Fashion.

The word alone implies a world and a people that are at once adventurous and frivolous at the same time. As an industry, it lives in a place of its own, with its own language and ethics.

Not many can understand it fully. And chances are you have to be part of it to totally accept it.

In my experience, I have, by choice or otherwise depending on the time, stayed on the fringe of the industry. Loving the speed of the lifestyle and the color is just about enough for me. As for the rest of the crap that comes with it, I would say no thank you.

Don¹t get me wrong. I love fashion. It matches the ebb and flow of life as it changes and morphs with every season. When I dabbled in fashion however, I found myself among people who could only talk about it every minute of the day. So what if the Berlin Wall was going down, the hemlines were going up!

It is not like that all the time though. I was fortunate to have met people in the industry who were more than their skins. They had their own lives, had strong relations with their families, found joy in more things than the latest Prada handbag. It is rare to find these people and when you do, you realize that you can be 'beautiful' and smart at the same time.

Staying on the fringe allowed me to stay in perspective. Fashion people live with a temperament that is hard to decipher. And it is a lifestyle of extremes. You could be so now this minute, and so over the hill the next. One week you can be absolutely hating another in the industry with all your soul, the following week that person can return as your long lost best friend.

I found myself with floating overhead question marks recently when I talked to an old acquaintance. He is a very established fashion show producer who gave up his degree to pursue his chosen field. I felt like I was so yesterday when he mentioned names of bosom buddies that earlier this year, he hated with his guts. All of a sudden, this model and that other industry person were among his list of favorites. The change in climate made me feel like I was no longer in Kansas. The swing of the pendulum was incredible.

This acquaintance was also extremely passionate in trying to corner me into hiring one of his discoveries: a model that he found in London, over another model he rated as second and even third best, someone so below the grade he was not worth my time. Strange thing is, he had never worked with this other model before and his judgment was based on how he was being treated by the model's agency and the rumors that flew in the industry about him. His perceptions were narrow and unfair. It was the perfect paradox of closed mindedness in an industry that is supposed to strive on openness.

Listening to my acquaintance rant and rave about how I was going to have the industry hate me for not bending into hiring his boy, I realized the true value of being on the fringe. Objectivity and clarity. I sat there listening as if from behind a glass wall. And I sat there with an emotion that can best be described as sadness.

He was a self professed non-fashion person who happened to be in fashion. He believed once that he was objective and could see through the plastic façade of the people he faced every day. But as I looked at his new and improved chosen list of friends, I realized that even as he claimed otherwise, he is surrounded by people who were more into their own pectorals and their skin care regime than the state of the world. He was surrounded by people who would not mind getting close to him, in order to establish a semblance of trust, for he could offer them jobs.

I didn¹t offer his discovery the job. Not because he was not good or not absolutely gorgeous. But because the project had its own set of requirements. The decision could not absolutely be one of personal taste. For to do so would be to disregard duty, your clearest marker of knowing whether or not you are on the right path.

The person I chose in the end performed well. And frankly he validated my decision by proving the baloney I heard as falsehoods. That made me feel proud. Happily, he was also more than just his skin, with interests that stretched into marine biology (!!!!). Conversations with him I am sure would be interesting to say the least. But the opportunities would be few and far in between since we are both in different spheres of existence. That is what you get for being on the outside looking in. You get involved but never are involved.

I guess I will always be like that: on the fringe. Perhaps that is best, so no one can pigeon hole me. But in assessing what had happened, I guess I am now in the bag marked as last season's friends when it comes to my acquaintance. But who knows, with the way things change all the time in the industry, I might end up being the brightest star in next season's crop of goodies.

Just A Thought.

Creative.

A creative mind is a strange and wonderful thing. It gets its inspiration
and motivation from the most unlikely of sources. But when it is coupled
with a dream and an instinct, magic can happen.

Jim Henson did it. George Lucas did it. Walt Disney did it.

A creative mind does not let traditional inhibitors, such as time and money
distract them. It is like the mind of a child, constantly seeking challenges, constantly seeking answers. Pure. They see benefits in both tangible and intangible ways, and sometimes these cannot be seen by the naked eye until some time down the road. Why?

A true creative mind generates, and that energy comes from a source. That source is a vision. And the vision is never negative in nature. Vision is impossible to put a price tag on. It is something that allows the world to see and do things in a different light. It challenges perspectives, and constantly aims to do better.

Someone had a vision to fly. Someone cut his ear off in the pursuit of his
vision.

Creative thinkers can be brought down by office and sexual politics, lack
of support and growth etc. And there are always skeptics and realists who
use commandments, rules and logical equations to trap the creative mind.
Hoping to use it to their advantage, to hone it, to mould it the way they
want it. They want to have it without having to understand it, and more
importantly to respect it, and in doing so are killing the very thing they
want to harness.

Exploration of ideas are crucial to creative purists who are constantly
seeking that exacting moment of their own spiritual immortality. The
process always yields beauty, but the end result always brings in glory.

Successful people will repeat a single mantra: If you can dream it, you can
make it happen.

And when you do, the people who have put obstacles in your path suddenly become insignificant and those who assist become martyrs.

Just A Thought.....