On the new kid, rock stars and fashion

If there is one recurring theme in my life, it’s being the “new kid”. On average, I was the “new kid” in a school every second year thanks to my father’s career.

It wasn’t enjoyable to be honest, and most of the time it was painful…

Being the “new kid” too often does not equip you with excellent social skills as some say. However it does equip you with a certain “armor” against being teased, and some intricate feats which are very useful when once more in life, you walk into a school totally alone, and totally clueless. Among these feats are finding the toilet, finding the canteen, judging other kids only with their looks and figuring if they pose a threat, et cetera.

Walking into a new country, however, is always fun as you get to know not only a new “culture” but a new set of social norms that are sometimes even entertaining to learn. One of these is the fact that, as an American I met on my first days in Rome put it: “In Italy, everybody dresses like a rock star”.

It’s true, in Italy everybody dresses like a rock star. Dolce&Gabbana, Armani, Gucci… These brands are naturally big in the city. Not only those, you can’t help noticing the gold and silver everyone wears, the Burberry’s pattern on everyone’s shirts, scarves, jackets… Half of the population seems to possess some eyewear that is capable of covering half their faces…

Walking through the streets, you run into policemen, soldiers and priests that wear D&G shades or RayBans along with their uniforms. Then you can’t help but face the fact that these people are the grandchildren of Michelangelo, Bernini, Emperors, or at worst the Harlequin from the Divine Comedy. It is in their genes to dress up and they’re loving it! (That was from McDonald’s)

In that light, it was quite natural for me, the new kid from Istanbul, to walk in stupor for a few days before noticing that somehow I wasn’t even close to the Roman stereotype in terms of clothing.

I never care about my looks. True. “Why do people care about their looks?” I now wonder every day walking through the streets of the eternal city. Why is it that even ninety-year-old Romans dress like princes on their way to church? As a symbol of status? Out of their drives to be remarkable? Is it some subtle sexual instinct? Ask me, and I’ll say no.

In my opinion, today, fashion people are not subsidized by the invisible hand of Adam Smith to come up with better-looking clothes. In our times, it is the job of the fashion designer to look for the perfect human being, with perfect looks, the perfect body, and perfect clothes.

This was the motive of Leonardo Da Vinci as he drew one of his most popular works, The Vitruvian Man, in search of the perfect human body. That was the goal of Borromini and Raphael as they carved the statues that would make history. Even Caravaggio, the rogue painter, looked for perfection in the bodies he brought to life in his paintings of savagery and cruelty.

Today, the geniuses of fashion are still at their pursuit and the rest of us are trying desperately to look, as close as possible, to the depictions of perfection they offer us.

"Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble." Samuel Johnson