Boredom is a Girl's Best Friend

I get bored quite often. My first instinct is usually to reach for social media or put on a TV show, but sometimes I find the self restraint to simply be bored and fill the silence. Boredom is not an easy feeling, it's uncomfortable to sit in the nothingness. When there’s nothing to occupy you, you’re left to entertain yourself.

When I was younger, I would stay up late alone in my room and occasionally give myself a night entirely dedicated to playing dress-up. I’d go through my closet, trying on every variation of different clothes-–wearing shirts as scarves, pants as tops, pairing colors and patterns that had no business being together, and leave my room completely covered in clothes. There was never a goal or an end result. I was simply experimenting with the possibilities of what was already there. It’s a habit I carried with me as I grew older, and something I still try to practice whenever I can.

Boredom is a girl's best friend; it pushes us to make something out of nothing, to become more inventive, and to find excitement in the unexpected. It brings us back to that childhood wonder, where clothing wasn't about rules or trends, but play and dress up.

This editorial was created in this mindset, where play and creativity can blossom, most importantly with no expectations. The images create a whimsical landscape where boredom becomes an invitation for imagination and discovery. The models embody a carefree spirit, utilizing playful compositions and dressed in eccentric colors.

There’s no better girls to discuss play and creativity than Elsie Dombek and Cassidy Lea. Together the duo (lovingly known by some, quite literally, as the whimsies) make up the production company, Enter The Pearly Gates.

Elsie has had artistic endeavors since she was a child. Painting and drawing her whole life, she transitioned into photography throughout high school and college, and then expanded into other mediums by working on an indie short film the summer before graduating.

“I’ve always enjoyed creating my own little worlds no matter what it is, every detail is important and has a story that’s important,” Dombek said about production design. “I love spending a lot of time on a project and bringing out everything that’s in my head, because it’s all possible with enough time.”

For Cassidy, her main love language is fashion design. She may be a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in her last semester, but she is also a student in life, letting her curiosities of other art forms lure her in.

“Watching Elsie do set design and working together, I fell in love with set design,” Cassidy said. “For this editorial, I wanted to let the outfits pop while still bringing in nostalgic elements, like Rachel’s childhood Twister board. Elsie and I also love to bring color into natural landscapes, so we put ribbons into the trees for one set.”

Interactivity, whimsy, and actually having fun are seemingly key parts to Cassidy and Elsie’s process. Visually, the two have very similar, cotton-candy fairy dream aesthetics, but grew up with completely different childhoods.

Elsie grew up in the woods of Washington, with no neighbors, exploring muddy creeks with her sister, while Cassidy grew up with structure in all forms: a strict regimen of school, dance and beginning a modeling career early on. Cass even describes adulthood as a newfound freedom and, “in a way, it’s like a very self-aware Peter Pan syndrome.”

Whether it’s a craft night in their Bushwick apartment, making bolo ties out of found objects, or creating new worlds and portals (and crescent moons) for projects, this duo hopes that their expression through production, set, and fashion design never loses that “dreamy, childlike wonder” and that through their exploration, they can find new and interesting ways to problem solve, to create a better world (and probably, a more fun one at that).

“Fashion really is boredom’s best friend. My biggest challenge with being sustainable is getting bored of pieces, when trends are cycling so rapidly,” Cassidy said. “But boredom inspires me to change around what I already have, pinning things in different ways, messing around with familiar things in an unfamiliar way.”

Art is full of rules and expectations, but once those boundaries are removed, the possibilities become endless. Sometimes all it takes is a little boredom to remind us how much fun it is to play.

“I think that the more time you allow yourself to get ready and experiment, the outfit becomes something more unique to me,” Elsie said. “Giving yourself time to play is the best thing you can do, whether it's fashion or another art form.”