Does Originality Exist?

A topic I think about too often…

Does Originality Exist?

I was recently at drinks with a friend in the fashion industry, and she was expressing her frustration at a phenomena that I’m sure you’ve experienced as well: she had an idea, wrote it down in her journal several years ago, only to see a brand produce her exact designs within the last 2 months. Her 2022 brain forecasted a 2026 trend.

It’s a sensation we’ve all experienced before. The extreme frustration and ‘damnit’ moment when you realize you moved too slowly, or didn’t move at all. But quickly after that feeling, in my experience, there’s always a feeling of validation. A feeling of assurance in knowing that your idea, your design was good enough to make it in this world, past approvals and critiques.

All of this got me thinking: what is originality, what quantifies ‘original’?

Is originality the actual thought or your ability to execute it?

What is the relationship between originality and evolution?

Is originality a one-time occurrence or a result of repetition?

Issac Mizrahi said originality is not something you can “learn or buy”, rather, something that is “inherent, deeply personal and authentic.”

Is originality even the point in fashion? Or is it dressing for the time, in response to the context around us. Social, political, economic. Or instead, is the point dressing despite the moment, to distract from the moment all together?

Personally, I’m of the belief that originality is the point for a significant percentage of fashion lovers, but not the industry itself. Originality is not the point of the business, the point is profit and what sells in the present. Take The Row for example: the nearly $1 billion luxury brand that boasts minimalism as its bedrock. They’re not inventing anything per se, but they are refining, adapting the concept of minimalism for the present. That doesn’t mean the clothes aren’t to die for, doesn’t mean the quality isn’t supreme, it just feels like a brand that’s a product of evolution, rather than true originality.

What do we think?

Maybe if someone invited me to a show I could see for myself…. (I told you it wouldn’t always make sense!).

.jfp