It's always interesting to hear people's reactions to my outfit choices -- not entirely pleasant, mostly annoying, but always interesting.
I don't think about perceptions when I choose what I wear, I just pick what I like. I think this may be a rarer course of action than I ever realized. I was drawn to this turtleneck tube dress because of the simplicity -- it's just a sack, really, very plan, no cuts or darting to cling to the body. Nine times out of ten I would pass it over, but I think because it is so simple it has a lot of options, lots of stories to tell. I am by no means a minimalist (I mean, there is an actual Comme des Garcons tag on this blog to speak to this) but I think little things can feed into bigger, alternative and interesting things. This dress with a plastic PVC jacket and metal accessories, for example. This dress with Margiela boots in the snow. Simple things can be strange too. I like that possibility.
But what compels me to post these photos is knowing that how I look in photos varies so vastly to how I see myself in my minds eye. I always imagine myself thinner, taller, more graceful than I actually am, because I was taught by society to aim to be all these things. And I always make things that are very luxurious and expensive look like Hot Topic garb. I actually love this about me -- I have this power to make everything declasse. One time for Glamour Magazine I shot a Chanel jacket in my kitchen and all the buttons fell off as I put it on. Luxury hates me, and minimalism done the usual all white errthang in simple cuts etc....makes me feel short and frumpy, like I'm not good enough for Helmut Lang looks. So I have to make my own versions of it, which I like, and find challenging. This outfit, on a thinner, taller body, would probably look twice as good to people. I'm only showing you one picture we took in this, but many of the others, I look like a real estate agent or game show host. If I had a more appropriate body for fashion I'd look like the quintessential minimalist. #goals, and all that. I am still very much a straight sized person, I'm just short. But I do think the representation of minimalism in fashion -- it's so thin and boring and tall and white. But minimalism can be colorful and fat and disabled and all these valuable other realms of experience too. Right? I'm thinking about the Normcore is Bullsh*t piece I commissioned and edited for The Style Con. How we need more critical dismantling of the aesthetics we valorize. I am looking forward to seeing -- and producing -- more critical fashion writing this fashion week.
Let's get critical, critical.... *music begins playing softly in the background*
I'm wearing: Vintage Calvin Klein Dress, Giles and Brother Necklace (old, similar here), Thrifted Backpack (similar here), Margiela Tabi Boots, ASOS Yellow Bag, Bon Look Sunglasses. Beauty Notes: MAC Lady Danger Lipstick and Toni&Guy Sea Salt Texturizing Spray.
Photos by Julia Chesky for W Magazine. Shot in Brooklyn. On sale now.
