Jessica Wakefield Was My Hero
Loose-curled long blonde hair. Turquoise eyes, lake-sparkling. Twin images of a perfect size six. This was what I needed to achieve. Even if I couldn’t join the Unicorn Club described in the novels, I wanted to look like I could. Hot pink lip gloss was hastily applied by my eight-year old hands, and my child...
The Window Shopping Project: Old Navy.
“After years of thrifting, I realized that I had not entered a retail store of any other type in far too long. I did not even know how to shop in most retail stores. This year, I have decided to spend the next twelve months window shopping. The twist I want to put on this...
Of Embroidery Thread & Baseball Cards
Whenever I’m feeling down, frustrated and alone, I always find myself drawn to certain items in my closet. A tunic made from fabric my mother bought for me in Malaysia. The tiny silver and turquoise paisley ring my mother gave me when I was eight. A black Audrey Hepburn-style dress she made for me to...
The Prom Project
All of us face obstacles in life. Too often, we succumb to them. That joyless result is not inevitable, however; we can strive to leap over hurdles in our path. My obstacle — being considered male — is larger than many impediments, but that only means that I need to dig deeper to overcome it....
The Shirt of Karma
I saw the shirt as soon as I walked into the shop one Saturday afternoon in 1993. It was hanging on the far wall, shimmering under a bank of lights. I moved towards it as if in a trance, plucked it off the rack and stroked it. It was even smoother than it looked. I...
The Girl With The Most Cake
When I stumbled across the Tumblr of photographer Leeta Harding, there was an instant sense of recognition. Her photographs of teenagers in the late 1990s are so achingly familiar. That look on their faces, the confidence, the way they present themselves to the camera – naive, sexy, knowing. I was like that. I was that...
Creating A Meaningful Wardrobe
It is easy to flop around life aimlessly, hoping that things suddenly present themselves to you in a neat, tidy and sensible fashion. But when you’ve floundered so long that you can barely breathe, instead you must grasp on to all the sense you can, sewing together some meaning out of some fishing line and...
Notes From The Real World
I recently – finally – graduated from college. It took me eight and a half years of on and-off trying to decide what I “really wanted to do” (whatever that means). To knock out all of the classes required for me to do it, while also trying to balance, at times, three jobs in order...
I’m Glad Fashion Week Is Over
Let me preface this by saying I’m a Texas transplant, here in New York City for all things fashion. I’m supposed to look forward to those two weeks in the year when “walking shoes” are 6-inch Giuseppes, makeup is airbrushed and plastered on from 8 AM and when meals, well, just aren’t. My apologies, but...
The Window Shopping Project: Walmart.
In this new series, we follow blogger Terri Lowry as she makes her way through a year-long project exploring the various levels of retail in America. Each month we will feature a post from her window-shopping project and hope that it will encourage discourse! You can see last month’s post, on dollar stores, here. I...
Thrift Wars
One of my earliest memories takes place in a thrift store. I am sitting on the floor behind the counter of our local Salvation Army, surrounded by Mexican women who speak to me in a lilting song of half-English, half-Spanish. My doll, Pink Baby, is on my lap and I am staring, wide-eyed, at the...
Paper Dolls
Throughout my childhood, the person who filled my consciousness, cut up my food, taught me to read, cooked and tidied, answered questions and kept me entertained was my mother. As soon as I could talk I would ask her countless questions; I was a constant demand on her energy reserves. When I grew older it...
