Was Your Teacher a Fashion Icon?

Yesterday, the cozy village of Manhattan witnessed the opening of the first ever New York Men's Fashion Week.

In an age of style-savvy rappers, red-carpet-swagged celebs, and bespoke-suited NBA stars, how is it possible that 2015 is the first year for NYMFW?

Even the men running for president are getting checked for freshness. So how is this first time for Fashion Week to go Dude?

More importantly, what the hell does this have to do with teachers or education?

Tyson Beckford attends the 2015 amfAR Inspiration Gala New York at Spring Studios on June 16, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

like teachers, 
designers help others develop a point of view

See the World; See Yourself
Everyone has a style. Each of us has a wardrobe, no matter how casually curated. Even your most fashion-careless friend has a collection.

We all have a point of view.

And while very few of us ever attend a fashion show (let alone fashion week in New York City), we all witness the parade of style around us every day. Again, the most fashionably-tragic people have a sense of this. I know you're probably thinking about your dad, who cynically asserts that he wears the same khakis at least 3 times a week. The man cares about fashion: he just cares about not caring.

And that's the deal. Creating your style is personal. It takes time, experience, and relationships. And, to develop it, you need mentors.

Now take a fashion show like NYMFW.  To be clear, a fashion show is a business convention at its very core. This is New York, baby. It's an arena for scrappers, innovators, and startups. 

But fashion shows are more than a market place-they serve to direct and instruct. Fashion shows reflect and articulate cultural tastes; designers start trends, 
shape trends, and cultivate trends.

Like educators, designers help others create and articulate a point of view. 

Many fashion brands are named after people for a reason. In a world where stadiums, stores, and skyscrapers 
are named after companies, this is worth noting. The fashion industry knows the power of a personal connection. We want to model ourselves after people we admire.

Teachers know this, too. You can remember the style of your favorite teachers-- whether it was way they dressed, talked, or thought about things. Damn, they were cool, right? They didn't teach you WHAT to think; they taught you HOW to think. The point:  we need someone else's point of view to develop our own. 

And that's why Fashion Week is also Teacher Week. It's all just teachers and students, son. And, speaking of school...

Public School, you can make it easy for yourself and just tweet my VIP pass to your show to @mikekleba.  I mean, we should be hanging anyway, you know what I'm saying? #educatorsunite

Public School designers Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow 

We need to know someone 
else's style 
to develop our 
own style

photo credits: 
-Albert Einstein, courtesy of Mental Floss.  http://www.businessinsider.com/biography-of-albert-einstein-2013-1
-Public School, photo by Public School