Top, Zero + Maria Cornejo; leather jacket, c/o AllSaints; 1980s Talbots skirt, thrifted; heels, Kokorokoko Vintage ; ring, H&M; necklace, J.Crew; sunglasses, c/o Tory Burch; nail polish, Boom Boom Pow by Deborah Lippmann
It’s the classic question all girls ask themselves before they leave the house: Does this make me look smart? Just kidding, we all know that when girls look at themselves in the mirror and ask this question sadly the word “smart” is not the adjective most use.
After lusting over the silk Zero + Maria Cornejo bookshelf print top for months it’s finally mine. How perfect for tricking people into thinking I’m an intellectual. Even Harper’s Bazaar credits Maria Cornejo with cultivating a brainy crowd. I can see the thought bubbles now.
“Hmmm… she has books on her shirt, so she must be intelligent…”
It’s ironic because I don’t read nearly as much as this top would suggest. It’s sad, because my favorite class I’ve ever taken – high school or college – was AP Literature taught by Mr. Burke at Fayetteville High School. Those of you who went to FHS know what I’m talking about. I took English classes at Michigan State but none of them compared, in scope or depth, to Burke’s. The man is a living legend.
When I was in high school I preferred to read classic Russian literature. Not only did it make me feel smarter, the palpable alienation in Nabokov, Tolstoy, and Dosteovsky’s novels resonated strongly with how I felt (because somehow overprivileged upper-middle class teenagers have so much in common with oppressed Russians). Now I look back and laugh at how seriously I took myself. I will fully admit that I was one of those pretentious adolescents who felt like no one understood me. I also spent a lot of time reading books by dystopian authors like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.
The best book I’ve read recently is A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I bought it after I read an interview with her in Gentlewoman but was initially skeptical because of the hype. I tend to hate novels that make the New York Times Bestseller list (*cough* Dan Brown *cough*) but Egan is a thoughtful and innovative author. It takes tremendous skill to weave the story that she created using such unusual techniques. Read it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Now that I have this library print top I have all the more reason to stay committed to my New Year’s Resolution to read more novels. Anyone care to recommend a favorite novel recently? I’m always looking for book recommendations.
As for what I wore, here goes the outfit credits: shirt, Suno; pants, Uniqlo; shoes, Maison Martin Margiela; bag, vintage Chloe; necklace and headband, J.Crew; bracelets, Erin Gordon x Sarca. The earrings were made by me and contain 3 Middle East good luck charms; the scarab, the crescent moon, and a Lamu dhow eye from eastern Kenya. If you want a pair, email me and I’ll make them for you!
This is me. And yes, I dressed up. I never dress up. Unless it’s for a big party, like Glamorama. Other than that, sneakers and a flowy top over tight pants has been my unofficial uniform for 2011. However, New York Fashion Week seeped into my blood like a virus and now I’m getting a huge kick out of dressing up like a lady. Or maybe, as my friend Alli mused, my friendship with Jena has rubbed off on me more than I realized. I actually like dressing up now. In other news, hell froze over and pigs are flying.
And apparently I’m not alone: fashion appears to be moving away from the rocker-chick towards a more ladylike silhouette. Jason Wu, Proenza Schouler, and Cushnie Et Ochs all riffed on the housewife archetype of structured knee-length dresses for Spring 2012. Sure, the easiest explanation is to blame it on the Duchess of Cambridge. An even lazier solution is to barely lift a finger and point at the Mad Men 1960s craze. But fall farther into the rabbit hole, beyond that lovely Banana Republic window styling offering to transform you into Betty Draper, and you’ll see that women are tiring of the Balmain “I just paid $5000 to seem like I rolled out of bed with a hangover” look for a much more important reason, one that is changing the way an entire generation dresses. This trend of ladylike dressing runs much deeper than a stylish TV show.
A primary element behind this movement is a reaction against the collective emasculation of economic crisis. Sure, my generation can’t find the well-paying executive jobs our college degrees were supposed to prepare us for. But we can find clothing that channels the image of successful adulthood. Women, especially young twenty-something women like myself, want to wear clothing to make us feel polished and powerful. Fashion inspired by the homeless (Olsen twins) or a rocker burnout (Kate Moss) was a lot more fun back in the mid-2000s when everyone had jobs and houses and credit cards. You know, back when we were playing “dress up” as this New York Times article from 2005 eloquently explores.
Nowadays we live in an era when a lot of previously middle-class people are actually homeless, jobless, and without credit cards. When the ideas referenced by fashion become too literal it becomes tasteless. On a more superficial level, and probably more important to the fashion set, the aesthetic loses its edge. I believe what we’re seeing today with this prim-and-proper revolution is fashion fulfilling its greatest mission; commodifying the hopes and dreams of a populace and making it available for purchase. There is no sarcasm – I mean that in the best way possible. Fashion has always been in the business of selling us dreams. After all, you can’t land that entry-level executive job since it no longer exists (outsourced to China), but you can land that tailored shift dress that would look perfect behind a desk in the corner office. It will be made in China, of course. Many designer clothing lines are today.
Fashion always exists in a state of tension. That’s what makes it fashion. The irony of all this ladylike attire is that our hair-styles are falling apart. Literally. In the October 2011 issue of American Vogue, Sarah Harris wrote an excellent article about the perfectly un-done seen on the Fall 2011 runways at Lanvin, Rodarte, and Balmain (page 268).
My hairstyle in the outfit above was inspired by Rodarte Fall 2011. I even clipped my Cynthia Rowley bow barrette in for extra “girly” points. I made a mistake by not asking Alli to take a close-up, because I was very proud of how well my hair came out. My manicure is a combination of Chanel ‘Peridot’ and Deborah Lippmann ‘Don’t Tell Mama,’ which made for the appearance of delightfully poison-tipped fingernails. I couldn’t just do ladylike. I had to do something subversive, so I kept my hands gloomy with noxious gas colors and a black, morbid ribbon ring by Cynthia Rowley. It’s like whimsy, inverted.
Outfit Credits
Jacket: Giorgio Brato exclusively for Sarca
Dress: vintage from Grey Dog Vintage
Shoes: Louboutin simple 85 pumps
Hair: Cynthia Rowley resin bow barrette (available at 1653 N Damen)
Ring: Cynthia Rowley resin bow ring (available at 1653 N Damen)
Earrings: vintage faux pearls
