“Were surprised
To see from their eyes
Our planet looked like an earthrise
A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon,
with deep oceans and silver skies.”
– Amanda Gorman, ‘Earthrise’”
In 1968, astronaut Bill Anders took a photograph of the Earth from the Apollo 8 spacecraft and changed our perception of our planet forever. Seen rising over the moon, Earth was a blue dot in the cosmos, both beautiful and fragile. It was our first view of the planet we call home.
“Our own urgency became clearer,
As we realize that we hold nothing dearer
than this floating body we all call home.”
– Amanda Gorman, ‘Earthrise’
In 2018, fifty years later, America’s first youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, evoked this moment in her poem ‘Earthrise’.
Gorman describes how the astronauts, seeing the Earth from the outside for the first time, were struck by its beauty. They didn’t see borders of countries, conflicts, or human faces; they saw our planet as a whole – a blue marble floating in space.
“I saw Amanda’s performaning “Heartrise” , the poem she wrote for Al Gore in 2018. while browsing online trying to understand better who is Amanda and what makes her work so powerful. I got hypnotized by the 4 minutes video. I watched it over, over and over.
I wasn’t planning to design a collection, I was just browsing and learning.
At the end of the video her point of view really pushed me to wonder “ What if someone had to come for the first time to our planet, what would they see? Who would they found?”
Heartrise is my answer to that question. I’m using fashion to picture an imaginary where we are all aware of how beautiful after planet is, hence/thus, we strengthen our collective power to protect this marvelous blue dot. I want to use beauty to protect beauty.” – Aurora Chisté
