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, is in perfect harmony with a significant, youth-oriented dialogue happening now.

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 relationship 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. They had debates as scholars should. But no one was running for their ‘safe space’ where thinking people were allowed to block out all disruptions of their civic and religious beliefs.

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.

Luther believed that individuals could and should develop their own relationship with God. 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.

Religion and the Brutality of Chattel Slavery

Of course, one of the swords hanging over the religious world is the reality of chattel slavery. Beyond my recent post of the discovery of Black, ship-owning whalers in New England uniting with Quakers in the abolition movement, I remain deep in study of religion and the slave trade.

Since 2020 and the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I have piles of research but not a coherent essay. My mission is to fix that reality, given all the brutal lashes unleashed by Trump and Project 2025 on the facts of American history.

Augustinian teachings are not about “an explosion of the ego” in defining human worth and evolution of the self. It’s about the inner process. I love many of the techniques photographer Alasdair McLellan is using to express this concept in his Bazaar Italia fashion story.

I will close for now, but leave you with Brunello Cucinelli’s Message to Youth and a Humanist Revolution, written on April 28, 2025: Letter to the youth for a humanist revolution. This letter is on BrunelloCucinello.com — not the shop BC site.

Even Google AI confirms the influence of Augustinian values on the designer. It writes:

Brunello Cucinelli, the fashion designer and founder of the luxury brand, has expressed admiration for Saint Augustine and his philosophy, particularly the idea of "putting your soul in order". He has stated that his work and business practices are inspired by Augustine's teachings on free will and the pursuit of a good life through moral choices.