martedì 3 agosto 2010

THE BATTALION OF THE DEAD BUTTERFLIES ……


arialee sepia, originally uploaded by arialee miles.
We model are often very fragile souls, lovely and vain butterflies made to be admired, but sometimes to admire us better, they pierce us with a pin and put us in a frame so we are nothing more than died butterflies pinned in a box ; our vital essence has been drained away from some cannibal mysterious , inscrutable mechanism . And some victims are left behind .

How many people, often talented professional, we see quitting , or taking a “pause” or too stressed to continue modelling … Be sure stress is never for working too much , is always for working too little or for not being able to cope with the fact or the unavoidable frustration that despite our efforts to be at the best we are not considered enough.

Someone said once “ the power wears out the ones who doesn’t get it “. I can say in SL Fashion World the very same thing is transferable to the concept of popularity , too much popularity never stresses , is the lack of it that wears out .

I am not stating at all that popularity makes a good model, or even far helps to make a better model, I have my precise and personal ideas about it . And about what are the qualities which make a good model but …. As I said elsewhere time ago, “ popularity doesn’t make a “good “ professional model …. but definitely makes a working one..” .
So soon or later we all have to deal with this sometimes extraneous and someway, for some of us, disturbing concept of “ being popular “.

Let’s understand well on this point, I don’t consider myself neither detached nor superior , I like being popular as every model does and I have my good dose of daily frustration about it , because like every model I am narcissistic , otherwise I would have chosen to script closed in my virtual cave instead than waddling my ar..e back and forth on a catwalk :P

So in my opinion it is not “being popular” that is disturbing, is the fact that one “must” become popular in order to be a model who is called to work, at least at certain levels .

It is the imperativeness of the matter which is disturbing. Is being “forced “ to be popular that someway can counterfeit the natural rhythm of a career ( and of a mind ) .
Let’s say the truth, are very few , lets say ten , the models who can manage to work at high standards without go now and then under the “ forche caudine “ of some jury toothache .
And most of the time to win or to lose is not even the aim … the aim is being around , to make presence, ..make the name flow around .


Contests, pageants , finals continually try to build little stars, nano pixel divas , to consume in less than a season ( and it is only due to the inner mental sanity of most of the models that this perverse game has not even worst consequences ) .

Agencies and designers ( not all I must admit ) , pushed by this mechanism, like bees on the honey this way are always concentrated on the same 10 / 15 professionals, and strange enough this “collective crush” most of time is enough consistent but often lasts very few , creating expectations that often can’t be maintained. Consequently the frustrations and the dramas.

The best that a model can do to have a continuous fresh presence lasting in time , besides to stay updated , is not to burn herself . Like a video star she have to catch the good occasions for sure but try to not to be uber – present everywhere . Fashion like love likes to keep some mystery on the object of its passion. 

This same career , beautiful and rewarding , seems on the other side , made to feed our inner insecurities, as most of us (with very few happy and lucky blessed exceptions) spend half of our professional time dealing with rejections, wondering why we have been refused in this agency , eliminated in this contest or not chosen at that other casting ..and.. blah blah ..blah here and blah.. blah.. there , consuming time and energy in excruciating sessions of self analysis, thinking and struggling about if we have something wrong in ourselves, wondering where we have mistaken or worse thinking that the whole fashion world is against us. .

Wrong answer !! The fashion world is never AGAINST anybody, it simply most of time DOESN’T SEE somebody, fashion world ( considered like a two-headed and four handed beast )
never sin for commission , its sins are always sins of omission.

Fashion world never hates anyone, it is a too strong feeling for a so idle beast , it simply leaves you on a side without an apparent reason … …. Often wondering why.

And most of times there is not a rational understandable answer .. it simply happens, now and then , for long or short periods , it happens and it must be accepted like a collateral of this career. It should be part of our models professional training learning how to deal with that thing , how to keep ourselves strong and sane without surrender to some inner “abandon “ fear .

It is not a game, the whole matter must be handled with care, because behind the “pixel skinny divas that shake their tushes on the catwalk “ there are human beings with their inner world made of a million things sensitiveness and feelings , and where human beings are involved things must always be done carefully.

So to defend us better against this life drainer mechanism, to save our right to fly high and not be pinned we must become steel butterflies and iron flowers, developing the wisdom of a stoic philosopher and the patience of an old Tibetan monk ( only better dressed !)

We must put into gear “the zen mode on “, take part in everything without being touched by anything , being present and always reliable but someway detached , we have to put passion and commitment in what we do without put our own “whole life “ ( even if only the second ) in it .
We must develop alternative interests , to have alternative SL goals , and so when we don’t put all of us in it , when we ( metaphorically ) let the “beast” stew a bit in its own juice that is the time that things start to work right .

It is not easy, it is a damn trapeze job, sometimes it will seem you ‘re playing on a 3 circus rings, trying to please everyone without even please yourself … but it can be done I sure you , butterfly , it can be done . And it can be done damn well.

So girls never give up, put your best smile on and try again, and after you have tried one , two and three times ..well go home shower and eat to try the fourth ….the fifth …. 

And to close with a quote
Dadà ……. The wisdom pill of the day :


A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period.
When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs. Coco Chanel