2008 Woodie Awards
Channel famous fashion mavens to complete your look
Issue date: 10/9/08
Sophomore Vanessa Verdine said she loves Dita Von Teese's style, seeing her as a present day Marilyn Monroe with her subtly sexual '40s and '50s-style cocktail dresses and permanently painted red lips, as well as Yves Saint Laurent's ground-breaking androgynous Le Smoking.
Other names that came up were Peggy Guggenheim, Diane von Furstenberg, Rachel Bilson, Victoria Beckham, Keira Knightley, Kate Hudson and M.I.A. These are the images that float behind us as we glide down our brick runway towards class.
As for my own personal idols, the list is as follows: Mary Kate Olsen, Coco Chanel, Daphne Guinness and Isabella Blow. Concurrently I would describe my personal style as a combination of WASP, vintage and girly. One might say: "But do these two lists really mirror each other?"
The answer is no, they do not easily mirror one another, because to have your idols and your style be complete mirrors would be, as I said earlier, imitation.
So here is what I think inspiration means and why I think it is so important. Yes, I love their personal styles - and Coco has her own little throne way up high on the fashion Olympus with Yves Saint Laurent (a designer who would surely make the cut if I were to go into my top 10 idols) for what they did to revolutionize female dress - but I don't thumb through my closet in the morning thinking to myself, "Today I will dress like Daphne Guinness." I'll take an idea here or an idea there from them, but the most important way they inspire me is through their fashion fearlessness.
For many years I have loved fashion, but in middle and high school I was afraid to wear anything out of the ordinary because of what my peers might think - even for a long time the idea of wearing a dress to school worried me.
Occasionally I would gain enough confidence to wear bright red lipstick or a scarf tied as a shirt, but not really until college did I completely break out of my shell.
I know some people judge me harshly. I get dirty and disapproving looks for wearing red tights or purple shorts or for carrying a furry purse with a stuffed animal dog peaking out of its pocket.
And if these looks make me falter for a second, I just think of how people used to (and still do) mock Mary Kate Olsen for her boho-hobo style. That style that was "so grandma" or "so crazy bag lady" permeated the runway.
Some people will never understand, but I realized that I don't care about those people, and that I should wear the clothes that I love. And that is what fashion inspiration can do for anyone and everyone.
Other names that came up were Peggy Guggenheim, Diane von Furstenberg, Rachel Bilson, Victoria Beckham, Keira Knightley, Kate Hudson and M.I.A. These are the images that float behind us as we glide down our brick runway towards class.
As for my own personal idols, the list is as follows: Mary Kate Olsen, Coco Chanel, Daphne Guinness and Isabella Blow. Concurrently I would describe my personal style as a combination of WASP, vintage and girly. One might say: "But do these two lists really mirror each other?"
The answer is no, they do not easily mirror one another, because to have your idols and your style be complete mirrors would be, as I said earlier, imitation.
So here is what I think inspiration means and why I think it is so important. Yes, I love their personal styles - and Coco has her own little throne way up high on the fashion Olympus with Yves Saint Laurent (a designer who would surely make the cut if I were to go into my top 10 idols) for what they did to revolutionize female dress - but I don't thumb through my closet in the morning thinking to myself, "Today I will dress like Daphne Guinness." I'll take an idea here or an idea there from them, but the most important way they inspire me is through their fashion fearlessness.
For many years I have loved fashion, but in middle and high school I was afraid to wear anything out of the ordinary because of what my peers might think - even for a long time the idea of wearing a dress to school worried me.
Occasionally I would gain enough confidence to wear bright red lipstick or a scarf tied as a shirt, but not really until college did I completely break out of my shell.
I know some people judge me harshly. I get dirty and disapproving looks for wearing red tights or purple shorts or for carrying a furry purse with a stuffed animal dog peaking out of its pocket.
And if these looks make me falter for a second, I just think of how people used to (and still do) mock Mary Kate Olsen for her boho-hobo style. That style that was "so grandma" or "so crazy bag lady" permeated the runway.
Some people will never understand, but I realized that I don't care about those people, and that I should wear the clothes that I love. And that is what fashion inspiration can do for anyone and everyone.
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