FQR’s very own Uhura, Elizabeth Saltzman, says there’s no need to view the current tough times as a descent from Planet Glam to Planet Gloom

Boy, oh boy, have things changed since I last wrote to you. I am usually expected to be able to foresee all manner of threatening forces approaching from over the horizon. But even with my eyes and ears on alert 24/7, it was impossible to predict the catastrophic state of affairs we now find ourselves facing.
Nevertheless, rather than crying like a child who has broken his or her favourite toy, it is time to find some positives in the current economic meltdown. While many have lost the Armani shirts from their backs, and super-sized yachts have been put into dock, and gorilla-sized egos have been brought down to earth, those wiser folks see this extraordinary turn of events as an opportunity to refocus on the most important things in life. Things we may have slightly neglected in our more indulgent and profligate times. Children. Family. Each other.

When a community suddenly finds itself under the cosh, it has no choice but to come together. At the end of the day, when times are tough, other people are all we have. Here in Britain, much is made of the die-hard spirit of the Blitz. More recently, after the shock of the 7/7 bombings, London came together in a way that surprised its usually taciturn and reticent citizens, who are more used to keeping themselves to themselves for fear of encroaching on each other’s ultra-valuable space.

It’s like when you’re injured and have a bandage on your wrist or a strap around your ankle… You suddenly notice how people on your street – neighbours you might have seen for years but to whom you have never spoken or even nodded your head – begin to enquire as to your well-being, take a concerned interest regarding your injury, and wish you a heartfelt and speedy recovery. This, I suggest, is precisely the way we’re going to get through our present dilemma. By looking out for each other. By showing we’re all in this together and that only by sticking together are we going to find a way out.

This is a time to take notice of the people around you. A time to talk, not gossip. A time to hold out a hand, not stab in the back. It’s about survival of the fittest. The fittest of mind. The fittest of spirit.

It’s time to come back to our senses, having lived too long and too high on the hog. It’s time to reconnect with what’s real, to recalibrate our values and take stock of what’s really important.

Today is about style, not fashion. Style is timeless. And luxury is time, not a brand. Time for your kids, your parents, your partner, your friends, our world. Switch off that phone. Put down that iPod. Turn off your computer. And talk.

This is not a time for logos. This is a time for initials. Take a lead from Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier, who strikingly proclaimed at his women’s show, “When your initials are enough.”

The online fashion site Net-a-Porter will now deliver its items in discreet plain brown paper. And as we know, all the most exciting things in life come in a brown wrapping.

This is our world correcting itself. Less money for gas, light and heating means we’ll have to get fit. Get outdoors… Walk, cycle, enjoy what life has to offer. Who needs a fancy gym, staring at your sweating reflection while some overpaid trainer yells numbers in your ears, when you can get out and breathe the fresh air?

Before you consider this to be an altogether terrifying option, consider that at times of great crisis, the more creative members of society also step up to the plate. The Underground becomes the Overground. The more radical thinkers, artists and musicians who, during the boom years, might have been seen as no more than irrelevant party poopers, suddenly come to the fore. They bring fresh and exciting ideas, challenging the stodgy status quo and replacing it with a more vibrant and dynamic model. It happened with Punk. It happened with Disco. It’ll happen again. Only in adversity are people pushed to experience the experimental.

This is no time for being famous for being famous. This is a time for being famous for being brilliant, for being original. For being yourself, not what someone tells you to be.

In more ways than one, the old model has been seen not to work. It’s time to replace it with something new.

So as I sit here gazing out over the universe, I don’t feel pessimistic. I feel hopeful. And so should you. I have faith in humanity to fix itself, to rectify any mess it has made. I’m not saying it’ll be easy. For sure, there’ll be tough days ahead, but I can feel something in the air. A sense of reality. A desire to change, to evolve. It’s exciting. Mysterious. Who knows what shape it will eventually take? Who knows the individuals who will show us the way? But whoever they are and whatever it is, be ready to embrace it. Be ready to jump on board. Enjoy it. Relax. Make yourself a martini. Forget the “shoulda woulda coulda”.

Hey, it may be a bumpy ride now and again but, honestly, who wanted a life of boring plain sailing?

Uhura out.

– Elizabeth Saltzman is Vanity Fair’s International Social Editor

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