Displacement is a feeling I know all to well. I have felt it my whole life; in North Carolina when I was living in the country and dreaming of the city; in suburban Jacksonville when I was surrounded by a lack of creativity and wanted nothing more than to immerse myself into a world of fantastical fashion; and now in Miami where I find myself making great progress from where I started but still feeling cut short.

I don't know why I have always been displacement's lonely friend. Sometimes during Art Basel even when I was surrounded by people that claimed to be doing all the things that I dream of doing in my future I still couldn't shake this feeling. As though all those people were just full of such great amounts of bullshit, and the truth probably is that some of them are. Not all, but none the less that makes it all the harder to not feel a sense of displacement in these industries I am immersing myself into.

Fashion and art are such politically driven industries that even when you get to the top you realize that those people aren't there because they deserve it but because they knew the right people. This realization can be discouraging to those that have always been told "hard work will pay off", but it can become empowering if you are not only smart but social. I have not been feeling all that social this semester as I have been consumed by my work. In turn I have grown a large ball of resentment in my stomach for this type of hypocrisy in the industry and in our society in general. As much as I try to talk myself out of it and reassure myself that there is hope for those that are really trying I find myself fatigued right about now. These photos ended up becoming my outlet of expression for this feeling of displacement that overwhelms me at times.

Skirt from eShakti