Aïcha Sommer: Reflecting on one of more than one of the lectures you attended and describe how it has shaped your thinking on how fashion can create better lives (24 February)
In her lecture, Kate Fletcher wondered: how is it possible for us to recognize brands more than we do flowers? From a Darwinian perspective, knowledge of our environment is what allows us to survive in it. Now, more than ever is nature remote, distanced, and unknown to the majority of our population. By straying so far from the organic world, humans have reconstituted what has long been defined as the ‘natural world’. As we detach ourselves from nature, our perception of being one with the unaffected earth disappears. This separation is what Descartes described in his theory of mind-body dualism: that the mind and physical world are separate. In simpler terms, out of sight, out of mind. Practiced distance from nature is what manufactures man’s sense of ownership, power, and dominance towards the remote other. Exclusion from nature allows its objectification; to see it as an unfeeling, un-alive resource or an obstacle in our way of achieving total dominance and greatness.
The fashion industry has long upheld two ideologies in reference to the relationship between it and the natural world. The first is that nature provides unmatched inspiration for the creative mind. The second, and more practical application of nature, is to encourage sustainable practices. A stronger connection to the outdoors correlates with a greater respect for treating it kindly. Without a doubt, both these reasons are valuable.
However, the most profound relationship between nature and fashion is about the sublime. Although sublime is defined as “of the most exalted, grand, or noble kind; awe inspiring… the part of one’s personality outside conscious awareness”, it is arguable that no words can accurately interpret it; that its denotation relies on the inarticulable experience itself (1214). Swimming far into the ocean; looking up at a menacing mountain; watching as lighting strikes an ominously lit sky: the sublime makes us aware of something beyond human comprehension. It is a moment in which we become conscious of our insignificance, mortality, and weakness in the vastness of the world, and by extension, universe. That is nature’s true relationship to humans: a reminder that life and all we create is transient and mediocre.
The self-controlled and sophisticated anthropic ideal outlawed natural tendencies such as gluttony, lust, avarice, and murder thousands of years ago, despite being widespread practices throughout the animal kingdom. Sophistication is what we proudly employ to suppress all which connects us to our most primal iteration and mortality. Since the sublime reminds us of both, we obsessively structure, shape, and oppress its omnipotence. Bridges tame the water, houses the weather, tunnels the mountains. But these desperate attempts to control the natural environment are feeble and self-congratulatory. In time, a bridge will be swallowed by waves, houses worn down by the elements, and a tunnel shattered by an earthquake.
Despite the apparent pessimism of the sublime, awareness of it shall be our liberator. In a subliminal state – say, in the middle of the ocean – one understands that reality is a construct. Government, law, expectation, social and societal etiquette do not exist. Nature reminds us to unfetter ourselves from these established constraints to create our own world.
Fashion, in its present iteration, is an example of ultimate elevation above the ‘natural’. One could argue that this departure from ‘nature’ is but another attempt to suppress it, however, the opposite rings true. The most profound and compelling work in fashion is that created with the sublime in mind; that which challenges what we know or deem to be ‘truth’. Fashion’s contemporary existence already practices questioning heteronormativity, and prompts world creation and rebellion.
On a personal note, I am more encouraged to welcome vulnerability and confront the sublime. I see it now as a process through which I can find my voice to create meaning and purpose in both my life and work.
Fletcher, K. (2020) ‘Nature’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 12 February.
Ginsborg, Hannah, “Kant’s Aesthetics and Teleology”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/kant-aesthetics/>.