We are at our most creative when we experience very happy or very disturbing events. We get inspired by love, by joy, by our achievements… but we also get inspired by pain, by suffering, by the struggle… Intense emotions spark our inner muse, and we have no choice but to materialise what we are going through in the form of whichever medium we work with. We are sometimes the victims, other times the witnesses, but we are always the storytellers. So in times like the ones we are living, it is our duty as creatives to spread the word on the issues that affect our community, our country or the human race.
Fashion week this season has been accused of getting too political and has been under fire for supposedly trying to profit from anti-Trumpism. But, whoever is making these accusations is missing the point: being pro-equality, pro-diversity, pro-peace does not automatically make you anti-anyone. This cause is not about the Musevenis, the Farages, or the Trumps. This cause is bigger than all of us; it’s about 7 billion people sharing a planet. It’s about being pro-humanity.
So it is only reasonable that Fashion Design, like any other creative endeavour, uses the channels at its disposal to express concern for what our society is turning into. Because it is in times like these that we creatives must create. It is our calling and our duty to protest, to educate and to give voice to those who are not allowed to have one. So for me, that is not being “too political”. That is just being a good human being.
Photo credit: Rein presentation during London Fashion Week.
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