How imperfection can lead to a greater destination than the perfect
Imperfection, a concept that is often looked down upon by society carrying negative connotations, however, is alternatively one that I learned to embrace through my make-up breakdown class. Instead of looking as imperfection as a flaw within your creative work, I learned to embrace the flaws within my work and look at it as a pathway to something greater.
A key example of how imperfection has been defined as perfection is the Najavo Weavers, where they purposefully add imperfections to their weaving suggesting that ‘reaching perfection has its consequences; if it’s attained there is nowhere left to go, no work left to be done’. When applying this philosophy into my make up designs, it has allowed me to accept the imperfections and flaws within my work and use it as a source of motivation for improvement for my next creative projects. Therefore, learning about the beauty within imperfection has changed how I think about my work and the creative works of others. It has propelled me into wanting to create more creative projects in the future without the fear of imperfection but instead looking forward to identifying my flaws as a journey into continuing and improving my creative pathway.
However, although I have learnt to embrace my imperfections, society still often does not hold this view. An ideal society would not hold unrealistic beauty standards such as the ones we hold today. It has definitely made me want to challenge the ideals of beauty especially within the fashion industry. As a fashion journalism student, when examining magazine covers and looking into the fashion industry, there is no doubt that there is an extremely narrow definition of beauty, and imperfection is not one of them. However, upon learning about the beauty within imperfection, it has definitely changed the way I would want to work in the future in the fashion industry. For starters, I would take great inspiration from the works of Kintsugi, an ancient Japanese art form to repair cracked ceramics. Its key aim is to revive the beauty of a broken object, embracing and emphasizing its damaged history. Translating this into the fashion industry, it would mean redefining what beauty is. Therefore, from a make-up artist perspective it would change how I do my work drastically. I would opt for more natural – skin models where their imperfections can be shown and not hidden. This way, I aim to redefine beauty ideals as ‘perfect’ and instead show the beauty withing imperfection instead of trying to hide them. From a fashion journalistic perspective, using images is also another way in which I would change my work. Being cautious not to use photo-shopped images that hide imperfects and flaws but instead including them in my work would be another vital step forward for the fashion and beauty community.