Also, I totally saw a ghost one time.

I'm really not holding up my end of the "nerd girl" bargain these days. Sure, I have the eyeglasses. Sure, I'm still really obsessive about meaningless stuff. But I'm not smartin' around too much these days.

I've been talking creative work with people a little more than usual recently, and it's making me think about how little I'm thinking. My knitwear project this quarter, Space Bunnies (perhaps you've heard of it?), is driven by the lofty concept of two words that sound funny together, for the most part. There's more behind it, but I can't give you a great reason for why I chose any of it: Electronic music. Sexiness. Retrofuturism (I give up! You win, retrofuturism, you are too awesome).

A Space Bunny?

I think my work as a trend forecaster has led in part to this. "Seeing the future" can kind of be done in three ways. At one end you have "logick out the present..." and you get a really good look at the present, for the most part. At the other end is "be a genius and logick out the present," and you have the most likely prediction of the future. (You have to be a fucking genius to do this. It's why my old boss was able to afford a personal chef.) And in the middle you have the territory of fairy dust and going with your gut. Some call it "guessing"--the benefit of this tactic is that you have the chance of being right. Most trend forecasters will tell you that going with your gut is totally key, and between the consistent advice from People Who Know What They're Talking About and the instances where it's magically worked for me--I believe in it. So I do it all the time now when I do fashion work. Why sex and space and rabbits? Because I trust myself and the universe, (Because, omg, I am totally psychic), and because seeing the future matters in fashion.

I think being an amazing fashion designer is this ineffable thing because sure, you need the chops to execute brilliance, but I think the things that make great fashion so great are hard to define. As I often insist, I sometimes hate fashion. I am a jaded-ass motherfucker. And yet when I see great work I just melt inside. Magic factor 1: Perfect, brilliant, inspired aesthetics. The perfect composition of a fantastic piece seems like a "you-have-it-or-you-don't" to me. If I've ever managed to achieve it, I've just happened upon it. Don't think this has happened often (ever?).

But there's this other thing that makes lovers of fashion so constantly rabid, which is fashion's relationship to time. Creating fashion that's "of the moment" is that other magic factor. As much as I understand that the overconsumption that's wrapped in with fashion sucks, I can't claim to not understand why we do this so hard and fast and over and over. Hitting the front edge of the evolution of style is fucking gold. This ever-striving towards the threshold of the present is what makes fashion exciting! It's why futurism is bullshit--it's overshooting. And reaching that threshold? That's what's ineffable. I honestly believe that it takes being "psychic". You can get close through observation... we're always told to watch HOW people are styling what already exists to see where the styles naturally want to go. And you can "do your research"--every major cultural event is supposed to blow up on the fashion map, but in my experience, it's a red herring. They said it about that Marie Antoinette film, all we got out of it was some piddly floral fluffiness from Louis Vuitton (I liked it, but it was no revolution). They're ALWAYS saying it about war, or conflict in the middle east, or the economy... and so designers design to it, but it feels dated and costumey... a nod to the recent past. It's the fashion world acknowledging sadly its own lag. But the Great Ones... they are unfettered by lag. They simply design from their wonderful, psychic hearts to create the looks that we've been longing for. The fashion at the tips of our tongues.

So... that's my defense of not thinking about it. I love the shit out of myself, but I'm still not stupid enough to claim that I have The Vision that these designers have. Nonetheless, my antennae are still the brains behind my fashion design. As I was complaining at the beginning of this post, I'm not really smart enough to do it any other way. And sometimes, I'd like to think I get lucky. I mean, I am a little bit psychic.

Portrait of the author as a young mantis.

(See, you feel around and then pray you're right.)