Wearing: Asos faux fur coat, gifted t-shirt, Emma Mulholland shorts, Karen Walker Iris sunglasses, American Apparel socks and Lipstik jelly sandals. I know it's been a few weeks since the Natalia Kills fiasco but I thought I'd use it to discuss some thoughts I've been having about originality and authenticity. What she said was nothing short of narrow-minded and delivered in a very vicious way and without being featured on StylelikeU I would never have heard of her. Her music didn't really inspire me to dig deeper than that and I had no idea her husband was also a musician. I also find it amusing that someone who models herself on Cleopatra and identifies as the Egyptian Queen reincarnated has the gall to complain about someone else's lack of creativity. In the days that followed she became just another Internet meme. I was obviously influenced by the photo of Kills wearing her Karen Walker sunglasses compared with Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
So here's the thing, the notion that you should "just be yourself" or "stay true to your artistic vision" is not helpful if you aren't sure what that is. Or if you're still trying to figure that out. Collaboration is often seen as a dirty word and citing something as an influence usually draws negative connotations. Being able to reinterpret something artistically and re-examining why our interests are special should be seen as adding value to our feelings, rather than detracting from them. In biology it's widely accepted that as a consequence of living in the same environment, different animals converge on the same morphology in what's known as convergent evolution. But a similar philosophy cannot be applied to art or culture and suddenly there is this pressure to create something totally unique, individual and not having to credit anyone.
