zelda & mary todd: dressed to disrupt

                                   - Cherrah Johnson 

Zelda initially captured my imagination for her impish flapper mannerisms  and over-the-top lace dresses, I only learned about her incredibly chaotic & emotionally difficult life through podcasts.  

The big drama in her marriage to to Scott, was punctuated by them both becoming notorious. Fueled by alcohol addiction, and overall toxicity, their tumultuous creative dynamic made a big impact in their circles of influence. 

Their big charming personalities probably made them the most fun couple at every party - until they weren't. 

 (  Sometimes we know these kinds of friends, sometimes we ARE these kinds of friends ) 

I read "The Beautiful & the Dammed" by F. Scott Fitzgerald in college and loved the drama of their incredibly unstable days and nights. They skipped  around to luxurious properties despite Scott scrambling for money to pay their huge hotel and travel bills.   It reads like neither was equipped for the responsibility of his fortune and fame...  But, they were fun. 

Their power struggle was amplified by Scotts writing making him incredibly famous.  Notoriously he had few consequences for his drunken and ego driven bad behavior. 

Further complicating their relationship, Zelda wore the whimsical flapper styles in high society, also making her incredibly notorious in the media.  Her outfits splayed out in magazines, broadcasting Zelda as aspirational femininity for the nation.  She would have been right at home today,  as a modern influencer or TicTok celebrity. 

Her own creative writing was repeatedly stolen by Scott from her personal journals and merged into his own, resulting in entire portions of his published work taken from Zelda's writing.

Imagine a 24 year old Zelda, living this huge life alongside Scott & also furiously writing stories about their addiction fueled adventures.  She was also producing material inspired by their wild life and quirky friends. 

Vulnerably,  Zelda regularly shared her work with their publisher who largely brushed lighthearted Zelda off as a real author.  Rejected, her wildly imaginative stories, were apparently not relevant or marketable in the way that F. Scott was. 

Through my modern lens, her work being rejected might have been fair - 

"Disappointment as an artist should be tolerated. -

Not every piece of art has an audience. "

But then, imagine the guttural rage Zelda would have felt seeing HER stories, published under the name of her famous husband.   

Her adult life was defined by being 'treated' for her mental turmoil and she spent years in asylums and treatment facilities.   

Medical knowledge, including basic psychology, was primitive and barbaric at the time. Techniques such as electro-shock therapy and endless inconsistent pharmaceuticals, meant to "fix" Zelda, only led to further mental torture and increased damage to her body and spirit.  When I listened to her story & looked up what modern medicine would have diagnosed her with, it's largely said that she would now fall under the umbrella of bipolar disorder. 

Zelda would have been a wildly imaginative friend and her iconic fashion signals to me from the past that she was trying to use her big voice, in any way she could.   

                                                        - Cherrah Johnson