I'm not like most designers, who have to set sail on an exotic

“I’m not like most designers, who have to set sail on an exotic getaway to get inspired. Most of the time, it’s on my walk to work, or sitting in the subway and seeing something random or out of context.” — Alexander Wang

Thus spoke Alexander Wang, a designer of rare instinct and modern vision, whose words remind us that inspiration is not a treasure buried in distant lands, but a living force that moves through the ordinary rhythms of our days. When he says, “Most of the time, it’s on my walk to work, or sitting in the subway and seeing something random or out of context,” he speaks of the sacred art of seeing — the ability to find beauty and meaning not in the extraordinary, but in the everyday. For the true artist, every street corner is a classroom, every stranger a muse, every passing shadow a spark of creation.

The origin of these words lies in Wang’s own journey through the bustling world of New York City, a city that hums with endless motion and contrast. While others sought inspiration in distant paradises — in sunsets over foreign seas or in the silent halls of remote retreats — Wang looked to the chaos of the city itself. The subway, with its tangle of lives and its rhythm of movement, became his temple. The walk to work, filled with fragments of sound, color, and chance encounter, became his pilgrimage. In those moments, he discovered what the ancients had always known: that the divine speaks not only through grandeur, but through the small and unnoticed.

This truth echoes across the centuries. The philosopher Socrates walked the streets of Athens, speaking not to kings, but to ordinary men in the marketplace — finding wisdom in the common words of the people. The poet William Blake saw angels in the trees of London. And Leonardo da Vinci, that master of all creation, found wonder in the curl of smoke, in the ripple of water, in the simple flight of a bird. They understood what Wang, too, has seen: that inspiration lives not in distance, but in perception. The world does not lack marvels; it lacks eyes to see them.

To live as Wang describes is to practice a sacred attentiveness — to awaken to the extraordinary hidden within the ordinary. The commuter’s train becomes a stage of humanity; a billboard becomes a study in light and proportion; a stranger’s coat, a revelation in texture and form. The artist who learns to see this way does not need to escape to find renewal — for the world itself, when seen with open eyes, becomes an infinite source of creation. Inspiration, then, is not a place to be reached, but a state of awareness to be cultivated.

Wang’s words also challenge a modern illusion: that creativity must come from abundance, from luxury, from escape. But true creativity is born from presence, not privilege. The designer who waits for perfect conditions will wait forever; the thinker who waits for silence will never hear the voice within. The great works of the world have always been made amid the noise of life — the murmur of streets, the cries of struggle, the pulse of the ordinary. For it is in the unpolished moments of existence that truth reveals itself most clearly.

The lesson is this: do not wander far in search of inspiration, for it already surrounds you. Learn to see the sacred in the mundane, the pattern in the chaos, the poetry in what others overlook. Walk with your eyes open, your mind alert, your spirit receptive. When you pass through your city, your home, your daily routine, look again — truly look — and you will find that the world is whispering to you in every gesture, every shadow, every breath. For those who are awake, the ordinary becomes divine.

So remember the teaching of Alexander Wang: “Most of the time, it’s on my walk to work, or sitting in the subway and seeing something random or out of context.” He reminds us that creation is not about distance, but about depth. The great designer, the great artist, the great soul — they do not flee from the world to create; they embrace it. Be present where you are, and you will find that the universe itself — vast and mysterious — is reflected even in the glimmer of a passing face, or the curve of light on a city wall. For those who truly see, inspiration is everywhere.