limited to: internet fame, fast fashion, social media, the constant need for newness and the immense power of consumers.    The overconsumption of clothing has become an extensive issue within the environmental community, with the global North

Words by Angelica Haskins   It’s no secret that our world moves fast. Fashion used to shift with the seasons, but now trends are changing rapidly —and not just because of climate change. As such, fashion is faster than ever.   But what exactly is fast fashion? Exactly as the name implies, fast fashion is a method of design, manufacturing and marketing that focuses on expeditiously producing large amounts of clothing to rapidly satisfy a consumer.    Large garment enterprises specialising in fast fashion, such as Shein and Fashion Nova, leverage global trends, capitalising on the sartorial choices of supermodels

Think of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, but minus the hybrid human-swan CGI and more scenes about how an excessive pursuit of artistic perfection ruins family relationships – that’s The Audition, or in its original German name, Das Vorspiel. Director Ina Weisse’s drama film begins realistically enough: middle-aged, middle-class music teacher Anna (Nina Hoss) takes a student Alexander (Ilja Monti) under her wing and gives him violin lessons in preparation for an audition. Yet, it is precisely this ordinariness that anticipates an unsettling storyline. We soon learn that because of Anna’s upbringing, she carries a parenting psyche that would prove to