I love getting dressed. I love creating a perfect outfit. Living in a place like Maine this also means accounting for weather, which can make this more of a compromise. Owning the right layers to achieve that balance means not sacrificing style, I’m constantly working on this. An outfit is something powerful enough that it can take over your mood. My earliest sense of this was visiting my Nana and playing dress-up in her closets.
Nana was a true “lady,” she never left the house without a fresh coat of OPI Empress pink nail polish and lipstick to match. Walk-in closets stuffed with Chanel skirt suits and fur shawls. Clothes you knew from pop culture that were supposed to make you feel luxe and elegant, and they did. My Nana’s life had been as glamorous as her closet validated and I think that is something very attractive about clothing. It is an insight to not only the person you are but the life you've lived. I’d say my clothes tell the world I’m having a good time. My style is entirely based on feeling— how I want to feel wearing the garments and how I feel when I found them.
My personal style is always evolving— I’d say because it is driven by feeling and by limitation. Everyone has a budget and a lifestyle. In the last few years, slow fashion has entered the equation of what I can bring home. My style is influenced by my friends, not a particular person or type of style. We like to spend time at thrift stores or trading inspiration from Instagram pages. Because of this, my style is kind of modern-bohemian. I always like to feel groovy, which for me is a self-defined blend of feeling timeless, sexy, and cool. Always feminine. I feel like a million bucks when I’m wearing groovy denim and a white tee— like I can walk into any place and own the room. I’m not the most stylish person I know, but I’m completely satisfied by my own clothes.
These days I am committed to being a responsible consumer. I begin my shopping experience with “well, can I make it?”— something I never take for granted. If I know it’s out of my skill-set, I thrift. If the quality of the item is beyond what can be thrifted or made, I find it from a brand that is committed to my priorities and save up. My own brand of women’s clothing is shaping my personal habits when it comes to shopping. Find me at the many thrift stores of downtown Portland or buying fabric at ZFabrics. There is always the rare replacement of investment items, the kind that get worn hundreds of times; for those I go to Judith.
Follow Annie on Instagram @annie__made