Wabi Sabi’s “The Spotted Runway”: Embracing the Passion of Imperfections in Fashion.
“I find fashion to be a kind of urban gardening; If somebody’s strolling down the street and their outfit looks lovely, and then you tell them your outfit looks lovely: it’s like watering a flower; the next day, they’ll dress up with that much fun again, maybe with even more …
Dublin can be quite a grey city, so a little bit of fashion is like flowers popping up in our town.”
Kiki Kirna, artist, designer and guest judge.
On the fourth of June in The Fumbally, D8, the Dublin street-fashion and sustainability community, Wabi Sabi, held their first independent event, “The Spotted Runway”, a celebration of their Spotted series which highlights the authenticity of Dublin’s passion for fashion within the beautiful, imperfect everyday. In attendance with many first-time guests, the night was an effervescent welcoming of diversity; a diversity of the arts such as music, painting and design and a diversity of the cultures, personalities and statements woven through those who took to the runway, those on the judging panel and those who applauded, whooped and belonged together. As the evening flowed along like a chiffon flare, I got the opportunity to chat with such a variety of voices from the fashion community, be it creators, lovers, models, advocates; they all had something deeply genuine and different to offer me about the importance of expressing and connecting through fashion.
When I arrived, Goodness Mphelo (one of the co-creators of Wabi Sabi) immediately made me feel welcome; I asked him: “How did The Spotted Runway first come about?”
“Well, the Spotted Monday videos originated from wanting to showcase fashion in a way that is genuine and authentic to what is happening in everyday life. Every weekend, I would see cool people with cool outfits walking down the streets…so Spotted Runways became the way to further empower these passionate spotted Dubliners with the space of the runway. Anyone would get the chance to present two outfits (one in each round), which they inherited, thrifted or crafted to express their identity. At the end, everyone wins something, but there is also a top three decided by the judges! We got over 85 applications, and then it was our job to curate a selection of 12 that would be the best showcase of the diversity that is so inherent to Dublin’s fashion scene. And Spotted Runway part 2 is already in the works!”
“And you’re called Wabi Sabi – the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty within imperfections – so why do you feel it is so important to embrace imperfection in the fashion community?”
“I think we all strive for perfection, especially when you see the polished edits of social media, but day-to-day life is not polished; it is not perfect. Wabi Sabi embodies the idea that even if a shirt has a hole or two, you can make that stylish, and you don’t have to throw things out, you can embrace sustainability, and you don’t have to keep buying new things, you can adopt and allow one style to adapt and adapt and adapt.”
Goodness’s sentiments only became more and more realised as I chatted with various guests, and time and again they mirrored his emphasis on fashion bridging the gaps formed when emigrating to a new country and the importance of authenticity and community instead of an unwelcoming or uptight facade of perfection:
“When I walked in, I said, ’ There’s no way things like this exist in Dublin’, I had no idea – and I live up the road! We need more of this. I’m from Johannesburg in South Africa, and this is what my city does… so to find a space like this in Dublin with such diversity and passion…it really does make me feel like I’m at home.”
Natasha
“Moving from Barcelona a few years ago, I love the scene in Dublin; I’ve been following Wabi Sabi for a while and have just been waiting to get that Monday Spotted moment, but I pray today is the day, haha! This event breathes personality. There’s nothing like a city to bring together a lot of students with a lot of free time to create cool shit.”
Aina
“And we love how everybody in Dublin seems to have their own style, and we can see it in here so very clearly, and it’s great because there’s no culture of 'I like this one, let me just copy and paste it’ – nope, it’s all just personality.”
Selvi
“There’s this unfair tendency to view the fashion community as snobby or vain, but this event proves that stereotype wrong in an instant. You get talking, and the people here couldn't be friendlier or more genuine … Fashion is fleeting, but style is eternal, and this event showcased the variety and evolutions of fashion, but the constants of style, no matter which shape it took!”
Clare Lenihan
Clare was correct. At this event, there were no boundaries between the models taking the runway by storm and the fashionista guests, many of whom were spotted and called up to do the very same thing. One of the guests who got a gift and a huge shoutout was Tara, whose EGL Japanese statement piece got everyone’s attention! Afterwards, I asked her where the inspiration had come from:
“Well, I’m part of a fashion group, IREGL, and our interest is in EGL / Lolita, Japanese street fashion that is based on Victorian style clothing. I think that Ireland can be a little conformist with fashion – the classic ‘notions’, for example –, but the choice to stand out here is on full display tonight, and when standing out makes it easier for others to express themselves, it’s a really beautiful thing. Personally, I struggled with self-expression; I always wanted to wear the EGL style, but for a long time, I never could make the leap…Then, in 2020, I got hit by a car, and as I was hurdling towards the ground, I was like damnit, I’m about to die and I never got to wear those dresses…and then after a bit of surgery, I started wearing those dresses.”
When it came to the runway fashion on display, I repeat what everyone else couldn’t help but feel, that the utter variety was like an overdose of fashion senses. There was everything from thrifted vintage punk to retro suave funk to iconic camo to pastel gowns to globally curated set-pieces to new-wave gothic to action hero suits to pink-cow-artpieces to nuevo streetwear and elegant silk combos — and that’s only one of the rounds!
Afterwards, catching models for an interview was a bit more challenging since they’re always running away. Still, I did get to chat with the actress and true cosmopolitan, Jeffrin Jerome, about her second time on a runway and the key difference to performance in film:
“In acting, you’ve prepared for a role, there are multiple takes, and everything is orchestrated and time sensitive, but the runway teaches you how to take up space and how to take up time; to be truly comfortable in being perceived, to own it.”
Furthermore, what was so great about the event was that the night was not solely limited to the art of attire, as the connection between fashion and music shone through beautifully. The night opened with the ethereal shoegaze melodies of @amymiche.elle and her talented band as they also scored both rounds of the runway. While it concluded with @ohthatsfortune, a quick-fire burst of crowd-lifting rap that broke open the runway and turned the space into a free-for-all dance party! When I asked the performer if there was an important link between music and fashion, he answered:
“100%. Fashion and music are cousins…like the cousin that you love seeing at a family function, y’know! Both musicians and models have to be themselves — loud – and whatever music scores the fashion show can inform the pace that the models find, the beat of the runway and the skeleton of the show. One cannot exist without the other.”
After all of the acts, I returned to the co-creator, Goodness Mphelo, for one final question:
Why fashion? What does fashion mean to you?
“It means identity. As an immigrant, there’s a lot of things that I might not bring up in conversation unless they are brought up by others. With fashion, the thing that people see (my identity), rather than just my being black, is the way I dress, which tells you that I’m an immigrant and I’m proud of it, but that I’m also part of Ireland in the right here, right now. Fashion is placing our identity on the forefront, and without words, the conversation has already begun. When people see me walking, and they say, ‘Hey, maybe he’s not from here.’ They ask me where I’m from because of the way I style myself, and this creates the words, this creates the belonging.”
And at the end of the night, everybody did seem even more open, loose on their feet with flowing voices and a quick propensity to grin and to laugh; the atmosphere had made us all the more social and connections and inspirations had blossomed like flowers in Fumbally Lane.
Written By: Ben Lynch
Edited By: Kirsten Baldwin
