33: June Window Shopping

And a hypothetical about what I'd buy if I only wore pink.

I had some wonderfully ambitious plans to post some summer outfits today—I even filmed a video of me going through my closet and picking them out. But yesterday, when I went to shoot the photos, it was 90 degrees in my apartment, my makeup slid off my face before I could finish applying it and as soon I turned the camera on to start, my bangs clung to my forehead in wet inseparable chunks. Changing in and out of clothes in a swelteringly hot stuffy apartment is a special kind of agony that I forget about for 8 months of the year. There was a moment yesterday while I was peeling wet silk off my back where I almost burst into tears at the idea of being this temperature forever. Sometimes you have to know when to pivot.

The post I was going to shoot was centered around the idea of playing with texture and material, which I've realized is where I try to create interest in my outfits rather than with color. I mostly do this with black and white, but I've been fantasizing about a hypothetical where I'm not allowed to wear black and white. (I love hypotheticals—as a kid I would put myself to sleep by going through the steps of a hypothetical situation where I was locked in Seattle's Northgate mall alone for months on end and what I'd do.) In my hypothetical about being barred from wearing black and white, I chose another color—maybe purple, maybe pink—and I base my entire wardrobe around that color. I'm certain there is something to this approach because I've known a few purple people (people who only wear purple) in my life, and they all seem content in the limitations they've placed for themselves. So this is what I'd buy if I could only wear pink. And as always, everything is secondhand.

“Taking Back Pink” in Harper’s Bazaar December 1998

“Pink is soft and wimpy. Pink is your mother’s favorite color for you. Pink is Bazooka bubble gum, ballet slippers, Barbie dolls. It’s cloying, saccharine–not the color edgy, strong women choose to wear. But pink may well be shaping up to be the most paradoxical of colors. Will it be cool, or is it resigned to being, simply, charming? We’ve never had these thoughts about black. Maybe that’s why pink is the color we want to think about right now.” from Harper’s Bazaar “Taking Back Pink”

• Marni Floral Peep Toe Pumps, 38, $135 — These are really doing something for me…

• Maryam Nassir Zadeh Calf Hair Mules, 36, $200

• Manolo Blahnik Thongs, 41, $128

• Repetto Patent Ballet Flats, FR 36.5, $113

• Marc Jacobs Pumps, 36.5, $110 — …and so are these.

• And an honorable mention to these great peach colored Marc Jacobs platforms in a 38 for $66

Antoni & Alison F/W 2002