Transcript
0:00 I'm really honored to be here tonight Around so many creative people, so many dreamers. I- As a lot of you know, I really love fashion and it's been a love of mine since as far back as I can remember and in my family there were tailors and my grandfather was a carpenter a poster I had a cousin that sold bootleg cross colors actually TJ my cousin sold bootleg And it's something that I you know have always had to to fight to be accepted to love and I empathize with anyone in this era who's ever loved fashion because usually it's not like loving the idea of being a lawyer, or becoming a doctor, you know, it's like when kids tell their parents that they want to be a fashion designer it's usually not met with the same response as the traditional held career choices.
1:16 Even for me as a successful musician, in order to make the transition it was really all but impossible. People always try to box you in to what they know you best for. Artists or the most successful artists are as close to who they were when they were five years old or Four years old or three years old or when my daughter wakes up and decides to change a career seven times a day.
1:57 I have friends that have clothing lines that are in Barneys and there are people who have managed to make a living out of fashion without going to school without being a properly trained and A friend of mine, who's an artist, his girlfriend showed me her portfolio and She would bring up some of my friends that were actually successful in fashion, selling their clothing line saying, you know, this is basically- this is good enough and I'm just gonna be like your friend and everything and all I could say to her is you use your youth use this time you have right now to learn as much as possible to educate yourself to hone your craft. I was good friends with Louise Wilson from St. Martin's who taught Phoebe Philo Alexander Wang Christopher Kane Stella McCartney JW Anderson All of these rock stars that if you follow Paris fashion and all that you- you know, we- we look up to these people And she was a really hard instructor it was like the movie whiplash almost, you know, she got sued like three times because she was so tough on what was actually right what was valid and I feel that, you know, she- you know, she passed last year, but even before her passing, I as a son of two educators I felt it was more of my responsibility to enforce whenever I had the opportunity and speak up on what was actually right in my eyes and by default, I've got a lot of haters since then.
4:06 But it was simply that artists three-year-old truth that I wanted to get across The reason why I would go to fashion shows so much, you know, over the past ten years is I wanted to see the designers deliver their work in their truest form exactly how they felt, you know around all of the, you know, issues that go into making a collection which I know firsthand and fully appreciate so many celebrities. The average celebrity designer You know their- their fingers don't get bloody. They don't they don't pick up needles.
4:46 They don't know how to sew. They don't know how to pattern cut. They don't know- and I can pin a little bit, but I- I don't know how to pattern cut and I respect people who have a craft who have taken their time to really learn and hone their craft and deliver something of quality of passion to the world; the fight that Louise Wilson pushed and instilled into her students.
5:21 The fight that when you talk about students putting 80 hours in and trying to sleep at the school and being dedicated to the project you know And It's a tough world out there. You're gonna prepare yourself for politics, bad bosses, hatin employees and usually When you're the absolute best, you get hated on the most But never stop fighting No matter what anyone says. No matter how they try to compromise you, compromise your vision If it's in your gut, if it's in your soul, there's nothing- there's no worldly possessions that should come between you and your expression as a race- human beings- we're a blip in existence.
6:52 Death is promised. So, what do you do with your life? How do you make the most of it? How do you make your voice the loudest? So I feel extremely honored to see new talent fighting for their voice, that I can only imagine they've been fighting for since age 3 That's all.