Final Reflection

Good-bye Ales 204 class! You have taught me so much! Not only Dr. Laccetti and the T.As, but the students too! It is very ironic I  took this class at the time I did and had Dr. Laccetti as my professor. Congrats Dr. Laccetti for being brave in constructing such a dynamic course and for trying out one of the first course structures of its kind! All the participation in class through social media has paid off and I feel pro (a.k.a technically professional) now! Why I said that this course was ironic for me is because, as you all already know, I created ECO-Style Student Association and as my student group has evolved over the course of the term it couldn't of happened the same way without the knowledge I gained from Ales 204 lectures on social media! I know I have been giving a lot of credit to this course in helping me with my campus project, but I can honestly say it got me prepared in reaching out to the public. Ales 204 has not only given me ideas in promoting ESSA by creating a facebook page, tweeting, posting pictures on flicker, etc, but also through the lectures that practical information on how to present ourselves as future professional in social media. Dr. Laccetti and the Alse 204 T.As gave the class tips on public speaking and power point presentation formats, process of interviewing, how to write e-mails to other professionals which all convienently were helpful in planning the Rethink. Refashion. Reborn. fashion show hosted by ESSA, The Office of Sustainability, and Goodwill Industries. In working with several partnerships and different levels of professionalism, all these tools came to use when communicating with them and displaying information to the public about the project. Here are some links in how I applied the knowledge from the lectures and labs in the fashion show planning process and for the main event:

Link to interview by the University of Alberta for the Rethink. Refashion. Reborn. fashion show (which ended up on the homepage!!):

http://www.sustainability.ualberta.ca/News/Sustainability%20News/2011/November/Struttingasecondhandrunway.aspx

Link to TV media of Rethink. Refashion. Reborn. fashion show (unfotunetly I am not in this clip, but I did end up on CBC and CTV!! There was no internet link for those.):

http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/video/used+fashion/video.html?v=2170663904#stories


Link to power point presentation during the Rethink. Refashion. Reborn. fashion show:

https://docs.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=133d13bbc4ea86a2&mt=application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D3a4f52dd10%26view%3Datt%26th%3D133d13bbc4ea86a2%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbTkEI3L9fvCa5THe-X0LJzziuJHdQ&pli=1
In the end, check out the ECO-Style Student Association facebook page to see how much we have grown since I have made the page in September! We now how 113 likes and continuly have people and other U of A students engaged in out discussions about fashion sustainbility!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=791618361&ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/ECO-Style-Student-Association-ESSA/278946235456360

Final note...

Social media, what would I do without you!

Cheers,
Alice  :)

Attached are the blog links I've been commenting on:
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5.

Wikipedia Stub for "Czech Cubism"

The next assignment for my Ales 204 class is to contribute in a Wikipedia stub by adding credible information from sources researched about the topic the student chooses. I chose to write about "Czech Cubism."

Here us the link to my screen shot of the edited Wiki stub:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71497095@N03/6464807213/in/photostream

Here is the link to the Wikipedia page with my stub:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Cubism

I have always known that the Wikipedia was open for the public to edit; however, I never thought of trying it myself until Dr. Laccetti assigned the task. I found it really neat after using Wikipedia in the past for academic research references or to expand and understand ideas about certain terms or even for looking up a word for my own personal interest. Now here I am being a wiki publisher of my own!

I used the following references to explore the art movement of Czech Cubism:

·         Von Vegesack, Alexander, ed. Czech Cubism: Architecture, Furniture, Decorative Arts. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992.

·         Journal of Design History (English)

·         Toman, Jindrich. Czech Cubism and the Book: The Modern Czech Book. New York: Kant Publications, 2011.

After some research, I decided to expand on the concept and history of the stub because in the wiki definition there was only a broad explanation of what Czech Cubism was. For the two topics I would include direct links when clicking on certain words to find out their definitions on other Wikipedia stubs. This tool gave background information for these definitions used to describe Czech Cubism in order to better understand the concept and history. For instance:

1.       “These angles allowed the Czech Cubists to incorporate their own trademark in the avant-garde art group of Modernism.”

2.       “This evolved into a new art movement.”

3.       “On the contrary, it was a revolt against traditional values of realism.”

After editing the Czech Cubism wiki stub, I found this exercise very intriguing and I will likely engage in more unfinished or short stubs. I like the feeling knowing that I have provided the public with helpful information for the same reasons I have use Wikipedia! Wikipedia has grown to be a reliable source in understanding concepts through a quick read for personal and academic uses, as well as links to information sources such as peer review articles.  For this reason many people feel comfortable using this online public encyclopedia. Wikipedia is an effective way to share knowledge with each other’s help and contribution about information of our world!

ECO-Style Student Association (ESSA)

I am honored to announce that this past week ESSA has become an official student group at the University of Alberta! ALES 204, you are one of the first people to find out! We are slowly moving forward in promoting the group and thanks to my professor, Dr. Jessica Laccetti, she has helped me along this process through the lectures in this class believe it or not! Dr. Laccetti has given me many resources and motivated me to sign up on different sources of social media such as create a facebook page for the group, sign up for twitter, blogger.com, and flicker to promote the group through different forms as well as suggesting ways to keep our ideas and material safe through things like Creative Common. CC was introduced at a very convenient time the other day because as our first project for ECO-Style Student Association we did a photoshoot for an upcoming event we are hosting at the University of Alberta. With our photos, ESSA is planning to post them publicly on our facebook page and actually make them into advertisements (through posters and electronically) to post them around campus. Therefore, I suggested to the parties involved and my own group to use CC for easy and free copyright!

Here is a link to my flicker slide show of pictures from our lovely photoshoot:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/71497095@N03/sets/72157628301742845/show/

Props to our beautiful student models that were able to get up at 6AM and shoot for the sunrise! It was a perfect morning :)

Okay now to inform everyone a little more what ESSA is all about!

Description:

ECO-Style Student Association (ESSA) is a student group at the University of Alberta that promotes fashion sustainability on campus and to the wider Edmonton community. Our goal is to encourage students on campus to engage in sustainability through different areas in fashion.

We are trying to peruse a different way of living among the community; green living through fashion; opposing fast fashion and mass production; a movement called thrifters.



Thrifters: an individual who religiously shops at Thrift Stores looking for bargains and often scores amazing deals. Often dedicated to recycling and reuse of products to keep our planet "greener". - Urban dictionary

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Thrifter


What is ECO-Style?
Environmentally friendly fibres, re-use of old clothing and accessories, manipulating old fabrics and garments into new creations, donating unwanted clothing to thrift stores and charities, & purchasing vintage clothing.

Other words for ECO-Style:
Refashion, trashion, eco-fashion, sustainable style, upcycling, green fashion.


Partnerships:
ESSA, Human Ecology Student Association (HESA), and The Office of sustainability works together and is passionately involved in keeping our campus green. More information about the Office of Sustainability can be found @ http://www.sustainability.ualberta.ca/. More information about HESA can be found @ http://hesa-edm.blogspot.com/.

ESSA is constructed by students from the Human Ecology program (majoring in textiles and clothing) that specifically focuses on reusing and upcycling fashion.

Activities we are involved in:
-swapping clothing: bring in your old clothing and swap with someone else!
-donations of unwanted garments to Goodwill
-workshop on how to make simple things out of old garments and accessories
-vendors in Students Union Building (SUB) selling vintage clothing
-photoshoot relating to sustainable wear
-fashion shows on campus featuring re-used fashion

AND FINALLY ESSA is excited to announce our first major event: Rethink. Refashion. Reborn. fashion show featuring ECO-Style Student Association (ESSA), The Office of Sustainability, & Goodwill Clothing Alberta Industries happening on November 24th on SUBstage at the University of Alberta from 12:15-1:00 pm! Mark it in your calendars and come see the meaning of thrifters :)

New Facebook Page!

ECO-Style Student Association

 

 

As promised before, here is the official page for the new club in the Human Ecology program I started! Check out the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/71497095@N03/6463422903/in/photostream. If you would like to have a closer look at the detailed information rather than a screen shot of the page, you can go on the actual facebook link and like our page to show your support and find out regular news about events for ESSA at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/ECO-Style-Student-Association-ESSA/278946235456360.


With this new facebook page, the ESSA group is hoping to spread a compelling message to the majority of the University of Alberta campus and the wider Edmonton community about fashion sustainability. Not only are we hoping for our message to be heard around the community, but to inspire people to become involved in our events and in chats about fashion sustainability through facebook posts which will hopefully influence them to create an active habit to think ‘green’ in their personal lives. Facebook is evidently one of the top sources of social media in today's world. I know all my friends, and most of my family and acquaintances have a facebook profile! It creates an easier and faster way to communicate to many people at once which is helpful when trying to promote a short notice event or share interesting facts. It also a beneficial way for others to discover ESSA’s page through other friends that have liked our profile by showing the recent actions in their newsfeed. Since we categorized our page as a University group, people that are in University will find it much quicker than people that are not because they belong to the same facebook category. It all interconnects one way or another! Another helpful factor is when typing the word ‘eco’ in the search tool for people that are interested in sustainability, ECO-Style Student Association shows up under that category automatically! With that said, I can confident believe that this advertisement will easily communicate information about our club and the fashion movement we are trying to start.

Some other ‘eco’ or ‘sustainable’ groups I found while typing in ‘ECO-Style Student Association’ in facebook search:

-       Eco bike

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/ecobicycle

-       CompromisoEco

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/CompromisoEco

-       Eco Green

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/ecogreenforever

Websites also show up on facebook results:

-       www.eco.org

-       en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.eco

-       www.ecoproducts.com

As well as friends that have joined these groups also show up under the results!

Facebook gives many sources and links when search a simple word. This is really amazing. Facebook you are awesome and I am egger to work with you on this project in promoting ESSA!!

Introductory Blog Post - Alice Sech

Hello readers!

My name is Alice Sech, but my family and close friends usually call me Alicja, which is pronounced Ali-c (like in cinnamon)-ia (this sound cannot be found in the English speaking language, but that’s as close as I can relate it to!). I come from a Polish background and I’m first generation in my family to live in Canada. I was born and raised in Edmonton and have always had a close connection to the ever growing Polish community such through being involved with church groups, dance groups, and festivals. I have always had close ties with my family’s heritage and have traveled to Poland during my summers whenever I could. As I spent my recent years in Poland, I fell in love with the European life and knew that there is more out there, in a sense that there are more beautiful places to visit in the world. My optimism led me to finally pursue my dream and travel most of Europe this summer for 2 months. I began in London, then off to Amsterdam, Paris, Germany (Delizsh, Berlin & Munich), Poland (Ilawa), Prague, Vienna, Croatia (Split & Hvar), Italy (Roma & Ostia), Spain (Malaga, Madrid, Ibiza, Barcelona, & Valencia) and ended my journey back in London. It was a trip of a lifetime! I never experienced so many heritages, fashion, multiculturalism, history, and all sorts of situations all at once.  This trip allowed me to unfold my artistic inspirations and explore one of my biggest passions in life, fashion.

I’ve been interested in fashion ever since I can remember. I have always loved to manipulate clothing and accessories to express a certain story, theme, movement, or emotion on the body. In other words, I wear clothing to express a form of art. Yes, I am the weird one (by appearance) walking through the U of A campus stuck in the past wearing vintage clothing or wacky pants imported from Asia or exotic accessories from India. I truly believe in expressing your inner artist. One thing about myself is that I do not like to follow societal norms and I express it by dressing unique!    

To pursue my dream in fashion, I am currently taking the Human Ecology program at the University of Alberta. My major is in fashion design and minor in marketing. I also like to be involved in extracurricular activities outside of campus to get a hands on experience in the fashion industry. In the past I have been involved with agencies such as mode models http://www.modemodels.com/edmonton/ as a fashion stylist for photo shoots and fashion shows, Western Canada Fashion Week as a volunteer for backstage and marketing coordinator (which happens twice a year for a whole week) http://www.westerncanadafashionweek.com/, and as a fashion show coordinator/ event planner at an Edmonton’s locally owned fashion magazine, Parlour!  http://parlourlife.com/. One of my biggest projects was to throw a charitable fashion show, featured by Parlour magazine, to save the Strathcona swimming pool from being shut down by the city. You can get more information about it at this link blogged by a local Calgary fashion designer and where you can also see a shout out to me after the show! http://melncolydesigns.com/20101112/off-the-deep-end-fashion-showart-exhibition/.

If you’d like to see more of my work in detail, I have a personal blog of my fashion experiences you can check out at http://alicjasech.wordpress.com/.

For my current project I am starting a fashion sustainability group at the U of A to help promote and educate the campus on a better sense of how to reusing clothes and accessories and still make it look stylish and modern. A blog is in process to give more information about the club and I will post it up in the nearest future.

All for the love of fashion!

Alice xx