Earlier this week I was in Bath in my role as a trustee of the Fashion Museum to celebrate the announcement of Dress of the Year 2025.
This year, the selection was made by Jess Cartner-Morley, whose ideas and knowledge about fashion are legendary. She chose Givenchy and Armani, and has written a fascinating piece in The Guardian explaining her choices.
The Dress of the Year has made me think about the act of choosing. About what it means to look at fashion at a particular moment and decide what matters. What tells us something about where we are, what is changing and perhaps even where we might be going?
It also brought me back to something I had been thinking about before I went to Bath.
Recently I was contacted on Substack by someone who had read my piece on ‘Life as an Accumulator’. In this post I talked about how I like to collect ideas amongst other things. He introduced me to the book ‘Theory of Creativity’ by Wargensberg who described that ‘an idea is the suspicion of knowledge’.
I love the concept that you might have a suspicion of knowledge. It leads to all sorts of speculations. How might that suspicion grow? How might it develop as you explore your thinking further? That you have an idea, a suspicion that you need to investigate further – how might that investigation be actively explored? Reading, watching, thinking, talking to others who might have more knowledge and experience than you?
It seems that however you might explore your suspicion it will be liberating. A suspicion of knowledge can’t have boundaries. It shouldn’t be restricted – after all it’s a suspicion. It needs to be multi layered and open-minded.
But then, how might this investigation be encapsulated? How might I gather the thoughts, the suspicions, the emerging knowledge I have about fashion? After all fashion is inherently ephemeral – you might say it’s always a suspicion. Who is to say that what you are wearing might be stylish or fashionable?
I’ve become preoccupied with how I gather these ideas and thoughts together. A journal or diary implies a daily record. This is too restrictive. A personal sharing of ideas could form a chronology where I write about creativity, education, leadership and mental health but this seems too linear. Too prescribed.
So, I have come to think about this container of thoughts as a chronicle. That this will help me develop a common philosophy, a starting point that I express over time as I write through a prism of fashion.
It has been suggested that I could post an image of what I am wearing on a regular basis. Images too form part of a chronicle. So, this chronicle in my mind is an extended sketchbook of ideas, images, thoughts, suspicions – a scrapbook even. It is not an extended thesis. Posting an image of what I am wearing is something I plan to do on an occasional basis.
And perhaps an image from Bath is as good a place as any to begin.
What did I wear to celebrate Dress of the Year?
Yohji Yamamoto.
There was never really much suspicion about that.