'Edge of the World' Shot by Alasdair McLellan and Lessons of Ancient Rebellion in a Changing World

'Edge of the World' Shot by Alasdair McLellan for Harper's Bazaar Italia May 2025 AOC Fashion

Photographer Alasdair McLellan [IG] delivers a ‘fine arts’ interpretation of early adulthood, and young people absorbed in the human journey of ‘Becoming’.

Not only a fashion transition towards fall, as styled by Max Pearmain, ‘Edge of the World’, a fashion story shot at the White Cliffs of Dover. Models Alex Kose, Dana Smith, Felix Clark, Jacqui Hooper, Layla Etengan and River Klein represent the inner quandries of today’s global youth about the world around them.

AOC notes that rebellion-dressing is not the sartorial message in the May 2025 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Italia [IG]. That’s not necessarily a bad position, when real rebellion happens in one’s mind and spirit./ Makeup by Lynsey Alexander; hair by Franziska Presche

The Journey of a Lifetime

The question of ‘beauty standards’ is almost as prevalent in today’s fashion media as the words ’iconic’ and ‘duality’. In a moment when ‘nonduality’ is in ascendancy, words become very confusing.

The May 2025 issue of Bazaar Italia adds a wonderful phrase in translation with a new twist, asking what beauty is for us, beyond a concept reduced to an “orgasm of the ego”.

Rather, this process illuminates the free expression of oneself, which evolves with our person and with the passing of time.

It’s possible — not probable — but possible in the world of fashion, that this focus could take hold not only under the umbrella of humanist thought, but now influenced further by Pope Leo and his beliefs as a member of the Augustinian order.

The Commitment to Educating Oneself: The Good, the Bad and the Indefensible

Augustinians have a deep commitment to the idea that each of us has the opportunity to embark on an inner journey towards understanding and cultivating a deeper relationship with God.

In America, where young white men are the primary drivers of a closer relation to faith, the focus is regaining control, in AOC’s opinion. Varying degrees of misogyny and white male superiority are deeply embedded in a faith that only embraces this singular vision of self-realization. Men run the world. For young women, the duty is to bear children and defer to male excellence.

However, there is a much richer vision for young people that is embedded in humanism — as expressed by designer Brunello Cucinelli. Remember that humanism came together in launching the Renaissance with both a secular wing and a religious wing. They were not identical but highly compatible in their views and values.

I’ve also validated 10 different ways that early Augustinian thought leaders maintained an excellent relationship with Arab scholars in what we consider to be the Islamic Golden Age.

The Individual and Self-Responsibility

I’m now studying the various orders within the Catholic Church — the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits are my current list. Not only is Brunello Cucinelli deeply influenced by the Augustinians, but they were early-on a bridge out of the Middle Ages and into the early Renaissance.

Classical Greek philosophy and other influential sets of beliefs were embraced by the Augustinians in the rise of the Renaissance. Learning and intellectual development are key to the order. Science is respected, as was pre-Christian scholarship.

When Martin Luther broke with the Catholic Church and the Papacy in 1520, he remained a monk and member of the Augustinian order.

A thousand years later, many of us embrace this view, one in a state of equilibrium with Augustinian teachings. For Luther — and the launch of Protestant faith — individual and self-responsibility were core concepts, coupled with a direct connection to the divine.