Syndicated from The Black Renaissance
A few weeks ago I was spending some well-deserve time off traveling in a far-off distant land- Peru to be exact. During my time in the wonderful country I had gone on a road trip with three other close friends to see one of the Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu, an ancient Incan kingdom built on the summit of a tall mountain. We ventured across the exotic terrain of the country through rocky mountains, desert, fog, snow, valleys, gorges, rivers, plains, and everything else you could think of. To capture the experience in either words or photos would do the experience an injustice. It was for a lack of a better word (or rather no word at all), breathtaking. Whilst heading towards our destination was an experience filled with oohs and ahhs, the car ride back home elicited a very different response. I was sitting at the back, silently pensive and looking out the window. It was there that I had a deeply profound moment. God (or whatever name you should use according to your own beliefs) hit me suddenly, rushing into my head and heart. I saw such magnificence I could not comprehend. I broke down in tears.
I broke down because I saw the immensity of the world in such untainted splendour, in such a vastly incomprehensible scale and intensity that I could only be humbled. My feelings, my dreams, my past and (dare I say) even my blog seemed minuscule in the grand scheme of all that I saw. Who was I, Daniel Kong, to witness such power? As many of you know, my recent feelings towards sustainability and eco-fashion have grown considerably. I thought that whatever work I did, my job as a part of a larger collective movement could help in some way to save the planet. And yet in that moment in the car, I realized that this was not the case. I was much smaller. “How can we [humanity] be so arrogant?,” elucidates celebrated writer Paolo Coelho, “the planet is, was, and always will be stronger than us. We can’t destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing.” It was then and there that I understood the power of a planet far more powerful and potent than I would ever realize. My eyes opened wider than they had ever been to a universe much greater than me.
In this sense, the most influential figures of human civilization and fashion are always looking outward. Even many of the best in fashion hardly look to their peers. Leonardo da Vinci made breakthroughs in knowledge because of his wide interdisciplinary approach. Even Vivienne Westwood, famed British designer so integral to the punk movement, admits freely that she doesn’t read any fashion magazines, never watches television, and only visits the cinema once a year. And yet much of what characterizes the fashion industry is a constant recycling of stale internal ideas. The influence and popularity of certain bloggers illustrates this insularity. What kind of society praises, adores and ravenously consumes media of men and women who document their banal life? But why is it that as a society we endorse this kind of behavior? And also, why do we mimic these people with our own Instagram self-portraits?
My experience witnessing the Peruvian landscape had the effect of stripping away my eyes from the little bubble that fashion (and society in general) has created- aspirations for beauty, a better job, needing that really gorgeous jacket, buying a new car etc. These are all human constructs which make us oblivious from seeing with a clear mind and open heart. There is so much irony in an industry obsessed with appearances that it is equally blinded from seeing the outside world in all of its magnificence. Traveling does that: it jars you with culture shock, pulls you out of your element, and lets you see yourself from the outside with lonely bewilderment. The experience reminded me that fashion is a human construct. The tragedy of us is not our innate evilness- it is our myopia. I say all of this not to belittle the industry and society that I work and live in. For some, creating and capturing beauty on the human body is a legitimate purpose in life. We need only see the work of visionaries like Haider Ackermann to acknowledge the profundity and deep sensibilities of a true artist. And yes, I do believe that fashion has an inherent and precious role in society.
But we need to see the world with fresher eyes than ever before if innovation and progress is to be made. Designers need to have the privilege of traveling once more to recharge and re-inspire themselves without the constant pressure of producing a billion collections a year. We are the dream weavers, the storytellers, the fantasy makers. What is money, glamor and status without a life? Nothing. And if we continue to be blinded by our selfish, insular worlds, the fantasies we create will only suffer; as if we were to wake up disappointed that every beautiful thing we had just experienced was just a fragile dream…
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For those interested in reading more about fashion’s insularity, feel free to read this post about street style from the Business of Fashion.
Image Source: Flickr (D-Stanley), Flickr (szeke)