The other night, we hosted our friend Polina (aka Truly Cool Parent), who was in town for New York Fashion Week. She came to dinner with her wardrobe stylist-slash-art director Nikki. We dined on coconut chicken curry and the finest durn cupcakes in New York City (my apologies for rocking the worlds of Magnolia and Billy’s advocates).
Polina and Nikki are the queens of fashion photography in Indianapolis, so Cool Mum and I quizzed them on their line of work because the only thing we are more clueless about than parenting is fashion. We loved hearing stories as micro as working out details for a shoot and as grand as effecting cultural change in Indianapolis.
Since we moved up here, fashion has occupied more space in my consciousness. Not that it ever occupied much. (What do you mean Hypercolor shirts went out of style? You press the shirts, AND THEY CHANGE COLOR! These are shirts of the future, if anything.)
I even went on an online clothes shopping binge towards the end of last year. Winter was coming, and I didn’t want to alternate the same two sweaters that I did during our first winter here. Thanks to Slickdeals, I picked up better-fitting jeans, Merino wool sweaters, two corduroy blazers, a wool pea coat, and a crate of slightly irregular purple Z. Cavariccis (no i didn’t).
Despite my shopping spree, I still feel fashionably inadequate; my clothes just aren’t cool enough. It doesn’t help that a lot of friends here work in fashion and design and always look swank. And it especially doesn’t help that after dinner with Polina and Nikki, Cool Mum asked me if I think that my hairstyle is outdated. Apparently, she does because this is not a typical after-dinner cleanup question.
Even when I have decent clothes, my fashion sense is bankrupt. I could be the all-time champion of Project Run-away. One day I went to work sporting a nicer shirt (that happened to be striped) and my cool new pinstripe dress pants. CM pointed out (after work, of course) that I shouldn’t wear striped tops and bottoms together. I checked online, and one commenter on a forum called the combination “horrific.” That makes me long for the days when CM called my clothes choices “not bad.”
How’s your fashion sense: Fetching or retching?
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Thanks again for having us over and letting us talk about ourselves for hours. You guys are fabulous in a way that no amount of fashion sense can bestow on anyone. Don’t ever change! ps. i’d pay good money to see you in a pair of purple Z. Cavariccis…me and my camera!
Thanks! We loved you all over. Already looking forward to your return!
I have awful, awful fashion sense. I dream for the day when Clinton and Stacy do an intervention and clue me in…
I’m so clueless that I had to look up who Clinton and Stacy are.
I don’t think I’m going to allow such talk. You guys always look great. And I DEFINITELY love stripes with stripes. Come on. The first rule of fashion is that there are no rules. Parts of New York will try to tell you different, with it’s expensive brands and whatnot. Don’t give in!!!
Whoa – this is coming from one of our most fashionable friends. Thanks, Emily!
As a Cool Couple, you have always had your own style and displayed it well. You, like Target, have tried to stay cool without breaking the bank. Bravo!
BTW, the purple Z. Cavariccis were a bold move for a plain-Jane Jr. High kid in Wauchula. Don’t be hatin’!
Did you sport those ZCs? Because I just made that up. Or maybe I was reaching back to some buried awesome memory…
cool dad gracefully forgot to mention that i am his hair stylist…so most of the out-datedness comes from my scissors