I am inspired by anything that transports me.
Flowers, obviously, have been a constant throughout my life. I spent nearly twenty years working with them, and I still find it remarkable that nature can produce something so strange, intricate, imperfect and beautiful. I don’t think I will ever stop looking at flowers.
But my inspiration comes from everywhere.
I love vintage clothing, particularly pieces where you can see extraordinary construction, craftsmanship and imagination. I love watching videos of couturiers making. I love fashion that goes beyond simply making someone look beautiful and becomes art.
Schiaparelli has always fascinated me, from Elsa Schiaparelli and her surrealist imagination to what Daniel Roseberry has done with the house today. There is wit in it. Fantasy. Drama. Sometimes absurdity. It challenges the idea of what clothing is supposed to be. Pierpaolo Piccioli and his use of volume and color is a constant inspiration.
I don’t necessarily want to make what these people make. I want to become their friend and work beside them.
Paris is another endless source of inspiration. I can walk for hours there. The architecture, gardens, museums, shop windows, flea markets, clothes, flowers, food, people. There is beauty everywhere, but there is also history everywhere. The past and present are constantly bumping into each other.
And then there is Mexico.
I love Mexico with my whole heart.
The color. The flowers. The food. The architecture. The markets. The textiles. The religious iconography. The craft. The music. The celebrations. The sense that color and pattern aren’t something to be afraid of or carefully rationed.
There is an exuberance to Mexico that I find completely irresistible.
I find enormous inspiration in film and television. I notice the things behind the story: the interiors, costumes, lighting, color, landscape and music. Sometimes I will forget an entire plot but remember the wallpaper in a room or the coat someone wore in one scene.
It’s all magic to me.
Maybe that is what connects everything that inspires me.
I am drawn to people, places and things that create worlds.
Elsa Schiaparelli could create one with a dress. Luis Barragán can create one with a building. Jeff Nichols can create one with light and story. Ayn Rand could create one with words. Maude Schuyler Clay creates one with a camera. Mother Nature somehow manages to do it with a flower.
I want my own work to do the same.
I want to make things that cause someone to stop for a second, look a little longer, feel something, and perhaps be transported somewhere they weren’t expecting to go.