STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

zeitgeist4 · Gucci

When did you first get into fashion?

Christine · Coach

I was such a little fashionista in grade school (jeweled fedoras, velvet vests and matching neon socks and hair ties) then stopped caring between 8th grade and my junior year of college. I became really self-conscious during this time, in a low-self-esteem kind of way, so I didn't want to attract any attention to myself. After I graduated college and started work, I really started getting into it again. You know the rest of the story: fashion is now on my mind more than I'd like to admit.

bumblebee · Coach

in utero, i think. my mom is pretty stylish and the most committed shopper ever, so we always shopped together and spent entire days at the mall on the weekends. fashion was always something i cared about--in preschool i had very specific ideas of what i wanted to wear (one year it was all fluffy dress, no pants. the next year, all i wanted were jeans, no "baby" dresses). in elementary school, i had to wear uniforms, and it was seriously really difficult for me--i hated it.

Lilykind · Hermes

I always liked pretty things and always loved my clothes, but I never had anything I REALLY loved or was allowed to wear for the longest time. I defintely took some fashion risks when I was younger, like wearing floral Hawaiian print shorts, with white patterened tights and sneakers. Then I hit puberty nad it hit me like a bomob, a good two to three years earlier than most of my classmates. I started getting bobbs when I was 9 and it just went on and on from there. I was so embarrassed about it that during middle school, all I wore was loose blue jeans and blue tops...I still call it the "blue period"...like Picasso but not nearly as, uh, successful. I tried to keep up in HS with the Abercrombie crowd but never could afford to. I didn't start developing my own sense of style until I went to college in 2001. Thet's when I started to experiment and try new things.

Funny enough, the second our mom stopped buying clothes for him, my older brother started shopping like mad too. Maybe being shopaholic is a genetic thing?

Andrea Julia · Coach

I was always into it. When I was a young child, I loved being dressed up. I would even want to wear my super-dressy stuff to school all the time and for a while I wouldn't even wear pants. I loved jewelry and hats, too.

From the age of 10 to about 16, I was into fashion, but never quite got it right (you should see the pictures...ewww). The desire was there, but my mother didn't allow me very much of a clothing budget. I grew up in an affluent area and remember all the other teens having stuff from Express, Limited, or Abercrombie (which were really popular at that age and in that time period) and I was able to get like one outfit from there and the rest were from outlets and Mandee and places like that. I think this is why I still to this day cannot shop at Target or Old Navy or outlets. Now that I can afford it, I never want to be the girl wearing cheap clothes when everyone else looks great.

Once I got a job at 16 y/o, I got really into fashion. I started buying designer stuff, which got me into debt, but I always looked great! College was a pretty good time for me fashion-wise.

Right now, I don't consider myself to be too fashionable on an everyday basis. After going up from a size 2 to an 8 within the first 2 years of graduating college, I have finally given up on buying a lot of new stuff. I am definitely pushing a size 10 now and don't want to buy a whole new wardrobe for the 4th time. I'm trying to lose weight instead. I bought a few great pieces in the beginning of the season and have just been buying new stuff for special events, but on a daily basis, I am wearing whatever fits.

-- Edited by Andrea Julia at 17:44, 2005-12-02

TheLovelyLady71 · Hermes

WOW - another good question. I think I really got into fashion AFTER I graduated high school, my brother's 1st wife use to dress so cool, or so I thought, so she inspired me. LOL Then my obsession grew I'll say about five years ago, when I started reading/picking up all the fashion magazines I could get my hands on! Now - I feel like I know a thing or two about fashion....

rocky · Coach

The earliest I can recall was when I was making clothes for my Barbie dolls. I was hooked on fashion from then on. I definitely wish I could take a lot of my fashion choices back (hot pink satin pants!). I really got into in during high school and it prompted my brief stint at FIDM.

honey · Gucci

like bumblebee i've always been into fashion. i read vogue when i was little (which is funny b/c now i find it to be a tad worthless), and used to sew clothes for my dolls. i actually played with dolls longer than i should have b/c it was a lot easier to create a dream wardrobe for my doll's than for me. at one point my mom actually sent me to a private school with uniforms b/c she thought i was becoming too appearance oriented. obvs that didn't work.

atlgirl · Gucci

I don't know about fashion per se, but I have always, always been into clothes, as far back as I can remember. I can look back at some of my earliest school pictures - I mean like kindergarten, class photos - and remember how the shirt / dress / pants I wore felt, and whether I liked it or not. I have always been very particular about my clothes, even when I was a young tomboy (much to Mom's chagrin; she used to LOVE to dress me in very girly things, and I hated them so much when I was young).

I remember first *really* being aware of fashion, in the sense of "what everyone else is wearing" from about 7th grade. There was a certain style of Nike shoes that was popular, and I was sooooo happy when I finally got a pair (my dad had his own business and my mom was a SAHM until I was fifteen, so we didn't have a lot of money when I was in school). And then in HS Lacoste and RL polo shirts were the big thing.

Anyway...I digress. I guess I've loved fashion / clothes ever since I can remember. My two clothing mantras from when I was very young still hold true today:

1. It has to be SOFT. I don't like scratchy wools or stiff fabrics, and never wear them. DH has said that his wardrobe got a whole lot more comfortable (softness-wise, not sloppy-wise) after I started shopping for him, because I have high softness standards.

2. It has to FIT. I am curvy and if it doesn't fit, I take it to the tailor. I hate looking two sizes bigger than I am, just because something bought to accommodate my chest / shoulders doesn't also accommodate my smaller waist.

Maddie · Coach

I've pretty much always been into clothes. Even if I was wearing something hideous, I had a clear I was going for. My mom was great too, in that she knew how to pick her battles and never really commented on what I wore. Except for when I tried to wear nothing but a t-shirt in tights. For early elementary school I wore only shoes that clicked when I walked and skirts that twirled when I spun. Then for a few years I only shopped in the boy's department, but still all the clothes were carefully selected. In 6th grade I began subscriving to InStyle and Vogue (both of which I never read now). In middle school I wore nothing but lavender and baby blue. Ninth and tenth grades were the years of Abercrombie, but by eleventh grade I was wearing really similar stuff to what I'm wearing now.

-- Edited by Maddie at 01:10, 2005-12-03

ranchera20 · Marc Jacobs

I have always Loved clothes and seeing celebrity styles. But I got more into it I think since I have joined this thread! I get a whole bunch of ideas from everyone.

calico · Kenneth Cole

I'm kind of with atlgirl- I don't know about *fashion*, but I can remember being into clothes in general starting from when I was in like the 4th grade. And like other girls, I always played with Barbies too. Now though, as much as I'd love to say I'm a "fashionista", I feel like I just can't afford the really nice clothes that I want that I feel would put me at fashionista status. I buy lots of clothes, but then lots of times, they aren't as flattering as I thought, or I just can't put outfits together with them like I'd pictured. I think the hardest thing with "fashion" thought is not so much the clothes themselves, but the accessories. For example, I just bought my first pair of boots and I've noticed how much more fashionable my outfits look just because of a different pair of shoes! So, I'm kind of in the process of becoming uber fashionable, I know it will happen one day when I'm not in university and I can buy all of the accessories and brand names that I want!! Plus, being a part of this site just inspires one to come up with new ideas!!

NCshopper · Hermes

I can't remember a time when I wasn't into style. I say style, and not fashion, because I think they're very different things. I remember as a kid in the 80's wearing different colored socks (because it was cool) and having the socks match my shoe laces. We're talking the pink and purple shoelaces (two shoelaces per shoe, mind you) and pink and purple socks (two socks per foot and they were scrunched down just so). And I remember being extraordinarily drawn to glittery jewelry as a kid too.

I've always been extremely picky about what I wear too. I used to drive my mom CRAZY as a kid because as soon as a thread pulled on a sweater, I refused to wear the sweater, ever. And if a white shirt had the tiniest stain even on the bottom of the shirt, I'd refuse to wear it. And I'm still kind of the same way.

I've never really cared too much what the latest designers or doing in terms of high fashion because I feel like a lot of it doesn't really translate to my lifestyle, but I've always been interested in looking nice and having what I wear reflect my personality.

Whew! Long answer! Sorry guys!

jaymiek · Coach

Good question... I think I first got into fashion when I was 6 years old. I used to watch Style with Elsa Klensch on CNN with my older sister. I got more excited for that than Saturday morning cartoons. I used to flip through Bloomingdales catalogs for fun, that's when I learned what "peplum waist" meant ( the 80's, hehe....) Then I was really into drawing, so all I would draw were girls in clothes I designed. I even thought of a name for my line of clothing- my name backwards, which sounded like "image." Now everyone knows what a total fashion dork I was.

jlear · Kenneth Cole

Super young! My mom still has my paperdolls I made throughout the years...I think my first one is from when I was four. I obsessively made these until I was about 16...urrrm. hehe I used the excuse that I was doing them for my younger sisters. haha

Started reading Vogue when I was 7 or 8 and then checked out EVERY book on fashion that I could.

My mom could NEVER dress me. She said at four I would argue everytime she picked an outfit out for me. She also said I wanted money for birthdays/xmas so I could pick out my own clothes! haha

CarrieS · Marc Jacobs

Hmm, well I was aware of trends when I was younger, like elementary school/middle school, and remember wanting to partake in them so I was cool like every one else. High school I went into a more grunge phase, and early college was typical college girl wear (kinda preppy, basic).

When I switched my major into fashion my junior year, I really started paying attention to it, although I was still looking at mainly what was trendy, and not so much of what was unique or "me".

It was probably only within the last year or 2 that I really became absorbed and aware of fashion as a whole, and not just what was "trendy". A lot of this really has to do with the fact that I've only just started figuring out who I really am as a person, and what I like.

Oh, I do remember loving to dress up my Barbies and Cabbage Patch Dolls, and wishing I had their clothes

Sandy · Kate Spade

I think I was into fashion from the time I knew what clothes were. The only toy I played with for a year was my Fashion Plates. My mom said that I had hundreds of different outfits made from them. Once I saw The Wizard of Oz, I wanted a pair of ruby red slippers sooo bad-- not because I wanted to be like Dorothy, but because I thought that they were the most beautiful pair of shoes I'd ever seen. I asked for them everyday until I got them. I always wanted people to notice me.

Once I got into sixth grade, I started to follow the crowd when it came to style. Like Lilykind, I was hit with puberty before all of the other girls. I didn't want to stand out from the crowd, so I wore the baggy Nike tees and wide-legged jeans like everyone else. I got stuck in this bad, bad phase until 9th grade-- that's when our mall got an A&F. I tried to keep up with this style, but then all of a sudden I realized that I didn't want to be like everyone else.

In 10th grade I started rebeling everyone else's style and I wanted to stand out again. By my junior year, I was in heels and skirts everyday. I decided that this wasn't my style, either. Although I was reading all of the fashion magazines and checking out E! and tabloids and all for celebrity styles, I was having a hard time figuring out what my style was.

I've just recently found my little niche in the fashion world, after a loooong search. I'm still working on my wardrobe, and it's slowly but surely coming along. What's weird is that I don't understand how anyone could not be into fashion . To each her own, right?

monica · Kenneth Cole

my dad got my into fashion. he used to own and manufacture a line of ladies clothing so i grew up in hearing about the business (LCs, specs, fabrics). he used to sell to donna dora, macy's, etc. he made me very aware -- almost *too* aware of how i dressed. he used to make me go upstairs and change if my colors clashed. :)

ironically enough, he was the one who deterred me from going straight to FIT from high school. he thought that the industry was never going to be stable enough for me. i ended up there anyway, after i graduated w/ my BS and now work in the industry -- too bad i didn't take over his co. before he sold it :)

jj · Kate Spade

Since birth. I can remember picking out my birthday party outfit when I was THREE!! I have always loved to shop, and have had very specific ideas about what I wanted to wear since the very beginning.

Another funny outfit story happened on my fifth birthday. I had a bowling party and my grandma made me a hideous pea-green floral pant suit. I HATED it, but my mom made me wear it because grams made it. I was soooooo mad!! The pictures are priceless, because I have this pissed off look on my face.

I have so many great fashion memories, like buying wedge boots in second grade (I insisted) and tucking my jeans into them. My first pair of designer jeans (Gloria Vanderbilt) was such a great moment, and of course all the clothes I designed for my dolls.

tina242 · Kate Spade

zeitgeist4 wrote:

When did you first get into fashion? It was only a year or so ago that I got really into it, so I'm probably a "late bloomer." In middle school I was into the whole "grunge" look, and then goth in high school and first 2 years of college. Second half of college I started wearing "normal" clothes but it took me several years to really figure out what I liked and develop a style. Plus, your style in college and your style after college is usally different, mostly because you're going to work instead of classes, plus you have a steady income.

Zeitgeist you and I are similar when it comes to fashion "stages." I was grunge/preppy in high school (I'm 27) - we wore A&F, J. Crew, AE, and flannels at my high school, then I became a funky mix in college - I raved a lot and wore candykid jewelry but had black hair and wore a lot of black (still do, just not goth) - I think to rebel against my stuffy high school/affluent upbringing.

However, I was a little prepster in junior high and very cutesy as a kid. I started reading fashion mags at an early age and was obsessed with Vogue until my early 20's. I thought I'd work in fashion and studied it in college. I was a journalism major/fashion minor. Now I work in insurance .