A Sleeping Giant
By MEGHAN KING
The holy grail of entertainment, Hollywood, is closed. The silver screen - like the rest of the world - is on hiatus due to Covid. Not only does this feel strange, it’s also totally and completely uninspiring.
I left Los Angeles weeks ago but the drab feeling of dismay has followed me. No awards shows, red carpets, movie premieres... inspirational sources of wearable finery have been forced to shift from A-Listers’ campy ball gowns to the social influencing street sartorialists. This isn’t all bad but it’s limiting in creative scope - everyday fashionistas (like me) are used to being energized by siphoning the eclectic energy that exudes from the current photos of a bygone Hollywood step-and-repeat... so now what? How do we not only find creative inspiration but then harness it and APPLY it?
You just do.
I proudly watch my daughter channel her inner Iris Apfel as she confidently dons a Cinderella dress paired with her favorite pair of pink cowboy boots. She haphazardly smears hot pink lipstick on her lips, flips her wild, uncombed hair to the side, and might paint a couple fingernails blue. She’s either dressed as a preschooler or an overpaid model gracing the centerfold of Italian Vogue, but I realize she inspires me: she doesn’t wait for the perfect event to wear her look (because let’s face it, that event isn’t happening).
But I digress.
My fellow fashion pioneers, this isn’t a lesson in Covid-induced patience but a lesson in bespoke creativity.
When Jai, Brady, and Kristi painted my face, loaded me up in couture, and snapped away, I felt alive. My inner model stirred, my depressed creativity revved-up and voila! Out of these formally dormant qualities exploded the fireworks you feel from this collection of editorial images: unparalleled, high-energy creative inspiration. Bam.
Despite the boundless amount of adjectives I’ve used (but let’s face it, are there ever too many adjectives when describing fashion?)
All I’m trying to say is that you can do the same. You’re reading this because you’re interested in awakening the creative nymph sleeping inside of you: and you can and you will.
Throw some paint on a canvas and hang it on your wall (maybe it’s the living room, maybe it’s the play room - but it all counts!).
Break out the dusty Celine sunnies, dab on some YSL rouge and go for a long drive - to nowhere - blare Odesza on the speakers while you break out all your rusty dance moves and keep time on your steering wheel. Or proudly spritz your mildly-moth-ball-scented gown (from that one fancy thing in 2013) with your dusty bottle of Creed and pair it with the Converse you actually wear all the time (and a mask) and grab a glass of socially-distanced wine al fresco.
Girl, Tavi Gevinson’s got nothing on you.
Editorial by Photographer Jai Mayhew, Reality TV Star/Model Meghan King of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Makeup Artist Brady Nance, and Wardrobe Stylist Kristi Pinkham