FEATURE
FUELING THE FIRE written by ANYA HABER illustrated by BLANCA CHEN and SHISHUANG TU
C
reative burnout can hit you like a tidal wave, crashing down and engulfing you without warning until you feel like you can’t breathe. It can also be a slow burning candle, a long time coming. Finally, when the last traces of wax have evaporated and the fire is extinguished, you feel the effects of creative burnout. Artists can succumb to creative burnout both in school and on the job. This occurrence is all too common in the fashion industry. When fast fashion became the norm, the upper crust of the industry followed, giving into the constant drive to produce newer things at a more rapid rate. Take fashion week for example. It’s a month-long affair in which editors, models, buyers and designers shuffle between the four fashion capitals of the world: New York City, London, Paris and Milan. Since fashion week became a global phenomenon, the number of collections design houses are expected to produce has skyrocketed. Designers are now counted on to produce spring/summer, fall/winter, two haute couture shows and two resort collections a year. If the brand does menswear as well, the number of collections per year rises even higher. Due to this, many celebrated creative directors who succeeded in reinvigorating the brands they were hired to design for have been resigning after only a few years on the job due to the excessive workload. This could not be seen clearer than in the case of Raf Simons and Dior. Simons renewed Dior during his three and a half
SCAN MAGAZINE // SPRING 2017
years at the helm of the revered Parisian fashion house, boosting the brand’s financial value while producing fresh designs that perfectly blended the iconic Dior look with a contemporary twist. As a result, his decision to step down from one of the most coveted jobs in the fashion industry shocked many, with Simons citing personal reasons for leaving. In what was a culmination of many conversations over a period of months with famed fashion critic Cathy Horyn, Simons spoke of the difficulties of the fastpaced nature of fashion. During their last conversation, which came only days before Simon’s resignation was announced, he told Horyn, “Everything is done in three weeks, maximum five. You have no incubation time for ideas, and incubation time is very important. When you do six shows a year, there’s not enough time for the
in relation to an individual’s thought process. Two current
whole process.”
theories that relate to how one’s perception of intelligence, creativity or otherwise, affect an individual’s motivation
Creative burnout is certainly not an issue reserved solely
and ability to cope with failure are the entity theory and
for the fashion industry. In an article titled, “Does Fashion
the incremental theory. Entity theorists believe that one’s
Have a Mental Health Problem?” published on the
intelligence is a fixed genetic favor that can’t be improved
popular website Business of Fashion, Emma Mammo,
upon, while those who subscribe to incremental theory
head of workplace wellbeing at Mind, a mental health
believe that intelligence and creativity can be improved
charity, states, “The number of people saying that they
upon and learned with practice. Research has shown
have experienced mental health problems while in employment has climbed from a quarter to a third.”
“EVERYTHING IS DONE IN THREE WEEKS, MAXIMUM FIVE. YOU HAVE NO INCUBATION TIME FOR IDEAS.”
that entity theorists attribute their failures to their internet lack of ability, and therefore become more depressed and powerless when faced with failure. These personality types believe that failure comes as a result of not being good enough, rather than not trying hard enough. This detrimental point of
view leads to holding oneself back because the feeling of Due to this rise in stress and depression in the workplace,
failure doesn’t come with learning moments. On the other
there has been much research on the subject of burnout
hand, incremental theorists care more about learning and