Beautiful: The Emperor's New Clothes

ONE UPON A TIME THERE LIVED AN EMPEROR WHOSE ONLY WORRY IN LIFE WAS TO WEAR ELEGANT CLOTHES. HE CHANGED OUTFIT EVERY HOUR AND SHOWED HIS CLOTHES OFF TO HIS PEOPLE. TWO SCOUNDRELS HEARD OF THE EMPERORS VANITY AND DECIDED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. UNDER FALSE PRETENSES THEY OFFERED TO MAKE HIM A COSTUME SO FINE IT WOULD APPEAR INVISIBLE TO THOSE STUPID ENOUGH TO NOT BE ABLE TO APPRECIATE QUALITY. THE EMPEROR FOUND IT A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. IT WOULD FILTER OUT INCOMPETENCE AMONG HIS PEOPLE AND IT WOULD GIVE HIM A SET OF CLOTHES SO SPECIAL AND REFINED, THAT IT WOULD TRULY MAKE HIM THE RULER OF ALL. IT WAS GOLD WELL SPENT.

The two scoundrels took there time under the pretense that creating a cloth so precious was not something one could haste. Of course it also gave them the opportunity to raise the price on numerous occasion. But one happy day they announced the new outfit to be ready. The carefully helped the Emperor to get dressed, handling the imaginary fabric with care as to not rip it. That very same day the Emperor went for a stroll through his city, demanding all his subordinates to watch him walk by. The crowd was silent, not able to see anything but a naked man, but too afraid to say something and be found stupid. Unless a small child, to young to understand the significance, cried out: “But he is not wearing anything, he’s naked.” The nervous crowd reacted with giggles and laughter and the Emperor started to realize the child was right and it was him who was the stupid one.

When the writer of this story, Hans Christian Andersen was only a small boy, his mother took him to see King Frederick VI of Denmark. When the King appeared the crowd was in awe, but little Hans cried out “Oh but he’s nothing more but a human being!” It is believed that this was the base of his famous tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes, but there is also a very true moral to this story. Haven’t we all been in situations in which we felt impressed by the ones confronting us, simply because they look more powerful, more intelligent, more confident? And haven’t we all sometimes thought that if we all would be naked, would there really be such a difference in hierarchy?

Ever since we started to walk on two legs instead of four, we started to ornate ourselves with cloth and accessories. Not only to protect ourselves, but also to differentiate ourselves from our peers. Cloth became clothes and eventually fashion. Some garments are made to decorate, some are functional, and others are created to impress. But under all those layers, we are really all the same. Well, almost that is. Because we could not possibly all look as well chiseled and shaped as Junior of course. But asides that, it is true that clothes make the man and can give us a feeling of confidence and even superiority.

Junior is not an unfamiliar appearance here on BeautifulMag. Already he graced two BM covers and we are sure we will hear and see more of this hard working model from the United Kingdom. Junior has his mind set upon a career in international modeling and his star is rising. Over the years he has met and worked with numerous renowned photographers, and recently he was able to add Chris Jepson to that ever growing list. Like Junior, Chris is London based. Chris has made name for himself as portrait, documentary and music photographer and in that role has immortalized many celebrities, both in politics and the entertainment world. With a passion for challenging settings and intricate lighting, he set to work with Junior late last year, making the young male model pose with different outfit pieces. The interesting facet of this session is that Junior’s clothing was brought down to the absolute minimum, but just enough to change his entire personality. Proving once again that a human being is simply a human being until you add props which transform him into something else. In this case a construction worker, an athlete or a fur-clad alpha male kind of warrior type. Simple, sexy and beautiful, and speaking to the imagination. –BM-