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| Fashion critic Susan Morgan, shoe designer Christine Su |
Fashion is only as fashionable as we make it, and like beauty it is in the eye of the beholder. During New York’s famed Fashion Week it’s in the forefront of the minds of those who take great pain in making sure that new and old collide and what emerges is abounding creativity. Limitless expressions of colorful tapestries draped on stunning figures from head to toe, and fabrics transformed in the hands of dedicated designers meet the ever evolving expectations of fashion devotees. It is here during Fashion Week when all the world’s beautiful people scurry to take their places, along with statuesque models parading the catwalk and casting long shadows in the tents and across the walls at Bryant Park. Mirrored images of creativity move and prowl through the throngs of onlookers and stitch buyers and creators together in dreamlike fantasy.
Here, those designers showing at the prestigious fashion event have the finances and the resources to show their exquisite garments amid the flash of cameras and the blaze of lights. Mysterious menageries are woven from a single thread of genius and inspiration, much of it based on the exotic influences of the African culture.
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| Designs by Karilina Zmarlak |
Fashion is not just a sanctuary for the privileged. As African Americans it is imperative that we create coutre that incorporates our experiences and expresses our own sense of beauty and reality. Sew together African American art forms and creative disciplines to design fashions for the sweet adornment and adoration of our bodies and our communities. All of us can work the loom to weave tragedy into triumph and tailor ourselves to live and walk in a fashionable way.
Be the allure. Show your desire and extricate yourself from the protections of mediocrity. Fashion your souls through music and an appreciation for the finer things in life. Read the Bible and the Koran and drink in what the prophets have to say. Use your own ingenuity to make masterpieces that reflect you and speaks to your reality. Work steadily and diligently to be more than you were the day before. Comfort those in pain and offer acts of kindness and healing words each and every day. Be the human embodiment of haute fashion and regalia. Science and math, education and learning are the swatches of gold embroidered cloth we’ll wear.
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| Designs by Karilina Zmarlak |
Look inside yourself for your fashion savvy. This season will come again, so don’t let hardship or tragedy or any excuse keep you from making a pattern for something beautiful. Make yours in a unique and special way. We provide patterns in life for our young and we are the role models for their entree onto life’s stage. So take a step, smile for the camera and show them what you can be.
Peace. –munson steed
