The Art & Language Of Music, With QUOD

Music is an art and language all on its own. One that speaks for us when we can not find the words to express ourselves, or sends a message to the world when it’s needed most, a form of communication that has been used long before our time. That is why, when asked to create a playlist, it was important to first think about the story I wanted this collection of songs to tell. I needed it to relate to my brand and at the same time, express how I am feeling right now, or what feelings I want to evoke, during a time of uncertainty in all of our lives.

My brand, QUOD, is a symbol of my personality, lifestyle, and the future of fashion. QUOD is short for Latin Quod Erat Demonstrandum, literally translating to, “what was to be shown”. It is a proof, a phrase that tells someone you have proved your theory to be true and definite. But what is fashion, but not an uncertain and unfixed idea. It is not something that can be proved. In designing QUOD, I am in an active pursuit of exploring and defining what it is to dress in the ever changing environment of the 21st century. By fusing multiple styles of dress, we have blurred the lines between the “genres” of fashion and created a style of our own that conveys, not one, but multiple attitudes. Our illustrations also fuse into this idea of combining many styles of art. Unconventional fashion sketches, which on the surface seem a bit harsh and sporadic, actually have a harmony and method to them. We are more fascinated with a beauty that can’t be defined in mainstream culture than something conventional and categorical.

Like our design methods, this playlist infuses multiple genres of music and in many instances, there are songs which seem like they belong to no genre. Each song conveys an emotion, a fantasy, an attitude, in its own way. All adding a different message, but in the end, all coming together to reveal a narrative written in my head that is cohesive and harmonious.

When creating this playlist, I was inspired by one of my beloved professors at Parsons, who used to play music during our fashion drawing classes. He would play these playlists and let them roll in the background. We would hardly notice them, yet they would set the mood of the class and put us all in a creative flow, helping us tune out our worries, even if only for a short period. The music would stimulate this environment of creativity and, in a way, fuse together with our sketches.

With the mixture of old and new, popular and up-and-coming artists, this playlist is like taking a breath of fresh air in a familiar neighborhood and seeing it like new. It was important for me to curate a list of songs that invoke a creative flow in listeners' minds and helps them tune out any worries. Some songs aren’t in English and this was also important for me, being that we don’t always have to understand something to feel it, to really let it move us. Infusing music and fashion is quite natural for this reason. Sometimes we don’t understand it, it is ambiguous, it is wild, yet we fall in love with it and let it move us. Putting on the right dress changes our mood in an instant but during a hard time like this, when we don’t have much to do except look forward to a new breakfast cereal, we may not all feel like getting dressed up. So I hope we can at least turn on our speakers and, in the same way as putting on a great dress, I hope this playlist makes us all feel something delightful.

Listen to the playlist here