Between the two of us – yes!
Nothing is as uncool as the confession of wanting to be cool. I’ve come to admit it. But, like a lot of things in life, it takes time to find your own point of view.
BY THE EDITOR // KARIN M. KLOSSEK
I am very happy about the compliment Cool. If someone comments on a picture of me with the word Cool, he or she has already won. I admit it, even if I devalue future comments with it.
What has changed, however, is my attitude towards what it means to be cool. In school and college, coolness meant being part of it. To a clique, to a group, to a tribe.
Years later, coolness meant an almost unattainable form of perfectionism. The perfect haircut, the perfect (almost invisible, of course) make-up, the perfect casual style of dress, which showed that the backs of the horses of Argentinean pampas were as familiar to you as Dover Street in London, a certain casual yet energetic walk through the metropolises of the world and a certain nonchanlance.
Even if I could tick off one or the other of these attributes from time to time, I realized that the perfection of perfection would remain unattainable.
Over time, I also became aware that the sight and company of these cool people (who of course would never say the word cool) is rather boring, sometimes even pitiful. Because in the end they all followed (more or less strained) the one or other trend and the pace set by the PR campaigns of important industries and their true or self-proclaimed influencers.
In contrast, the term authentic became more and more interesting. CoolBrands® with its panel of Cool Brands in the United Kingdom, for example, considers it one of the most important factors for a Cool Brand, along with desirability, innovation and originality.
Basically, the term Cool is exactly the opposite of Hot. Hot are the Kardashians of the world. Cool are those who surprise, who are original and authentic. And that’s exactly who I want to be. I’d rather not be so easy to categorize, I’d rather not be so predictable, I’d rather not be trendy, but rather on my own course that others find cool.
Illustration: Performance of the exhibition Rineke Dijkstra ‘The Krazy House’, MMK Frankfurt 2013
