Fashionista for a Day
Posted on June 28, 2005 4 Comments
Identities, like season trends, slip on easily under the cover of anonymity city life offers.
This sweltering weekend, I tried on a fashionista’s fabulous shoes at the Y-Me Chicago’s “Garden of Eden” fashion show and benefit for breast cancer research. I hoped to pick up pointers from the pros and snag trendy freebies while supporting a good cause.
You can check out the photos from the event here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nmladic/sets/511885/
Admitedly, a fashion show is the last place I’d advise a recovering shopaholic to go. But considering the ticket price, only eight dollars, I couldn’t pass up my first catwalk.
I arrived at the show unfashionably early (try two hours) with my budgeting partner Molly (she gets Nine Wests for five dollars a pair! Don’t ask questions…she’s connected), ready to snag photos and learn how to look great for less.
According to the show’s sponsor, Erikka Wang, from Akira Chicago, the Bohemian look will stay cool throughout the summer. She predicts browns, beiges and neutral tones will remain in style this summer, along with a splash of purple and velvets as fall nears.
Budgeting babes should cheer this news – a simple trip to H&M or Old Navy can get you the look you want at prices you’ll love. Or you can follow Wang’s advice.
“Come to Akira,” she says. “You can get a whole outfit from head to toe, with accessories, for under $100.”
After snapping a few photos with Wang, Molly and I headed outdoors into the steamy “garden,” a big white tent with oversized fans and amazingly adorned chandeliers. Looking at the jewelry on display, I noticed most styles can easily be found by raiding your mom’s closet for 70′s style bracelets and other relics from her hippie days. I also recommend raiding a high end fashion resale store, where merchandise has been used maybe once and remains in perfect condition. Look for vintage jewelry, belts with personality, oversized purses, flowy skirts and shrugs that command attention.
And there’s the rub. Can you picture it? I’m at a fashion show, surrounded by fake hair, fake boobs and all the gorgeous gay men a gal could ask for, wondering where I can get a second-hand bracelet. In the midst of the Garden of Eden, on a 90-degree day in Chicago, amongst some of the city’s youngeststyle mavens, I discovered my personal style.
Seasonal and trendy it is not.
Stuck to my chair amongst colorful trends and glistening models, sweating all my make-up off while stuck behind obnoxious little men with greasy hair, I realized that I’d rather be lying in a pool, relaxing with my eyes closed, chugging water, inhaling the warmth and not caring what I look like.
Simple as that, the fashionista facade slipped off.
I left the event early and alone, thankful to get on the air-conditioned subway (can you believe it?), where two bums whistled at me.
To find your personal style, you have to know what you like. For some girls, fashion shows represent a chance to reinvent images, project excitement to the rest of us. Other girls love the fabrics, fashions and faces of change. And I’m sure others just want to look good.
But for the rest of us, fashion is a way of altering our identity. We project how we feel. If it’s time to open a new chapter, we open a new closet door. Sunday I realized no matter what I wear, I’ll always be the same girl deep inside. Cloaked in colors and painted with glitter, my personal style undressed.
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4 Responses to “Fashionista for a Day”
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June 29th, 2005 @ 3:06 am
Mladic-
You are a fashionista fabuloso! Can we say sassy?!
June 30th, 2005 @ 1:57 pm
Mlaidc, Where did you get that fab green dress?!?!?!?!
June 30th, 2005 @ 2:28 pm
The fab green dress comes from Anana’s in Oak Park, by a brand called Muchacha. I love, love, love it!
October 1st, 2005 @ 11:58 pm
Looking for green day time of ur life info tonight I came across this green day time of ur life post. I was impressed. I love green day time of ur life and am glad I found this post. Keep it up!!
Paul