I was perusing a new ad campaign featuring Kirsten Dunst and came upon this image:
I was like, “ARE THOSE SILVER JAZZ FLATS SHE’S WEARING?”
And it just took me back.
Once upon a time, PeaceBang was a young girl growing up in the preppy land of New Canaan, Connecticut, where every girl had several Fair Isle sweaters and many Izod polo shirts that she wore turned up at the collar. Actually, the layering went like this: a monogrammed turtleneck with an Izod over that with a Fair Isle sweater (or monogrammed LL Bean sweater) over THAT. We were very bundled up little girls.
Well, my peers mostly were. I was a theatre girl and not drawn to preppy styles. They looked positively awful on me, anyway.
Eighth grade is that particularly evil time when children are prone to crush any sign of individuality among their peers and it was no less than evil for me. I was keenly interested in boys and clothes but obsessed with theatre, and that was the year I lied about my age and got cast in a production of “Cabaret.” I don’t think I have forgotten the audition dance routine to this day. I was introduced to dance terms like pada beret and to the total glamour of dance wear. Leg warmers! Leotards! The shredded skirts that the dancers threw so casually around their waists (this was still about five years before the “Flashdance” crazy, believe it or not), and above all….. THE SHOES. The beat up, well-worn jazz flats by Capezio and the wonderful, simple strap pumps with the sturdy heel known as character shoes. I went through a dozen pairs over the next twenty years, and that summer I acquired my first pair.
I may have a pair kicking around in my theatre boxes somewhere, and possibly even an old pair of tap shoes.
Anyway, although Capezio jazz flats were the ugliest shoes God ever made, I wore them all the time to identify myself as an AH-CTOR and kept them clean with white shoe polish. I will never, ever forget coming home one afternoon in 1980 after my parents had been away on a trip to find on my bed a pair of lime green pleated jazzy pants, a Hawaiian print white cotton shirt and a little pin with a palm tree on it. My mother had gotten the clothes for me as a gift and they were SO ME that I almost fainted. They were the coolest, most UNpreppy, cutest, jauntiest, most different, creative, theatre-girly clothes I had yet to own and from the moment I put them on with my white Capezios and felt absolutely and totally dressed to kill, I knew the power of clothing to either work for or against my self-image and goals. The other kids stared at me but no one laughed at me to my face. That was a darned snappy little outfit for the time and they knew it.
I so wish I had a photo of myself in that outfit. Lord knows I probably wore it to shreds.
What garment or outfit do you remember as a defining moment for the evolution of your own style? DO tell, and send a photo if you have one.
In high school I was the House Manager for all our high school productions, and all my best friends were IN the musicals and shows. I looooooooooooooove character shoes. I never had a pair, but I always wanted some. A reasonable heel (even lower than the picture you have, actually), cute little Mary Jane, round toe. So adorable. I think they seriously shaped my current shoe preferences. I love mid-height heels, round toes, and classic styles (Mary Jane, T-strap, etc).
…Actually, I just realized I have a pair of shoes that fits ALL of those. I wear them CONSTANTLY. The Aerosoles Semi Circle- low heel, round toe, T-strap. They’re amazing.
…in classic black:
links in case the embed doesn’t work:
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRid1YiB8bHh2kzgB0IE8swqYyIxCjL7NiW5R6-P6oReMUlIuQI&t=1
http://www.shoebuy.com/pi/aerog/aerog163345_5595_jb.jpg
Purple Velvet – http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Shoes/Flats/Plum+struck+Flat
and a lot of really adorable and different styles
1973: Gaucho pants and matching bolero jacket, sewn myself in an earthy mushroom color, with wide (very mod), orange and dark brown trim on both pieces. The outfit brought style to 7th grade and instilled a love for the polish a good jacket adds to any outfit.
It took me a while to come up with a sytle-defining outfit, but there were two that eventually came to mind. Somewhere in the summer of 1965 I had a maroon surfer shirt (woven shirt with a rounded 3button placard neck, white trim) and matching madras surfer shorts. Not bad for a Jersey Girl! That Christmas I got a turquoise wide wale a-line jumper that was worn with a white turtleneck and tights and (sigh of contentment) white go-go boots. I’m trying to attach a pdf here but not having much success, I may have to e-mail it directly. It sort of sums up what I still look for – things that are simple and somewhat tailored but still contemporary. Oh! I loved those go-go boots!
A toss up between the beautiful 1930’s Alaskan opera length black seal coat that my mom didn’t want that I wore in college and for several years until it died; my brown folkloric Ugg boots covered with floral embroidery and a stunning silk bomber jacket in a burnt orange poppy print that I wore until it was in shreds.
At age 12 I commandeered my dad’s old olive green military jacket and wore it with a preppy white pleated skirt and my blue low-top Converse All Stars (it was the early 90s). My dad used to be so skinny–the jacket fit me perfectly. I loved the feeling of mixing sartorial genres. Today my off-duty style is still preppy with a dash of bohemian.
5th grade, 1974: tan worsted weight suit, with fitted jacket, skirt & pants, maroon & tan print shirt, and 2 tone brown suede shoes. Back in the day we had someone make our clothes & I remember picking out the pattern & fabrics. Knew I looked sharp & put together in that outfit.
Also loved character shoes, especially my tan T-straps. Felt very Donna McKechnie in them. In the early 90s I attended a musical theatre conservatory in NYC, housed in the Ansonia Bldg on the Upper West Side. There were some former “Ziegfeld girls” who lived there, in their 80s. They would come hang out in the lobby, always with makeup, and more often than not, wearing black character shoes. Classic.
Not terribly adventurous in the clothing department growing up – though like Tonio Kroger, I had desire in equal parts to be an iconoclast and blend in with the popular crowd.
In college, though, when I discovered Ragstock (cheap, edgy vintage – can I get a witness, Minnesotans?) I was in sartorial L-U-V. My favorite was a black woolen British nursing cape. Slits for your hands to come through, green cotton lining. Shaped (not padded!) at the shoulders, hemline just below the hips. I could feel classy and weird at the same time. Sigh. Why – WHY – did I decide I wasn’t wearing it enough and give it away? Hey that could be a new thread, Peebs: clothing regrets.
JBC, that outfit sounds amazing. I would have totally rocked that when I was in high school. Hell, I still have at least three pairs of Converse- I wore them to my wedding last fall!
a little tangential I’m afraid, but your story reminded me. When I was a kid (in the 70’s and 80’s) my wardrobe consisted of school uniform, one outfit ‘for best’ (usually bought at Christmas) and lots of handmedowns for everyday. By the time I was 13 I was starting to notice how other girls dressed, and that I didn’t. That Christmas, my Auntie P bought me a pair of HIGH HEELS. Real ones. Cream with a chocolate piping and a strap. I can still remember walking up and down the stairs clinging to the bannisters for hours. I loved them. She bought me my first grownup tights too and my first real jewellery.
Auntie P is dying today, slipping away too young, and last week I thanked her again for the shoes although she wasn’t able to respond.
So my defining fashion moment – and so much more – is down to Auntie P.
anne
Ragstock!!!
Oh, it takes me back…looong lean wool trench coat. Signature scarf. Sunglasses. Black boots.
I need to reconnect with my far cooler yesterdays. [OMG, RAGSTOCK!! Uptown! Minneapolis Chic! – PB]
Thanks Sarah N! I may have also worn knee high baseball socks with that outfit. I took many of my middle school fashion cues from the movie Dazed and Confused, which came out the year I turned 12. Would love to see pics of a Converse wedding ensemble sometime!
5th grade: green tent dress with green fishnets or green double knit stripe dress with chain belt.
college: jeans, Capezio wrap black leotard, vintage 1940’s navy jacket, and hair to shoulders in renaissance kinks (braided wet, let dry, straight hair can go afro) too bad I did not know what to do with the power that this look had!