I mean, you really have to scrutinize if your idea is, in fact, unique, authentic and resonates with the current moment. So if someone has an idea I would say make sure you can define what your story is as uniquely as possible. Kamali: In disruptive times like a pandemic, it really opens the door for new ideas. What advice do you have for people who are taking that leap and starting something new?
#NORMA KAMLI FULL#
During the pandemic, many people, by need or by choice, have been exploring their passions, starting new businesses, or turning their side hustle into their full time gig.
You had a great job at the airline, but on the side you were building your fashion brand. Shoenthal: If we go back in time a little bit to the 1960s, you were the original side hustler. That part allows the creative concepts to come back into my head. I am thrilled that I can look at my job, enjoy it and then have the time where I'm just refueling. The work life balance is probably the hardest thing for us to work out and if you have kids, I know it's almost impossible to sort out.Ĭovid, really as devastating as it's been, gave us that open door to say, you know what, we can do this.
Sure, we'll have times that everybody comes in. Why not keep working from home? I tell my employees, especially the parents, that if they're being productive at home, they're being productive. I think it's great for us to hug each other and be with each other, but having the balance of both is great. Having time to do meditation because you're not traveling for an hour to get to work. Now you appreciate your home for, not just as a pitstop in between going out to dinner, changing and throwing your clothes on your exercise machine that you never use.īeing able to make time to work out, to cook a good dinner, and making that an enjoyable experience. And the result is that you feel really good about it. All of these experiences could happen in your own home. Thinking of our bedrooms as a sanctuary for sleep, finding nutrition and exercise, we came to the realization that all of this could happen at no cost. In fact, I don’t even like nail polish anymore. Kamali: One of the silver linings of Covid is all of us realizing that we could have this balance we never thought possible, right in our own homes. Shoenthal: You really epitomized this home as a sanctuary trend. That’s where I put things together and started having a lot of fun experimenting with ways to use them. My team thought we’d never launch the collection. So by then I had lots of samples and I just said, send them to my house. We got to the point where every time we finished a collection, I'd say let's try another shape, let's put four of these cubes together to see what happens. By then, I had already been making different pieces like a square pillow, a cube, a cone, a ball, a single cylinder with soft edges. We were in our New York City apartment for so much of the pandemic and then bought this little retreat. I didn't think I would ever have this luxury of actually spending time in one place.
We had always rented houses to just get away for some sanity but because my partner and I both have very busy schedules, we had never bought anything. Kamali: We finally bought a little beach cottage. Were you in your New York City apartment at that time? Shoenthal: It sounds like there was a lot happening at once. The Pillow by Norma Kamali courtesy of Norma Kamali