Diana Vreeland steered the course of mid-20th-century style, serving as fashion editor at “Harper’s Bazaar” and as the editor-in-chief of “Vogue” for a combined three decades. Known for favoring eccentric and standard-shattering looks, she never flagged in her love for fashion as an art form and lifestyle; she even curated exhibitions at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art well into her 70s. Vreeland truly lived out her own mantra, and encouraged others to do the same by cultivating the things that make us feel most alive. 

A German-born artist, Kurt Schwitters worked across a wide array of genres and media, though he is most widely known for his collages. In the wake of World War I, he collected garbage from the streets to use as material, creating heartfelt and often sentimental works from the most unlikely of components. His work from this period took the remains of devastating conflict and transformed them into art. For him, the creation process was spiritual, a way to step free of life’s chaos, and bring pieces of the world together instead of ripping them apart.