Name: Polly Gilmore

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Sexualization of Women in Fashion

Date of Fieldwork: January 15, 2019

Name of Organization: Tibi

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Amy Smilovic, founder of Tibi

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We met with and interviewed Amy Smilovic, the founder of Tibi. We also took a brief tour of the Tibi offices.

What I learned:

We learned more about the economic side of fashion design, and how it is easier for companies to provide to smaller sizes. We learned how there is more demand for smaller sizes (at least for Tibi). The most bought sizes for Tibi in order of most to least bought are; 2,0,4,00,6,8,10,12, so it is more cost-effective for them to only make smaller sizes. In my opinion, that does not make it ok for designers to only cater to straight -sized women. We also learned how it is better to buy higher priced clothing if you can afford it because that means all of the workers who contributed to manufacturing that product were in the right working conditions and got paid a good wage.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that some reasons why there is social injustice are that it is easier to exclude people than include them. It is very hard for designers to be inclusive, and it definitely takes more money and time, but that, in my opinion, is what needs to be done.