There’s more to fashion than looking good

I love it when a creative process comes together. That’s why I’m always glued to the latest Project Runway series. The designers on the show say things like: “For my collection, I was really focused on the idea of shadows. You know, like black and white, and rigid lines, and like, soft edges”. Their commitment to their vision is downright militant.

I paid my first visit to The Sartorialist (Thesatorialist.blogspot.com) blog this week – I know, I’m a late blog bloomer – and I was struck by something he said in his bio about how designers find inspiration in everyday ensembles:

“My only strategy when I began The Sartorialist was to try and shoot style in a way that I knew most designers hunted for inspiration. Rarely do they look at the whole outfit as a yes or no, but they try and look for the abstract concepts of colour, proportion, pattern mixing or mixed genres.”

The fashion world often seems to lean towards the superficial, because the quest for beauty is a bit shallow. But if you go back to the source and take a look at how designers work, most of them are artists at heart.  

So the next time you’re cooing over the latest trends in your CLEO magazine and someone snarls at you about the shallow pursuit of fashion, feel free to regurgitate some of the things I’ve said in this post. It certainly helps me when I’m whipping out my credit card to buy a beautiful pair of shoes that I don’t need, but which complete my collection of foot-hugging artworks.