The Fashion Statement: Deepak Chopra on Design

by Kristin Young (RSS feed)
May 20th 2010 at 9:00AM

Several years ago, I attended the opening party of Coco De Mer, a high-end erotic and sex toy shop in Los Angeles. Deepak Chopra headlined the event along with Dave Stewart and Ringo Starr. The store sells the book Deepak Chopra's Kama Sutra on universal themes of love, sexuality and spirituality. Still, the physician and natural medicine guru could have been wary of endorsing such an event. Instead, he exuberantly supported it. Cool dude, I thought.

Recently, Chopra impressed me again. This time he was with Donna Karan at ABC Carpet & Home in New York City to talk about another universal subject, "Design, Beauty & Commerce; Serving as a Tool for Social Evolution." T: The New York Times Style Magazine sponsored the event and it drew big names like Lucy Liu and Hugh Jackman.

Chopra is friends with Donna Karan and Paulette Cole, who owns ABC Carpet & Home, as well as many other designers such as Diane von Furstenberg and Calvin Klein. But his connection to the fashion world appears to run deeper than that. Again, it's an everything-is-connected theme: Fashion, design and beauty have been a part of our humanity forever and, in the future, could play a role in righting our planet's wrongs, he said.

Our consciousness, when it's aligned with design and beauty, is powerful enough to create commerce that can address global issues, said Chopra. "I see the artist as the social conscience of society," he said. "The new commerce has to recognize the artist. The artist is the commerce." Art, design, fashion and beauty will make positive strides in the future for social justice, poverty, conflict resolution and the environment, he predicted.

Chopra and Donna Karan, who've known each other for 20 years, have worked alongside each other for Karan's Urban Zen Foundation Organization, a three-year-old physical manifestation of such an ambitious notion. The Urban Zen organization promotes well-being, preserving cultures in the midst of globalization and empowering children. There's also a store on Greenwich Street that sells cozy clothes as well as books, music, essential oils, jewelry and art sourced from around the globe.

Chopra is also no stranger to the beauty business. The Chopra Center & Spa at the Dream hotel in New York is a five-year-old Ayurvedic spa offering massage treatments and facials based on one's body-mind constitution. Of course, the spa staff is trained in wellness, teaching and healing for those seeking creativity, vitality, peace and happiness.

So a day of shopping and a facial help save the world, huh? I, for one, will be happy to do my part.

Tags: ABC Carpet Home, CocoDeMer, deepak chopra, Design, diane von furstenberg, Donna Karan

Filed under: The Fashion Statement

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jim May 23rd 2010 12:36PM

I have to agree that it makes good sense to surround oneself with things that are perceived as beautiful, and dynamic. (As in ever changing.) Lack of montony, by receiving beauty reflected back back in more of what we see and do, is not only progressive and mindful. It encourages most who have this intentional practice to feel happier, and to grow both in spirit and in daily living. Generally, it causes us to feel happier and less insecure with change.

Jim Willeford