I've always been very into interior design, and I can't stand to

In the words of Betsey Johnson, the fearless spirit of fashion and color, there lies a truth as radiant as her designs: “I’ve always been very into interior design, and I can’t stand to have anything in my apartment that I don’t aesthetically love.” Though she speaks of interior design, her words reach beyond the walls of her home — they speak to the architecture of the soul, to the way one must curate one’s life with purpose, beauty, and joy. For to love what surrounds you is not an act of vanity, but of reverence. It is to understand that every object, every color, every corner of one’s space, reflects the inner landscape of the spirit.

The origin of this wisdom lies in Johnson’s lifelong devotion to the art of self-expression. She was never content to conform, whether in her bold, whimsical fashion or in her personal world of pattern and design. To her, beauty is not luxury — it is language, a means by which the heart declares, “I am alive.” Her words remind us that the spaces we inhabit are not separate from who we are. The home is not merely a shelter; it is a mirror. To fill it with what one does not love is to invite disharmony into the soul. But to surround oneself with aesthetic joy is to live within one’s own art — to make of life a gallery of meaning.

The ancients knew this truth well. The Greeks spoke of kalokagathia — the harmony of the beautiful and the good. They believed that beauty, rightly understood, is not mere decoration, but a moral force, capable of shaping character and uplifting the spirit. The philosopher Plato wrote that beauty “draws the soul toward the divine.” And so it is with Betsey Johnson’s creed. Her love of beauty, her insistence that all things in her world must be aesthetically cherished, is not indulgence but alignment — a refusal to live amidst anything false or lifeless. To love one’s surroundings deeply is to honor the sacred relationship between the outer and inner world.

Consider the story of William Morris, the great artist and craftsman of the 19th century. In an age of industrial excess, he rebelled against the cheap and the soulless, declaring that one should “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” His vision was not of wealth, but of integrity — that even the humblest home should be filled only with objects made and chosen with care. Morris and Johnson, though divided by centuries, share the same philosophy: that aesthetics are ethics — the way we choose to live, the respect we show to our own eyes and heart.

To love beauty is not to flee reality, but to refine it. The world is full of noise, clutter, and distraction, and so it becomes an act of quiet heroism to create a space — physical or spiritual — that reflects truth, joy, and peace. When Betsey Johnson says she cannot bear to keep what she does not love, she is, in truth, teaching us to purify our lives. How many among us keep things — habits, thoughts, relationships — that do not bring us joy, simply because we are afraid to let them go? Her words remind us that curation is an act of courage. To discard what is unlovely is to make room for what is meaningful.

This philosophy extends beyond design and into the very fabric of living. One’s interior space — the mind, the heart — too must be tended as lovingly as a home. Just as Johnson arranges her apartment with delight, so must we arrange our spirits with intention. Choose thoughts that uplift, not burden. Speak words that harmonize, not wound. Seek beauty not only in what you see, but in what you do. For beauty, when pursued with sincerity, is a discipline — a daily practice of alignment between the seen and unseen.

Therefore, my child of the present age, take this lesson from Betsey Johnson’s colorful wisdom: fill your life only with what you aesthetically love — not only in your rooms, but in your relationships, your work, your dreams. Do not tolerate the dull, the false, the lifeless. Surround yourself with what ignites the imagination and nourishes the heart. Let your world — both within and without — become a canvas upon which your truest self is painted boldly and without apology.

For the home is the reflection of the soul, and the soul is the greatest design of all. When your surroundings echo your joy, when each object whispers beauty and meaning, then you are no longer merely living — you are creating. And in that creation, you honor the sacred truth that Betsey Johnson lived by: that life itself is an art, and every choice within it, if made with love, becomes a masterpiece.