My daughter, Jamie Jasmine, has recently embarked on her 3-year degree course in Information Technology (IT). She was supposed to be studying in a university in Kuching, Sarawak, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is forced to do it by means of online lessons from home instead. Hopefully, the pandemic will be brought under control by the end of this year, so that she's able to do the remaining 2 years of her course in Melbourne. I have the impression that many people are not very keen in the IT degree. It seems like most parents would love their kids to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects etc, not so much the computer thingy.
As a parent, I'm not so fussy about the type of profession JJ opts for as a career. I told her that whatever she decides to do, just try her best to be good at it, at least above the average level of those in her industry. Whatever works for her is fine with me. As long as she's happy with what she's doing, then I'll be happy for her too. She's a late bloomer; when she was younger, she seemed to have no artistic talent whatsoever. I observed her playing with crayons when she was young. She could hardly prevent from colouring beyond the boundaries. But as she grew up, she learned to be patient, and with sufficient practice she was able to gradually bring out her artistic self.
But this post is not really about JJ and her studies. What I really want to talk about is fashion designer, because for a short while I was entertaining the idea of fashion designer for JJ. But thankfully I was able to shake myself out of it very quickly. I'm sure I need to discover a lot of good things about fashion designer; and if I knew more about it, perhaps I can learn to appreciate the profession, though I seriously doubt it!
At the risk of getting bombarded with criticisms from some of my readers, I'm putting my neck on the chopping board to give my take on the profession as a fashion designer. This is of course from the perspective of an ignorant person. If I knew more about the profession, I might have a different opinion, I don't know.
Before I proceed any further, let me just say that I'm not really into fashion. Whatever I wear is usually very simple and down the earth. At one time I wore only several colours such as blue, grey, white and black. But thanks to the influence of my wife, I have since learned to wear other colours too. Sometimes, I also wear outfits made of a combination of several colours. However, I still consider myself as a very simple-minded person as far as fashion is concerned.
I've always seen fashion designers as peculiar creatures. In order to become very successful in that profession, one must meet two very basic requirements. First and foremost is of course being artistic and creative, simply because there is almost no limit as to how one can design clothes. I can just imagine that almost whatever one can think of, someone else had most likely thought of it too. So it's not surprising that sometimes fashion becomes the in thing, then fades out after some years, and then comes back to become the in thing again. The cycle repeats itself over and over again with some minor adjustments here and there.
The second requirement - which seems to me the most important requirement - is honesty. Or rather the lack of it. Any fashion designer who'd like to become very successful in the profession must learn to be dishonest. He is inclined to design something that is obviously ridiculous and plain awful, and then convince himself that it's very nice and beautiful. And if that's not bad enough, he tries very hard to convince others to think the same way too. And don't make me start on whether it's practical to wear it!
But of course it takes all sorts to make the world. So there's bound to be some fools out there who'd spend a ton of money on these so-called fashionable clothes, and then have the courage to wear them!
In the end though, it all boils down to the same with how I feel about JJ. I suppose as long as these people are happy designing and creating such ugly, impractical clothes, and happy wearing them, then I should be happy for them too.
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