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How do you describe your personal style?
“I wear primarily secondhand clothes – so my style is very vintage. But I try to keep it somewhat modern because I work in the garment district in Manhattan. So, I don’t wear old-lady clothes. But I like the ’50s and late ’70s, and I wear a few ’60s mod dresses. But it’s all definitely retro. … Living in Manhattan and being out of college, I need to find a way to look good and not spend a lot of money.”
You have a Web site where you catalog your daily outfits (www.whatiwore.tumblr.com). What made you start doing this?
“I started documenting my daily outfits a year ago. I was in my office in Hong Kong, bored, and I found a photo pool on Flickr (www.flickr.com) called Wardrobe Remix. So I started doing it and got really into it. I’ve uploaded maybe 400-some pictures of my daily outfits. It started as a side project for fun, but it started getting a lot of traffic. People really liked it. So now it’s like a second job.”
You’re profiled in the April issue of Lucky Magazine, styling clothes for Lucky Brand Denim. How did that happen?
“Lucky Brand was looking for new ideas on how to style their denim. So, I entered a contest to ‘style yourself in denim.’ I sent them a picture of myself wearing gold vintage shoes, secondhand jeans, a faux leopard coat, a beaded sweater and a vintage handbag. And I thought, ‘I’ll just see what happens.’ Right now I’m one of the three finalists, so they invited me to do a photo shoot for the magazine.”
What was that like?
“They told me to pack a suitcase of my favorite things – shoes, bags, clothes. So I ended up wearing a skirt that I’d made, some Payless black pumps and everything else – the belt, jewelry and blouse – are Lucky Brand. It was great. Really fun. It was like playing dress up.”
You’re really into clothes. What about shoes?
“I’m not much of a shoe girl. I have four pairs of boots that I get re-soled and fixed every winter. I put a little bit more money into shoes because I don’t have a car, and I walk a mile to and from work every day. But in summer, it’s cheapy sandals. But I have a few pairs of beautiful vintage shoes that I wear on special occasions.”
What are your wardrobe staples?
“I have 20 pairs of tights in all different colors. I’ll wear jeans on weekend to do laundry or once or twice a week at work. But normally I wear dresses with belts, tights and boots. I like scarves, too. That’s one of those things you can pick up in secondhand shops. I got a Dior scarf at Goodwill once for like 25 cents.”
Were you always this interested in fashion?
“My dad tells a story about how I, as a really little kid, would refuse to eat dinner until I’d put on a dress. My mom was a seamstress, so she would make my clothes – prairie dresses or little plaid jumpers with bonnets. School picture day was always a big deal, and I would think up these crazy outfits. In hindsight, though, it’s very cute. I look at old school pictures and think, ‘Not bad, little 10-year-old.’ ”
