Being thrown into an incredibly uncertain world with a pandemic raging, the atmosphere was as confusing as it was tense. Comfort became a necessity as tension only increased with each passing day. So, when the brief for second year’s final summative project was to create a visual report on a topic of our choice, I wondered if comfort was the way to go.

My source of comfort at the time was to read books on Greek and Indian mythology. It would very often lead to discussions with my parents about mythology’s influence on the culture of a society. I was fascinated by these myths I would read, and even more so by their influence on culture. This fascination led me to the question which I would dissect and explore for the months to come. This question was: why is culture so important in a modern society?

In ‘Fashion Futures’ I explored the history of cultural appropriation in the fashion industry and how culturally important components travel through time as trends.The cartogram I created mapped out the trend progression of things like acrylicnails, tequila, Indian embroidery and the kimono. While the timeline of cultural appropriation’s history which I researched dated back to the 1600s.

Although the report was heavily research-based, you can see the key pages from it: