Stop Scrolling: Join Fashion Roundtable's Book Club Instead!
Did you know that reading for just 6 minutes can lower stress levels by up to 68%?
Photo by Farnaz Kohankhaki on Unsplash. Image shows woman browsing book shelves.
How it works:
We will handpick a book from one of our core pillars: Craft & Culture, Creative Wellbeing, Education, Representation & Inclusion, Sustainability & Social Justice.
A new book will be announced at the start of each new month.
You don’t have to buy the book, remember libraries are also an option!
Content will include casual chats, deep dives and author Q&As during the month.
We will meet on the last Friday of the month at 1:30pm to have a lively discussion of the book as a community.
Why we’re launching:
We’re just two weeks into January, but already the online landscape has undertaken a seismic shift since last year. Amidst the sea of humdrum monotony, there is a quiet tension brewing. As AI has productised our reels with a level of polish none of us were ready for, there is a sense of nostalgia for the candid and slightly messiness where people created for, well, joy. It feels like we have outsourced our thinking and with it, the internet has lost its humanness. We’re being told that if we don’t embrace AI we will fall by the wayside. We’re told if we do, we will lose all creativity and critical thinking skills. What is true is that we have all been left with wanting more, something tangible and for a lack of a better word, analog.
At the same time, new evidence by Daisy Fancourt suggests that our lack of participation in the arts and culture is actually damaging to our health and wellbeing. Despite the Government knowing of the £18 billion in health benefits that participation in arts and culture has on working-age adults and well over 172 global policy documents (read ours here), which recommend heritage and cultural engagement as a measurable health asset, the UK spends just 0.46% of its GDP on arts and culture engagement. We are in a known loneliness epidemic and are breeding a dangerous wellbeing gap where those in rural or deprived areas are disproportionately at risk of the health implications that comes with a lack of engagement in culture and heritage.
We’re not saying that we have all the answers, but that analog has a space in the digital era. To take time out from our overly-productive lives and instead hold a tangible book in our hands, to use our critical-thinking skills for lively discussions and to hear from the very authors who created them. To build a community that bridges the dangerous wellbeing gap, breeding connection rather than loneliness.
First book:
Our first book is ‘Art Cure’ by Daisy Fancourt. Daisy Fancourt is Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at UCL and has published over 300 scientific papers on how art and culture participation can improve health. A must-read!