Phases

When I was 4 years old I had a pair of burgundy-colored cowboy boots that I just had to wear with everything. I never left the house without them, according to my mother - I even somehow managed to get my way and ended up wearing them with whatever frilly dress shehappened to be putting me into.

When I was 9 I went through a period where I had to wear a vest with everything-really

everything- over dresses, jeans, tees, and all manner of tops. I had so many of these vest

things( and thing is the right word here)! I remember my favorite was a floral carpetbag

material little vest, with gold buttons- that I wore with different solid color turtle-necks. This

look is commemorated in various family photos and in those ever so fantastic school photos.

Lets just say, that wasn't the best of my sartorial choices.

(I am omitting various other clothing phases here- the Kermit the frog swimsuit, the pink

overalls, the time where my friend Lindsay and I decided to dress only in monochromatic

outfits...)


When I was 12 - many things changed after staying up way too late watching MTV (yes when

MTV still showed music videos) I saw this:





Hope Sandoval became my fashion Icon, and provided much style inspiration throughout

much of the 90's. Big black boots, long black hair, velvet mini-dresses, printed mini dresses,

black jeans, and flora body-suits. I wore my hair like hers long and parted down the middle.

I clomped around my world in heavy black boots, I wore silver and turquoise jewelry, I wanted

to play guitar and sing melancholy songs.

I discovered thrift store shopping ( much to the dismay of my parents). I loved going to the

Garment District in Boston and sifting through the piles of clothes- mining for that perfect

vintage tee- at the dollar a pound. Do they still do that there? I'd love to know.

Then came Brit-pop. The third wave of the British Invasion- that brought with it, not only fun

music, but some of the best hairstyles I've ever seen. In the mid-to late 90s this became my

new obsession, and the impetus for my new look.

I too cut my hair like Justine, (of Elastica) in that too cool for school asymmetrical bob, then

growing tired of that,I moved on to Donna's rockin' pixie cut- and I bleached my almost black

hair to platinum blonde. While the blonde didn't last very long, I loved this hair.

In fact I loved the music and the style so much so, that it partially influenced my choice to

go to study in London at Goldsmiths, though by that time Brit-pop had faded and the 90's

were over. But, I still go through style phases. Don't we all? That's the fun of it.