"to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its night and day to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop trying." - ee cummings
have you always been interested in fashion? how did your interest in fashion and design develop? where are your favorite places to shop? do you like to cook; if so, what's your specialty? if you could attend any red carpet event, which one would it be?
the first 3 things I do when I get up are... Hit the snooze button. Hit the snooze button again. Hit the snooze button again.
3 odd/gross food I love are... actually, none, really--I am really picky.
3 celebrity crushes I have are... At the moment, I kind of more have crushes on fictional characters than actual celebrities. Starbuck and Apollo on Battlestar Galactica, who are crazy hot-shot fighter pilots, and Michael Schofield on Prison Break. Insanely smart, intense structural engineer. WWroar. Oh, and a real one: Kiefer!
My 3 favorite songs right now are... The Dandy Warhols "Bohemian Like You," Rilo Kiley "Portions for Foxes," and Imogen Heap "Goodnight and Go."
3 things I wish I could be doing right now are... anything but doing homework or procrastinating doing homework.
3 things I'm afraid of are... dying, being broke
3 things that make me really angry are... Having my time wasted. Having to do totally unnecessary work. Abstinence-only "sex education."
who is your favorite architect and why? Santiago Calatrava. I adore his work. It's incredibly beautiful and sculptural, but it really expresses the structure that goes into it.
who is/are your favorite designer(s) (product and/or furniture?) I love a lot of the classic early twentieth century and midcentury stuff, especially Alvaar Alto and Mies. I love the structural simplicity of the steel tube furniture.
which museum is your favorite and why? The Met in NYC. I love so many different periods of art, from so many different regions, and the Met has it ALL. My favorite collections are the Islamic and Asian collections, the medieval art, the Egyptian stuff, and the costume institute. I especially love the Temple of Dendur at night--they throw spotlights on the ancient statues and it's breathtaking.
do you have a favorite work of art/artist? Oh man, that's really hard. If I had to pick just a couple, I think I would say Rodin for sculpture and Sargent for painting. I am also finding that I'm increasingly fascinated by drawings and sketches. I love the rough, loose quality they have. I especially loved the exhibition of drawings by Leonardo that they had a few years ago--he had a few drawings of cats that were so lifelike, so fresh, so vibrant--those things were 500 years old and so incredibly vital and catlike.
have you always been interested in fashion? yeah... I remember when I was like 13, getting the immense September Vogue with like Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington on the cover.
how did your interest in fashion and design develop? Junior year when I was in England, supposedly studying Arthurian literature and Shakespeare, I got more interested instead in art and architecture. I came back and took seven art history classes during my last year, and interior design just seemed like the right place to go from there.
where are your favorite places to shop? Loehmann's! Seriously, that is where I get most of my clothes.
do you like to cook; if so, what's your specialty? kind of... I am lazy and only like to cook things that aren't too hard, and that I can make from taste and memory without a recipe. So consequently I make the same five things over and over again. But they're yummy!
if you could attend any red carpet event, which one would it be? Ohh, probably the Oscars... I just like to check out the dresses.
loehmann's is one of my favorite places too. what's your favorite find from there? i know you got a great jacket (i think it was la rok), but any other treasures? I've gotten so many incredible things there over the years, but now I have realized that I have to STOP GOING. I am spending FRIGHTENING amounts of money.
who are your favorite fashion designers/labels? I love Theory for well-tailored work clothes, and also lines like Mint, Miguelina, Laundry, La Rok, Generra, etc. I love lots of the lines they stock at Shopbop, actually.
what is the current most overplayed trend in NYC? I loved the cowboy boots with skirt look when I first started seeing it, but am just tired of it now cause I have seen it SO MUCH. I knew it was over when the guitarist in my boyfriend's band watched a girl wearing a mini and cowboy boots walk past on the street, and then turned to us and said, "Christ, I'm sick of cowgirls."
what is you fantasy vacation? I have different ones, depending on my mood. I alternately pine to be driving in the Hollywood Hills with my BFF, giggling madly and getting hopelessly lost, and for wandering around London by myself, and--this I have not done--for tooling around Italy with my boyfriend. I also want to drive around Scotland and Ireland with him and show him castles. I am deeply obsessed with ancient castles and I think he would be intrigued by them too.
I like your signature quote. Are you religious at all? Oh, I am the least spiritual person on earth. A very confirmed atheist. But that quote in my signature line cracks me up. My knowledge of scriptures is obviously extremely thin, but from what I understand about the basic principles that Jesus preached, it seems like a lot of his ideas and beliefs have gotten twisted or outright forgotten by some, and that makes me sad.
favorite book/author? Oh man. So, so so hard to answer just one. I love A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Harry Potters 3-5 (verdict still out on this last one), and in the last year or so I've discovered Guy Gavriel Kay. His books are incredibly rich historical fantasy. HB I think you would really like him. When I was in high school and was a die-hard literature buff, I was obsessed with Thomas Hardy. Grim, miserable stuff, but he was a superb writer. Oh, and in a total non-sequitur, one of my favorite books for all time is Bridget Jones's Diary. I refuse to be ashamed of how much I LOVE that book. (Hated the sequel though.)
since you mentioned Christy and Linda -- best supermodel of all time, in your opinion? I was always partial to Christy. I just thought she was the most beautiful of all.
where did you grow up? a small town in northwest VA, just on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's so beautiful there it makes my heart ache to think about it.
do you have brothers/sisters? nope, just me.
are you in a relationship? yep, I have been with my BF for almost two years. I'd never really had a serious relationship before him and it was kind of like a light just went on, like, "Oh, THIS is what everyone makes such a big deal about?"
i can never think of good questions for these things...but just have to say...yay Starbuck & Apollo! yay Calatrava! yay Thomas Hardy! yay rural VA! (i don't think i knew that about you, it's where i'm from! well, SW, not NW, but rural all the same) anyway, you're awesome!
alright, well here's a question or two:
in 30 years from now, what is your vision of your life as you'd like it to be AND what do you think it will really be like?
Valenciana, where are you from? I am from Warrenton. And my dad is living in Floyd right now, which is well down there.
in 30 years from now, what is your vision of your life as you'd like it to be AND what do you think it will really be like? Honestly, this is going to sound weird, but I don't know if I can even answer that! For example, I don't know yet if I want kids, so I can't really say for sure that I see myself with them. I guess I can just say that I'd like to be reaching the end of a long, productive, rewarding, creative career, and to be 20-odd years into a wonderful marriage. How's that for a vague response? Oh, and one more thing--I think I'd like to not be in New York anymore. I love it while I'm young but I think by the time I'm in my fifties I'll be ready to live someplace calmer and more soothing... maybe New Mexico...
Mara, the first GGK book I read was The Lions of Al-Rassan. It's really wonderful. I think my favorite of all of them is Tigana, but it's REALLY long--I don't know how much patience you have with long books. Al-Rassan is much more tied to the literal, historical world: he models his setting after Spain in the early Middle Ages, and uses the conflicts between the Christians and the Moors, and the persecution of the Jews, to propel the plot. Tigana, on the other hand, is much more fantasy-esque, with sorcerers and spells and that kind of thing.
Also, while I'm recommending books, any medieval history nerds like me would probably love Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. It's set in England in the 12th or 13th century and spans about 50 years' worth of struggles and political turmoil, and the building of a great cathedral. LOVE that book.
Valenciana, where are you from? I am from Warrenton. And my dad is living in Floyd right now, which is well down there.
ah yes, Floyd...I am from Blacksburg so I am very familiar, and yes, it is all well down there. your dad doesn't live in a tent does he? those are the urban myths floating around Bburg about Floyd-ians.
your dad doesn't live in a tent does he? those are the urban myths floating around Bburg about Floyd-ians.
Close. He lives in a shack. Or, more truthfully, he lives in a two-story house that my uncle built by hand out of scraps salvaged from junkyards, which at one point was built over and physically included my uncle's old RV. I think he has since pulled out the RV and replaced it with a permanent wall.
if you could live anywhere other than where you live now, where would you live?
what's a typical weekend for you?
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"i tell you one lesson I learned
If you want to be something in life, You ain't gonna get it unless, You give a little bit of sacrifice, Oohh, sometimes before you smile you got to cry.." -The Roots
Close. He lives in a shack. Or, more truthfully, he lives in a two-story house that my uncle built by hand out of scraps salvaged from junkyards, which at one point was built over and physically included my uncle's old RV. I think he has since pulled out the RV and replaced it with a permanent wall.
hey, whatever works! my dad would probably get a kick out of building an entire house himself out of found scraps...
more questions...
how much longer till you finish your degree? are you still thinking about pursuing further schooling (for architecture, etc.)?
what's your favorite thing about living in NYC?
what's your SO like? how did you meet?
if you could look like any celebrity, who would you choose?
do you like where you live now? i love NYC, but I don't want to be here forever.
if you could live anywhere other than where you live now, where would you live? London! GET ME THERE!! Or Dublin or Glasgow or Edinburgh.
what's a typical weekend for you? I stay at my boyfriend's on the weekends, so there's a lot of bumming around with him, plans with friends, and usually a few hours of Civ. Bastet knows about Civ. Civ is evil.
how much longer till you finish your degree? are you still thinking about pursuing further schooling (for architecture, etc.)? Funny you should ask. I'm actually considering quitting school after this year (which is my third of a four-year BFA). I already have another bachelor's, I should add. I just don't want to go through another year of school, for so many reasons, so I think this summer I am going to look for a job and see what happens. I will take a leave of absence from school so that if I decide to come back, I can, but I really don't want to. I'd love to go to architecture school, but I don't see how it will ever be financially possible. I'm already drowning in debt from my first two degrees.
what's your favorite thing about living in NYC? The vitality and diversity of it.
what's your SO like? how did you meet? We met online, actually. One of the many things I love about him is that he thinks about things on an individual basis. Each issue, each problem. He doesn't ascribe to any particular classifiable school of thought on anything, and any group identity that applies to him doesn't really tell you what you think it might. He has a very analytical mind and never takes anything he is told at face value without questioning it. I especially admire this because I have a tendency to be sort of a knee-jerk liberal, which I don't want to be.
if you could look like any celebrity, who would you choose? I may as well go for broke and say Angelina Jolie. Aside from how beautiful she is, she has such incredible presence. All my life I have been the sweet, soft-spoken girl who's always nice to everyone, even people who don't deserve it. I wish I had some of her forcefulness. A lot of that is her personality, but for the sake of argument I'll pretend it comes with the looks.
Your style is so creative, but it's also very clean and pulled together. Any inspirations? Do you ever find yourself looking at an outfit and "paring it down" by removing accessories?
I love what you said about the "light going on" with your BF. Do you see yourself with him long-term?
If you could possess an incredible talent that you don't have, what would it be?
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Forget, forgive, conclude, and be agreed. - Shakespeare