Fashion Friday: Turtlenecks And Babies

It's starting to turn colder. I've cleared out more goods so I can feel the wind blowing through the garage. It's time to pull out fall fashions. This includes turtlenecks with large, dangly necklaces which is a look I've always liked. 

Me and my mom in Taiwan, late 70s.

Brothers

The mist, a plank, the ocean, an island in the distance, and two well-dressed gentlemen with hair parted to the side. No time or place, just a long time ago and far away. 

My dad and his younger brother in Taiwan. 

Jewelry Without The Jewels

Inside my grandmother's purse #2 I found a paper box of miscellaneous jewelry. They were trinkets of no value, such a diamond studded hair barrette, cufflinks, and faux pearl knot earrings. A few were missing their jewels. 

These rings are looking for something to hold onto.

The cross earrings are missing a heart. 

Infinite Love For Keanu Reeves

Tonight I'm going to see Point Break Live, a scene by scene reenactment of the film. As a tween I didn't care what was coming out of Keanu's mouth. What mattered were that his lips were glistening, his voice was vacant and breathy, and his wet mop top was parted to the side. It was 100% pure adrenaline for the girls who watched.

I remembered that my friend Julie was also obsessed with Keanu. She adored him so much that she created a document of love in her junior high diary.

Infinite Houndstooth

Is September 10 official houndstooth day? It was the theme for Fashion Friday. I just keep running into it again and again. Soon I'll be dreaming in houndstooth.

Houndstooth is a painful mind puzzle if you stare at it too long. The negative space creates the positive which creates the negative which creates...

Kozy and I are in giant houndstooth from a few days ago. We look like the Asian rejects neighbors from Dynasty. 

 

Houndstooth leggings on Josephine. While stargazing in my backyard last month, Josephine got cold so I handed her the American flag sweater and leggings.

Notice houndstooth works on everyone. This is why the garage keeps giving me more and more.

Fashion Friday: Houndstooth Checked Shirt

Another experiment in time travel! There was the red plaid dress, the purple dress, and the trip to Washington Square Park. After so much recent sifting, I'm starting to get a good sense of where all the clothes are. I just need to spend more time connecting photos to their contents. 

My mom wore this micro houndstooth blouse pretty often when I was very young. She always wore her blouses with thin gold chains necklaces. I almost put on the Sex Plug but decided she wouldn't have worn that scandalous combination. 

Then

Now

Below, we are both at Italian restaurants. Mom is somewhere in LA and so am I (Terroni). 

Then

Now

Your Mom Left You A Million Dollars In Clothes

On Tuesday, the vintage fairy godmother came to my house and told me what to chuck, keep, and garage sale to Hollywood hipsters. Kozy brought over Geneva, the owner of vintage shop Trayf, an amazing stylist and fellow insane lover of clothes. We all gelled right away. I came to the realization that I can only have people who understand the value and peculiarities of the garage go through it with me. They are people who 1) love old crap and 2) have an irrational, primal love for clothes.

For months, friends and family have been badgering me to get Salvation Army to empty the inside of the garage. My oldest childhood friend expressed horror at the butterfly sheets, which are my greatest find! A superstitious Taiwanese aunt wanted me to chuck everything old because they had bad, dead person energy. Friends want me get rid of it all so I can just move closer (I live the boonies). Granted, none of them love old crap or have an irrational love of clothes but they just want me to have a better quality of life. Thanks for caring guys! 

Don't get me wrong. I want to get rid of the stuff in a timely manner. I don't want to live in the 'burbs where I'm the only single person under 40 who isn't a high school student. I just need to get rid of the stuff in a way that makes me comfortable.

When I open the garage doors, it's evident to me that my mom's clothes were her life's work. Looking at the spectrum of colors, cuts, styles, and quality of what she bought, she spent her creativity and money in culling this collection. It's hard to convey the value of this to people who didn't know her or who don't care about clothes. Yes, it's just sweaters and dresses, but clothing is more than the sum of it's parts. Fashion is about being able to change the way you look at yourself and how others look at you. It physical transformation everyday. You don't have to be who people say you are, ever! When I look at the garage I see a big fat mess, but I also see potential. 

Geneva and Kozy feel this way too. I knew they were the right people to help me when I opened the garage doors and Geneva said, "Your mom left you a million dollars in clothes! You have the best closet ever!" She was right. 

They had me create piles of keep, donate, and garage sale and meticulously went through every piece. The best part was they let me keep far more pieces than I expected and showed me ways to wear things I'd never imagined I could pull off. That's Geneva's genius as a stylist-- the see potential in everything. Kozy has impeccable style and is one of those rare creatures who can make anything look awesome. She can make ugly 70s men's shirts looked like Comme Des Garcons.

Hello dress from Winter Formal 1992.

Sequin studded blazer!

Valentino cocoon coat! Sadly, it's too big on all of us. Definitely my paternal grandmother's. She had the fancy clothes.  

We took off our clothes in the middle of the driveway Barney's Warehouse sale style to try things on. I don't think the elderly Koreans neighbors walking their Pomeranians minded. 

I'm wearing a jumpsuit with a matched cropped striped jacket. So Pretty Woman at the horse races. 

Boxes to garage sale! 

Not only did floor space clear up but rack space too. We freed up three large racks out of twenty! More later on the goodies I kept. Here are some photos on Flickr.

Addendum: special shout out to Brandon Sheffield for catching typos. 

The Swivel Calculator Organizer

Yesterday we were sorting clothes in the garage (amazing photos to come) and came across the Advantage Organizer. It's not even a knock off Filofax. But it's still a day planner, address book, and adding machine in one! Watch out iPhone!

The best part is the calculator. Built in to the leather case, it swivels from the front to the inside cover so you can keep your business in the front or the back.