Friendly fashion

Ah, fall. The (global warming) heat is finally cooling, the leaves are turning, academia is coming back to life, and the shops are advertising back-to-school cool like mad. I'm back in New York after my long, unexpected stay in the midwest, and it feels awfully good to be here. You know, I would love and appreciate my friends even if they had ridiculous fashion sense, but it's so hard to call someone's aesthetic good or bad that I doubt I would ever say any of them look ridiculous. In fact, all of my friend do a damn good job of rocking a look, if I do say so myself. A good friend of mine came to pick me up at the train station the other day wearing a tank top, a sweater, jeans, sandals, and a necklace. Sounds basic to the point of boring, right? WRONG! Every single piece, especially her sweater and the necklace, was so well-chosen that it was a perfectly constructed outfit. There was enough detail to keep things interesting. There was enough simplicity that her nifty details (her necklace was a skull pendant on three really pretty, delicate-looking chains, and her sweater had a cool pattern) weren't overwhelmed. I'm beginning to believe really strongly in the power of a great necklace. They've never been my favorite accessory, but yesterday, I was wearing a shirt that I was extremely proud of finding on sale at anthropologie, and all anyone mentioned was my necklace. No complaining, though--a compliment is a compliment.

But I digress. Back to the self-indulgent subject of my friends, another good friend of mine is very much the thrifting-vintage type--but rather than going the route of 60's shifts and ladylike pencil skirts, she likes vintage leisure wear. I know that calls to mind the polyester suits of the 70's, but in a bright top, sweats, and a vintage puffy ski vest the other day, she looked surprisingly well-put together. She made me want to find a vintage ski vest of my own. Yet another dear friend who I was thrilled to see might come off at first as the staff of all easy dressing, because most of her clothing is made of jersey and in a neutral color, but she chooses things that fit her so well that she can easily make just a skirt and a top look like an outfit. Plus, I don't think she's a big fan of shopping and getting dressed, and she's found a great way to keep it simple and never have to work too hard while still looking good. One of my dearest friends is abroad this semester. She also happens to have been my freshman year roomate, where she learned how to share closet space with me (a difficult task) and I learned how to be unafraid of strange clothes (yeah, she got the short end of the deal. . .), because the girl can wear ANYTHING. No matter how outlandish or ridiculous something may be, when she puts it on, it's not only wearable, it's pretty damn cool. A custom-made sari from India, her grandmother's dress, a t-shirt from childhood, a vintage leotard, a bizarre apron, jeans that used to belong to one of our guy friends. . . all these things are things she can, and, for that matter, has, worked. I miss her like whoa, but I really can't wait to see what she brings back from Eastern Europe to try.

So, despite my absense, I'm still here, and I'm obviously still obsessed with clothing enough to write about it. I'm not really sure what the point of that entry was, save that individualism is cool and stuff. . . um. . . uh, go buy a necklace!