Translation

Fall Fashion week has started me thinking about runways and shows and that feeling I get when I see the new looks coming down. I don't mean the excitement, the creativity and the ecstacy. I mean the disappointment. Yes, underneath all those revved up, heart-racing thrills, I always have a particular little spike of sorrow. It comes because, so often, I look at the runways and see unwearable pieces. They are amazing, jaw-dropping, artistic genius. But many are also fabulously impractical. I see it and think "how do I do that piece in real life?" Take Moschino's Chandelier dress. Aaaaaaaaamazing, right? But...grocery store? ("Veggies baked while you wait!") Pumping gas? (that "No Smoking" sign tho). Dog walking? (Collected: 17 branches, 25 cups of coffee, 3 garbage cans, 1 very unhappy jogger. Oops.). Ok, something it was designed for (?)...ballroom dancing (*raises hand* "And if I can't actually touch my partner?"). The only thing I think might work is if I dangled above a table like an actual chandelier (#HumanFurniture). So I see it. I love it. And sigh.  Until today. Today I had the revelation that it's not supposed to be practical and wearable. It's only supposed to communicate an idea, a vision, a direction, a suggestion, a siren call. From the runways, it needs to be translated into everyday life. And that's where we come in, as the wearers, the pragmatists, the curators behind the artists. In taking the idea from the runway, but metamorphosizing it into our own vision of what it means and how to create it in and for everyday life, we add our personal stamp to the trend. We filter it, co-opt it, choose it (or not), edit it via our own conception, understanding and perspective to make it something that pays homage to the idea that came down the runway, but is translated into something usable and applicable to real life. We take the art out of the gallery, out of the frame, deconstruct it and make it work a bit for it's living: beautiful, magnificent, but in a different way, a way unique to the style vision of each of us who chooses to step into the museum and be affected by the collection.