My design process never starts or finishes. I am always hoping to find something through the mere act of living my daily life. I do not work from a desk and do not have an exact starting point for any collection.
Rei KawakuboRead
Fashion is something you attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction the meaning of it is born. Without the wearing of it, it has no meaning, unlike a piece of art. It is fashion because people want to buy it now, because they want to wear it now, today. Fashion is only the right now.
Interpretation
Fashion takes on meaning through personal expression and immediate context, unlike static art.
Rei Kawakubo's quote emphasizes the transient nature of fashion, highlighting how its meaning is created through personal interaction and contemporary relevance. Unlike traditional art, which retains its significance over time and exists independently of the viewer, fashion requires active participation in the present moment, reflecting the desires and identity of individuals in a continuously evolving landscape.
In practice
This quote can be used in a fashion lecture to discuss the subjective nature of style.
My design process never starts or finishes. I am always hoping to find something through the mere act of living my daily life. I do not work from a desk and do not have an exact starting point for any collection.
Clothes are only completed when somebody actually wears them. If they were art, they could be more abstract. As long as something is new and has never been seen before, I don't mind if people call it art. Wear them if you dare.
At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.
People say you're trapped in this genre. You're a horror guy. I say wait a minute - I'm able to say exactly what I think. I'm able to talk about, comment about, take snapshots of what's going on at the time. I don't feel trapped. I feel like this is my way of being able to express myself.
Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.
As musicians and artists, it's important we have an environment - and I guess when I say environment, I really mean the industry, that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society.
In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable.
We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.
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