I was just a small town girl born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, otherwise known as the Quad cities. I always had an eye for a fashion, growing up with an identical twin raised by a single mom made life hard, financially anyway. I always thought you had to come from money to have a great fashion sense, I soon learned this to be false as I followed celebrities through the media and realized money doesn’t grant you magical fashion powers. In fact, I learned a lot of celebrities have personal stylists. (This definitely boosted my financial insecurities). Realizing success isn’t given, but earned, I made the best of my situation. I began recycling old clothes, those of my own and those from my local thrift stores. I never wanted to shop at a mall ever again. I found so much fulfillment and joy in the little things; the authenticity of creating my own pieces was more enjoyable than picking up a garment at a local mall or shopping center. When shopping at the malls, I felt as though I was wearing a costume forced upon me by the merchant, feeling not quite myself, almost as if I’m in a stranger’s body. There was something imperfectly beautiful about the blouse that was missing a button, or the jeans with shaggy end seams.
I wanted my look to represent me best, so I chose to wear a neutral vintage sweater because I am a lover of all things wool and all things neutral. The patterned nude sweater adds the simplest touch to the piece without over patterning. If you look at the detailed side view of my sweater, you’ll see the jagged edge lining my collar bone where the stitching is torn, I like to call this imperfectly beautiful because it’s not only a vintage sweater, but a ragged stitching that brings out the uniqueness in the piece. Like all humans we all have imperfections, but what society preaches is that we must perfect our imperfections; but in all reality, it is our imperfections that perfect us. We must learn to embrace our imperfections and that is when you can truly love the whole you, but anyway I’m rambling. I chose to wear my thrift store Target Mossimo “boyfriend coupe garconne” jeans ripped and shagged by me. I wanted to go for the classic artist look while being edgy at the same time. I chose to wear my one of my favorite booties by Steve Madden “Nyrvana” in a brown leat color. I accessorized with my laptop bag because I am a writer and I write, a lot. To top off my look, I accessorized with a few gold emblems such as: my triangular shaped necklace and my gold African inspired hair clips.
You too can get RAYFABULOUS by purchasing a nude sweater from your local vintage shop or thrift store or visiting one of my favorite online thrift stores, snagging your boyfriend fit jeans from Target and a pair of neutral booties from Steve Madden As always, stay fabulous!
