People spending more time at home than ever before has paved the way for the “home as a sanctuary” trend. As more people turn to their homes as cross functional spaces, some have gotten creative about how they view those spaces. Iconic fashion designer Norma Kamali started turning her home into a retreat in the early days of the pandemic. She found herself clutching a pillow to relieve stress and find comfort. She even created a movement on social media called #HugAPillow.
She eventually harnessed her creative energy to design her own oversized pillow, a versatile piece that can be used for meditation, relaxing and retreating into any room. I spoke with Kamali just after last month’s launch to reflect on her pandemic experience and what moved her from designing for the runway to the home.
Norma Kamali
courtesy of Norma Kamali
Amy Shoenthal: What motivated you to make the recent pivot from fashion to home decor?
Norma Kamali: As a designer, your aesthetic goes into your home. When I turned 50, I decided my stuff was possessing me instead of vice versa. I wanted to keep being creative and all of the things around me were preventing that from happening. So I sold almost everything at an auction at Christie’s. Ever since then, I’ve been a minimalist. I find pure happiness in this environment. I love the efficiency of it, I love the Zen feeling. I feel like I can create anything with the open space that I now live in.
During Covid I, along with everyone else, had to create my home into all the different parts of my life that would normally be separated. All of a sudden our homes were our offices, restaurants, gyms. We had to experience our entire worlds all in one space.
The first piece is this pillow. It’s a 28 x 28 pillow. It started because well, we weren’t hugging anybody anymore. If you had a partner you were lucky, but if you were alone, or you hadn’t seen anyone, it was hard. I kept finding myself hugging this pillow.
I realized that this simple comfort was exactly what I wanted in this new environment. I was able reconfigure the pillows and move them around. I was able to really create a fun environment in each part of my home. I was doing more cooking, and my partner and I found a way to enjoy something that we never had time for before. So where we ate and how we set that up became a fun place to go. The pillows came with us, from where we would sit in the morning for coffee to where we would retreat after dinner to talk. Overall, the same principles that I use for my clothes — timeless style, comfort, easy care, versatility — was really what I believed in for the home.
Shoenthal: Wow, so exactly how many uses did you find for this pillow?
Kamali: I started doing meditation twice a day since the pandemic started. Sitting on the pillow I could do longer meditations, I wouldn’t cramp up in the knees being in one position for too long. I realized it could become an end table if stacked. I could put a big tray on it and put my coffee on it. It had such a big role in my every day. And it’s made of swimwear fabric, so if I spilled my coffee on it, I washed it with soap and water. As the summer came I realized I could put these pieces outside. They could even go in the pool. It just kept evolving.
The Pillow by Norma Kamali
courtesy of Norma Kamali
Shoenthal: It sounds like there was a lot happening at once. Were you in your New York City apartment at that time?
Kamali: We finally bought a little beach cottage. 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. I didn’t think I would ever have this luxury of actually spending time in one place. We were in our New York City apartment for so much of the pandemic and then bought this little retreat. 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 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. So by then I had lots of samples and I just said, send them to my house. 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.
Shoenthal: You really epitomized this home as a sanctuary trend.
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. I didn’t have to go to a spa. I didn’t have to go to the gym. I didn’t have to get manicures. In fact, I don’t even like nail polish anymore.
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. All of these experiences could happen in your own home. That’s very empowering. And the result is that you feel really good about it. 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.
Being able to make time to work out, to cook a good dinner, and making that an enjoyable experience. Having time to do meditation because you’re not traveling for an hour to get to work. I think it’s great for us to hug each other and be with each other, but having the balance of both is great.
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. So I’m good with that. Sure, we’ll have times that everybody comes in. 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.
Covid, really as devastating as it’s been, gave us that open door to say, you know what, we can do this. I am thrilled that I can look at my job, enjoy it and then have the time where I’m just refueling. That part allows the creative concepts to come back into my head.
Shoenthal: If we go back in time a little bit to the 1960s, you were the original side hustler. You had a great job at the airline, but on the side you were building your fashion brand. 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. What advice do you have for people who are taking that leap and starting something new?
Kamali: In disruptive times like a pandemic, it really opens the door for new ideas. For creativity. So if someone has an idea I would say make sure you can define what your story is as uniquely as possible. I mean, you really have to scrutinize if your idea is, in fact, unique, authentic and resonates with the current moment. In any category, if you have that magic story, product, concept, or service, now is the time. Don’t be afraid, now is the time. Don’t regret that you didn’t try it. The worst that can happen is that it doesn’t work, but the best is that you learn what you’re capable of doing. You’ll learn that you have a fearless side to you, and that will only empower you to do the next thing even better.
You’ve got to do it and do it boldly, fearlessly and whatever happens just give it your all. If it doesn’t work, I promise you’ll come out of the experience so empowered and so aware of what you’re capable of.
Shoenthal: You talk about feeling like you were going to be “found out” when you started seeing early signs of success, when you were first featured in Vogue, etc. This is all classic imposter syndrome, but you also made a lot of choices that were very bold, like asking Bette Middler to narrate your first fashion show. How do you think you (and others) can balance imposter syndrome with that boldness?
Kamali: You have to understand Bette and I are the same age and we were both impostering at the same time. She was not Bette Middler yet and I was not Norma Kamali yet but we both had unique things going on. We both believed so much in what we wanted to do. We found a marriage in our uniqueness.
I would say this to anyone, the only way you’re going know how good you are is to fake it until you feel confident in it. And sometimes you’ll fake it and you’ll be like nope I’m not that person. You fake it until you realize, wait, maybe I’m really good at this. That’s how you find out if you can do stuff.
I was very shy. I could hardly speak. I could draw, I could design, but I was so shy. I had this friend who was the most outgoing person, she could get people to do anything for her. I watched her, I admired her, and then when I went out on my own, I needed to have guts. So I decided to imitate her to see if any of it would work for me. Some of it did, and within a period of time, I started to find my own confidence.
Through emulating her charm and communication style, I realized how important it is to make people feel they are a part of your story and you theirs. I learned that if I could tell my story and communicate authentically, the world opened up. Suddenly it was full of opportunities that I never thought would be available for me.
Shoenthal: What’s your favorite piece you’ve ever designed and why?
Kamali: I really, really, really love jumpsuits. I also like having my workout leggings and my tank top underneath my work clothes. Now I always have my workout clothes on under my clothes so that at any time, when I can, I go work out. I love that I can transform quickly into physical activity. Being able to work out is a great luxury.
Shoenthal: One of the things you’re most famous for is your iconic hot pants. Can we still wear hot pants?
Kamali: You know, hot pants were part of a moment in time. Clothes are so connected to the moment. Hot pants came after the miniskirt. It was the first time ever in history when you saw women’s knees.
I’m a child of the Madmen era. I was there with the girls and the bras and the stockings. So I remember that transformation. I started bringing miniskirts back from London. And when I wore them, literally the cars would stop, they would call me a prostitute or whatever, because it was just too outrageous.
So the next step from miniskirts was short shorts. It was easier to sit or walk in them. Hot pants became the natural evolution of that. I sold so many of them, and they became something you wore with boots. It was exciting and fun to show your legs after never having done that before. And it’s actually funny you should ask this, because I decided to include hot pants in my upcoming Spring collection.
I’m not sure that I personally will be wearing hot pants anytime soon, but you could. I could. Maybe in my backyard.
