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This week’s group Zoom-spiration – animal prints – came to the Vogue fashion team from many angles. First, thanks to the Netflix phenomenon that is the Tiger King mini-series, we have found ourselves far more familiar with big cats than we anticipated. Second – while Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin might have us thinking about lions, tigers, and general monkey business – we’ve had a whole lot of fun video conferencing into our coworkers homes and often meeting their furry quarantine pals – or current coworkers – for the first time. Whether it’s the aptly named Tiger — our sustainability editor Tonne Goodman’s cat — stuttering across her desk mid-meeting, or our fashion director Virginia Smith’s dog, Spoon, adding a little soundtrack to the background of our calls, we thought it was time to take a little walk on the wild side and try some graphic, animal prints on our own small screens.
And wild, we got. As always preparing for these calls brings us closer together. “I have no animal print!” director of fashion development, Allie Michler, texted 20 minutes before Zoom time. “My cat is taking a nap,” she said after trying to get creative by using a prop in place of an article of clothing. Spots and stripes were suggested in lieu of more traditional leopard or zebra. Charlie Johnson, fashion assistant, foraged for a favorite leopard fleece in his mom’s closet who he says has “quite the collection” of animal prints. Conversely to Charlie and Allie, assistant market editor Ciarra Lorren Zatorski said she felt this week’s theme was not a challenge. “I was ready to go as animal print is already a staple in my wardrobe,” she said. “I felt as though I was getting dressed for a “normal” day at the office instead of this morning’s Zoom.” And, just like that, we were back for our weekly dress-up challenge, naturally giggling away at our styling decisions just like we were, in fact, having a normal day.
