On Simplicity

Published in

MinimalHero

4 min readDec 7, 2015

Recently I had to write and article on Simplicity, which is one of the core values of the Alex Carro cosmetics brand that I’m working for. I think some ideas are really interesting and I’d like to share it here as well:

What is simplicity? Do we really need it? How, and more importantly, why would we want to implement it in our lives?

Though groups of people striving for simplicity like Puritans, Amish, Orthodox Jewish have always been around; in the modern world of consumerism and constant rush more and more people are turning to simplification of their lives. The stress of constantly having to choose and purchase more and more every day creates a counter-wish in many people to throw it all away and cleanse their lives.

Today you can find the representation of simplicity in all areas of our lives.

The recent article in Harper’s Bazaar tells us the story of Matilda Kahl, who decided to wear the same clothes work every day. As an art director at one of the leading creative advertising agencies in New York, she had a complete freedom of choosing what she wants to wear to the office. But, unlike most people would think, this didn’t make her any happier.

Every day she had to think if the outfit she wore fit for the occasion, if it was too formal or far too casual. And every day her stress level would worsen. Instead of concentrating on her work she wouldn’t stop thinking about her looks.

At some point this drove her to clear out her wardrobe and replace it with 15 white silk shirts and a few black trousers. Now she doesn’t need to worry how she looks anymore and, as she says, she “not only feels great about what she wears, she doesn’t think about what she wears”.

( Read the Harper’s Bazaar article here )

Among other people who are famous for wearing the same outfit every day are Steve Jobs, Karl Lagerfeld and now even Mark Zuckerberg. Everyone knows the signature look of Steve Jobs: black turtleneck, blue jeans and the new balance sneakers. He was know as a person who always admired simplicity, which can even be seen in the design of Apple products. One of his famous quotes is:

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Beside that Steve was a very prominent figure in another movement. He loved meditation. He said it helped him to reduce stress, gain more clarity and enhance his creativity.

Nowadays more and more people turn to meditation for the same reasons, and the most important of them, is that it helps declutter your brain and order your thoughts, in the mean time immensely reducing stress. Every day you can read more and more articles on how meditation can help you increase your productivity and creativity. There are numerous apps that can help you learn meditation, which is also a sign of it’s growing popularity.

Here are some of them: Calm, Headspace, 1 Giant Mind, Insight Timer.

Yet another area of our life where more and more people are looking for simplicity is our home. Japanese minimalist designers like Nendo have become very popular in the recent years.

People are trying to declutter their homes to create more stress-free space. A book by a Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” became the #1 New York Times best-selling guide for cleaning, simplifying and organising your home.

At work apps like Mailstrom or Unroll help you to clean your email inbox faster and cancel all the unnecessary email subscriptions to newsletters.

At Alex Carro we adore simplicity and believe in simple pleasures. That’s why we decided to simplify our line to only 5 products, one of each type, to help remove the clutter, confusion and stress from your daily skin needs.

On Simplicity

Written by Anton Blagov