Thinking Inside the Box: Why lockdown doesn’t have to be an end to your creativity

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication student, Rebecca Evans-White explores why your creativity doesn’t have to be put on hold just because of the coronavirus lockdown. 

Business as usual? Or time for a change? 

In a time of havoc being reaped by the COVID-19 disease, many people have found their jobs severely at risk, with many workplaces forced to lay people off or press pause on ‘business as usual.’ 

The creative industry, like many others, has almost ground to a halt with shops now shut and events either postponed or cancelled. Is there any upside to this situation? While this for many is a profoundly worrying time with many people not knowing what the future holds, it is important to look for the positives even if you really have to search for them.

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Changing perspectives

Fashion Photographer Alexi Lubomirski recently spoke with Imran Amed over on the Business of Fashion’s Instagram in a live video talking about the strange circumstances that everybody has found themselves in. He encouraged creatives to take and appreciate this time where we are being forced to ‘slow down’ to get inspired and take the opportunity to try perhaps different avenues of creativity which may not be their normal role. By practising the expansion of one’s creativity, their work can only be strengthened in the long run, perhaps offering a different perspective of looking at things.

A time for self improvement?

Many people have decided to take this time to learn a new skill and improve themselves in other ways while they have an extended amount of time.

This is evident all over social media where you can see; a stylist testing their sewing skills, a photographer experimenting with painting, or a painter dabbling in poetry. Miley Cyrus and Jeremy Scott even collaborated to put out a live sewing lesson.

While there is no shame if you are using this time to make the most of your Netflix account, why not also try something completely new? With many brands and teachers making online courses and classes free or discounted over the isolation period, what’s the harm in improving your arsenal of creativity?

This may prove to be a pivotal moment for the fashion industry as well as the wider creative industries. For years now the industry has been moving and growing at an unprecedented rate, never stopping but now with forced closures, brands have had to stop. Will the industry use this time to evaluate? To go forward, perhaps moulding the industry into a more positive and ethical future shape.

Re-imagining the Fashion Industry

For individual creatives, this is a chance to re-evaluate their role within the system – reimagine who they want to be when we exit this crisis.

Covid-19 is a type of disaster that no one has experienced before and hopefully will not endure again. It has brought a torrent of negativity, anxiety and stress to the lives of millions while most eagerly wait for things to go back to ‘normal.’ Why not make it the most positive and enriching ‘new normal’ that it can be?

Bake, sew, dance, write, paint and design. Take photos and create with them – just do what makes you happy and inspires your day, enriching your life and feeding your creativity because if you do not make the time for it now, you never will.

by Rebecca Evans-White

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