Carolinian Aesthete
Community, Columbia Fashion Week, & The Story of The Aesthete’s Journey.
I want to tell you a story. This month’s editorial is not focused on presenting you with facts and statistics. This month’s story is about you. Every artist is on a journey. Let’s talk about the journey of the aesthete.
Members of the Columbia Fashion Week Top Model Competition
Kylan Stephon Hayes @kylanstephon
June 14, 2024 | Photography produced by Verity Art & Design Studio
Our story begins with an age-old question: is talent something you are born with or something you develop? Is the possession of creative prowess a matter of luck or blessing? Maybe it's both.
Regardless, the journey of the aesthete begins in childhood. Everyone perceives this world differently. Everyone has a unique way of thinking about the environment around them. For the world’s aesthetes, many of us think in pictures. Many of us look outside the window and see cinema; we perceive our environment as art. We go to sleep and dream in color. It's kind of surreal.
As children, aesthetes are born into a habit of creative intake, and maybe this is due to the way we perceive beauty. Think about it: how many times as a child did you need to be told that something was beautiful? Did you truly need to be told how to perceive beauty, or were you already doing it subconsciously?
This presents the essence of the aesthetic eye: we have been subconsciously paying attention to beauty our entire lives. We’ve caught ourselves in awe of nature. We’ve perceived the beauty of sunset, afterglow, and moonlit windows. We’ve been in awe of the way light hits people at specific angles and makes them look just right. Before we knew what we were doing, we were dissecting beauty and what makes things “beautiful.”
Members in attendance at Columbia Fashion Week | @colafashionweek
So, to revisit the original question, I don’t think talent as a birthright or as a developed skill is even the point. I think the most creative people, rather, are those born with an appreciation for beauty. For they know, even as a child, how to take the mundane and make it beautiful. They know from an early age how to express themselves with beauty, dissect it, and use it to tell stories.
Some of the most profound art is made from kids. They create before being told how to create. They express beauty before the world tells them what beauty is.
After time, the young aesthete makes a shift: they go from using art to express beauty to a form of communication. Art becomes a tool to communicate viscerally. It speaks where words fail, and the world’s aesthetes share that universal language.
It’s no wonder that the world’s aesthetes are often misunderstood. We think in pictures. When we speak, we speak abstractly. We are highly self-critical and understand that we are misunderstood- that’s why we let the art do the talking. Art becomes a source of communication to speak where words fail.
Throughout their journey through teenage years and into adulthood, aesthetes create a lot of art. The ironic part is that many of us don’t pursue a formal education in art. In fact, we don’t like the institutionalization of creativity. The reason we are so skilled is because we have a large quantity of art we’ve created over the years. We have lots of repetition.
The reason we have lots of repetition is because we aren’t making art with the sole intention of making money. We are making art to communicate. We create to tell stories, and have been doing so our entire lives. The source of our creative mastery stemmed from a childhood appreciation of beauty.
An appreciation of beauty is one thing, but having a community to celebrate it is another. Despite being fairly abundant in numbers, many aesthetes struggle to find those to share their passions with. To be an artist is to be misunderstood; that just comes with the territory. What doesn’t come is community.
A community of aesthetes is a community of storytellers. Our life experience is our canvas. We have the talent and the ability to communicate viscerally, we just need a platform. Every story is a story that can educate, inspire, and empower another person. Every story is an art.
Make no mistake- as aesthetes we are artists. When we network, we grow our community. A community of artists collaborating and celebrating beauty can lead others to do the same. It’s here that we shift our story to the art community of Columbia, SC.
June 3-9, 2024 has been proclaimed by the City of Columbia as Columbia Fashion Week, a daunting task accomplished through government and aesthetic collaboration. It’s a community of aesthetes, each with their own story, celebrating art and the expressive nature of fashion. They use fashion to tell stories.
We attended fashion week to join the celebration. While in attendance and taking photos, we asked members in attendance: how do you tell your story in the clothing you wear?
Sapphire Treadwell | @sapphire.babiezz
Sapphire Treadwell, a model, uses her clothing and style to represent her community. She shares the story we see all too common- discrimination against people of color. Make no mistake, racism is very much alive, it has just taken a different form. Being a model is a daunting task alone, but being a POC model presents a different set of challenges when merely existing becomes an act of rebellion.
Sapphire’s self-expression is an art. It's an act of self-love that inspires and empowers other people facing her same struggles. Her self-expression tells a story of challenging the status-quo and shows other people that it’s possible. She is both an artist and a leader by the way she lets her self-expression speak for her.
Tayler Mason, another model, uses their clothing and style to tell a different story- the story of the queer youth. As someone who shares this story, I particularly resonated with this story that is especially under attack in the current political climate. To be queer is to be told that it's okay to be who you are, just in private. Self-expression is punished both socially, and in some places, legally. Tayler embraces their identity and story, and is now actively moving in the opposite direction.
“My ultimate goal in life is to be a queer role model for all of the youth that don’t really feel like they can express themselves openly,” they explained. “I want to embody my emotions and my struggles within the clothes I wear, and I also want to show resilience.”
Tayler Mason | @tayler.mason.modeling
Do not understate the importance of what is being done here. Artists are curators of soft power. We understand how to influence people without saying a thing. The act of showing up and being unabashedly yourself makes other people realize it's possible, and that alone is revolutionary.
As an aesthete, understand the importance of the position you’re in. You have a story to tell and the skills to tell it viscerally. With intention, you can build a community of those with the same ideas in the process. As aesthetes, we need platforms to build community. Support your local initiatives.
A special thank you to CEO Juliette Muller and the Columbia Fashion Week team for giving aesthetes a platform and a community. Remember, your self-expression is an art. Your community is your wealth. Let’s let the art do the talking.
