You are a work of Art

Damn! Look at you, a whole living, breathing work of art. Mashallah!

Clothing has always been one of those things that dances between the lines of functionality and art but the often overlooked thing about fashion is the fact that it can be used as a form of self-expression. After all, dressing well is an act of rebellion.

In a world being taken over by bland buildings, millennial gray cabinets, and boring beige everything, where for some reason every house flip has to be a gawd awful black and white despite the style of the house, so dare I say it might be the most important thing for you to be an original. Pushing boundaries is what life is all about, it’s what art is all about, and it is what fashion is about.

Long before people make stances on things they rebel through art and fashion, it’s always on runways long before it’s on platforms. That being said, if fashion can be a statement, so can you.

For decades now I’ve been observing my brain, the way it behaves and why. I guess it’s my making sense of this whole world. The thing about our brain is that, as cool of a computer as it is, unless you change the program you’re running on old systems. In many respects we’re all working on old software when it comes to our brain, and it’s thoughts and behaviors, for example, despite the technological improvements, our brain is still very much tribalistic in nature because prior to colonization that how people survived, through cooperation with one another and thus we still seek that in many ways in friends and family. It’s this need of your brain to fit in with others that will have you following trends, and wanting to fit in and there is nothing wrong with that. But sometimes people find their whole life has gone by before they’re willing to examine if the thoughts they have are their own, weather their beliefs are really theirs. Truth is with each person we meet and each person we allow into our hearts, we take a piece of them with us, and before we know it we’re an onion of layers of all the people that we’ve ever encountered taking bits and pieces of their thoughts and personalities forming into one with the existent layers we’ve accumulated.

In a world where we’re most of us are mentally ill because our government has made us sick by poisoning the foods, water, and land for mere money, a made up concept in and of itself, so I assume it must be for power, and if it is in this world that I must exist, then I dare not want to thrive. Why would I want in any way to dress like those who make a system that claims to love children yet supply the bombs and guns that sacrifice them daily. Revolution begins with self. The true revolution is to be free of the mind and thoughts that overwhelm it. When we learn to break away from the conditioning, we allow ourselves to be disliked, to unmask and show up unapologetically and as our most authentic self, but to get there, there is shedding that needs to take place. The thing about coming home to yourself is shedding all the old programs and layers that no longer serve you. It’s being unapologetic about who you are, and in a world so bent on destroying all sense of individuality to stand so wholeheartedly in your authenticity is as radical and as revolutionary as the concept of love.

In letting go of the layers, and the need for approval you’ll stop reaching for the next fad to fill the void. You’ll open the door to every era of you that needed to be heard and expressed but never got the chance to, and that just might look like blue hair and tattoos. We go back to the innocence of our childhood in said search of the authenticity of us then, in search of wants and likes before the need of peoples approval and the idea of bills were ever added on to the equation. In our return home to ourselves  we go through an epilogue worth of self development, and the person at the other end of it is not only beautiful but radiant from within. To be so in tune with life, that we sink in and float along, so sure in ourselves and nothing else, free to allow ourselves to show up and be. A true work of art it is to behold such a woman. One that does not seek approval, a radiant confidence from finding comfort in the armor of clothing she meticulously curated to her style without regards to trends or fads, a work of art even if in mere sweatpants, and that’s exactly who you are.

Love,

E. Alvarado