Get Out of the Trenches: Why Creativity Lives in the Clouds.

Let’s get one thing straight: creativity doesn’t happen in the trenches. I don’t care how much you love your job or how good you are at it—if you’re grinding every day without taking a moment to step back, you’re not creating, you’re surviving. And survival mode? That’s where ideas go to die. I learned that the hard way, as most of us do, running on caffeine and deadlines, thinking that if I just worked a little harder, pushed a little longer, the magic would come. Spoiler: it didn’t.

Let me set the scene. It was late, my desk was a mess, my brain even messier. I was staring at a screen, scrolling through the same references I’d seen a hundred times before, waiting for something—anything—to spark. Nothing. And then it hit me: this wasn’t about working harder or finding the perfect Pinterest board. This was about space—about getting out of my head and into the world.

Steve Jobs once wrote a letter to his team after Apple became the most valuable company in the world, surpassing Microsoft. You’d think it would be filled with fireworks and confetti, but no. Instead, he wrote, “We are only as good as our next product.” Let that sink in for a moment. At the peak of his success, he wasn’t celebrating the podium—he was already back on the pedals, thinking about what came next. That’s the kind of mindset that keeps you relevant, keeps you pushing.

But here’s the thing they don’t tell you about pushing forward: it doesn’t happen by doing more of the same. It happens when you step back, breathe, and give yourself permission to dream. Steve Jobs called it “hearing the subtle things.” For me, it’s about finding the clouds—the moments when you’re not buried in tasks, when your mind can wander and connect dots you didn’t even know were there.

I used to think this was indulgent, maybe even lazy. That all changed the first time I went to London for work. I was there for a trend research trip, but let me tell you, I wasn’t in the mood. I was overworked, overwhelmed, and already thinking about all the emails piling up while I was away. But then something happened. Wandering through Shoreditch, seeing the way people moved, how they styled themselves, the energy of it all—I felt my brain start to light up again. It wasn’t just about the clothes; it was the stories they told, the way they made people feel. I came back with a notebook full of sketches and ideas, more inspired than I’d been in months.

That trip taught me something I’ve never forgotten: creativity lives in the clouds. It’s not in the meetings or the emails or the spreadsheets. It’s in the quiet moments, the unexpected detours, the places where you let your mind play.

And it’s not just about inspiration—it’s about clarity. Steve Jobs, the man who made us believe our music should live in a tiny box and that a phone shouldn’t have buttons, spent a lot of time in the clouds. He was deeply into meditation, and he swore by it. He said, “If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. But over time, it does calm. And when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things.”

I remember a trip to Barcelona where this hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d tacked on an extra day after a work trip, no plans, just me and the city. I wandered into this tiny shop selling handmade scarves. The textures, the colours—it was like nothing I’d seen before. I wasn’t even looking for inspiration, but there it was, staring me in the face. That scarf sparked a whole collection idea, one that ended up being a turning point in my career.

These moments, these cloud moments, aren’t just nice—they’re necessary. Fashion is a fast industry. If you’re not evolving, you’re irrelevant. And yet so many of us get stuck in the grind, churning out work without ever stopping to ask, Am I doing something new? Something real?

I’ve seen it time and time again with brands that cling to what’s safe. They use the same fabrics, the same factories, the same silhouettes because it’s what they know. But playing it safe doesn’t inspire anyone. It doesn’t sell. It doesn’t grow.

Steve Jobs understood this better than anyone. When he made the decision to drop Adobe Flash from Apple’s devices, the whole industry thought he’d lost it. Flash was the standard for web content at the time, but Jobs saw the flaws—how it drained battery life, how it wasn’t built for the touchscreens he knew would define the future. It was a bold move, one that came with a lot of criticism, but it paid off. It changed everything.

That’s what the clouds give you: perspective. The courage to see beyond what’s working now and imagine what could work next. The trenches, with all their deadlines and deliverables, don’t give you that. They keep you reactive, not proactive.

For me, stepping into the clouds means carving out rituals that let my mind wander. Sometimes it’s a long walk with no destination. Sometimes it’s sitting in a café, sketching while I people-watch. These aren’t just breaks—they’re investments in my creativity. And every time I make space for them, I come back with something better than I could have forced out at my desk.

Fashion is about more than clothes. It’s about stories, emotions, connections. And those things don’t come from spreadsheets—they come from stepping away, from finding the clouds.

So if you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just plain uninspired, do yourself a favour: close your laptop, take a deep breath, and let yourself wander. The best ideas aren’t waiting for you in the trenches—they’re out there, floating in the clouds, just waiting for you to show up.