B: I see the outfit. Tell me about it. Tell me about the jacket. Tell me about the shirt.
A: Well, this is a dress. I’m wearing a really black kind of penciled dress. It has polka dots that are kind of fluffy and prickly, like me. My favorite color is black and I really like to go for high-collared and long-sleeved things because I feel comfortable and warm. And I am wearing my J’s. You know, just to balance out. I feel like I got the Wednesday Addams thing going on up here and I need to balance it out with my Brooklyness on the bottom. I had a little jean cardigan thing on earlier.
B: Where did you find the dress?
A: To be honest, I found it in Brooklyn thrift. Yeah, it was like two bucks. Park Slope 15th Street.
B: What about the jacket?
A: The jacket was my ex-girlfriend’s. That’s me now. It was a gift. It was like a camp hand-me-down, so I was like ‘yo I’ll take it.’
B: Where do you shop normally?
A: I don’t really do shopping days. I won’t ever enter Prada or anything like that. Like, I don’t do those big things. I really love to thrift. To be honest, when I’m on campus, I love raiding the bins.
B: The Goodwill?
A: Yeah the Goodwill. I love going to Thrifty Tiger and all that. Just seeing what’s around too. People leave a lot of things in laundry that are really good stuff. So make sure you check that out. I thrift. I don’t really shop. I always thrift.
B: What’s your best thrift find?
A: I found a really cool Adidas black and red jacket. It was amazing. It was like a little varsity soccer windbreaker kind of thing. And it was like really big and really vintagey and 70’s. It was a really cool find. I bought that in Amsterdam.
B: Do you think that fashion allows people to express themselves? If so, how? And is your fashion an expression of yourself?
A: I feel like your performativity has a lot to do with your passion for where you’re from and what that means to you and your identity. What you wear is how you feel. I’ll wake up and I’ll be like, ‘yo, I’m feeling like this.’ I’m going to visually represent that in myself. Or people know that I’m not okay based on how I look. Not that it’s a super metrosexual thing to me. That I rely on it. But also it is a big factor in, like, this is how I feel. Or this is where I’m from.
B: That being said, do you not base your style off of anyone else? Is there anybody that inspires your fashion?
A: I listen to a lot of alternative hip hop. I’m really into Banks right now. I would say before in high school I would, definitely. But I think my photography is what does it. Right now, my photos are really dark and they’re really scary and I think that’s what I feel like as a photographer right now. I wanna be dark and scary so I’m gonna look dark and scary. So that’s what I’m going for right now. But Banks is definitely an inspiration.
B: Is there a way that you create your outfits? How do you go through the process of picking out an outfit?
A: It depends. I feel like I’ll start with pants. I’ll start with pants and work my way up. Sometimes I just like to throw random things together. It really depends on my mood. If I’m late, I’m doing the sweats. If I’m feeling like I miss home, I’m throwing on the denim. I’m just gonna wear my Colgate gray sweater and some monkey pants. And I’m just gonna put some Timbs with them. And I’m gonna wear my long gray coat. And I’m gonna rock it and it’s gonna be great.
B: And does it always have to include black?
A: No. When I wear black I’m really trying. This is the real me. I usually do grays. Grays is just more like a regular day for me. Black is really like I’m popping out. Black is the pop out.