Work From Home Style Diary: Daring to Dream During Dark Times
Pivoting business plans and the lost collections of fall ’20 are essential topics of conversation for any of the shoe designers I’ve spoken with in the past few weeks. But the single most mentioned theme I’ve heard from them? That they’re dreaming. The world is a scary place right now, we all know. But that’s all the more reason for a bit of fantasy. History has shown that in times of crisis (wars, depressions, pandemics), artists often produce their most vivid works. The art and fashion of the 1930s was notoriously whimsical and escapist — see the imaginative works of Picasso and other Modernist artists or anything from the Surrealist movement of the time. It was also in the ’30s that Elsa Schiaparelli came to dominate fashion with her avant-garde creations. The Italian designer frequently collaborated with the likes of Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau and dressed screen stars like Mae West (undoubtedly one of the most imaginative actresses of all time when it came to fashion). Mae