I've always loved fashion. Growing up, I found it to be a way for me to be creative and weird while also feeling good about myself. Truthfully, fashion and looking presentable were things I always felt beholden to. I think growing up in the early 00s and being a fat kid made it so that I always had to be put together. I found that if I had other really great elements to me, like being well-dressed or funny, people would overlook my fatness and just see me. While I don’t know that this is necessarily the most positive, I feel the need to mention it because try as I might, I can’t detach my style from my size. And trust me, I’d really like to be able to.
In a fantasy world, my style is just style, but in a world obsessed with body image and an algorithm hellbent on niching you down, it seems that my style becomes plus-size style. Which honestly, isn’t true, because I think plus-size style is indescribable. And quite frankly, I’ve always hated being boxed in. I don’t like niching my style down. But I suppose if I had to, it’d be gothish, with a love for classic and sleek silhouettes, fluctuating somewhere between deeply impractical and extremely comfortable. You can read a bit about the evolution of my style as well as finding your own personal style in some of my other writings.
I take a lot of my style influence from all over the place, but it mostly comes from TV, movies, music, and art. Not to say that my style hasn't been deeply influenced by people as well. With that, I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the people who have been most influential on my style.
Nana Trudy
My great grandma, Nana Trudy, is perhaps the single most influential person in my life when it comes to style. My nana loved to match, so much so that it was borderline kitsch. She also loved bold makeup; I remember her often wearing lots of eyeshadow, more often than not a powder blue, and a bold lip. My nana also loved color blocking, mostly black and white, gray and red, or on occasion pastel yellow and white. Everything my nana did was opulent and incredibly impractical, and I admired every moment of it. When I look back at her style, one of her key elements was accessories. She loved printed scarves, chunky jewelry, and patent leather bags. Her style always slanted more formal, even in old age. Every day, until she was 85, she’d drive to her office in downtown Chicago in a Cadillac as wide as a boat, wearing heels, a matching suit set, and a fur coat in the winter. While she has since passed on, she instilled in me the importance of taking care of your things, investing in quality, and finding a good tailor.
The Olsen Twins
I am many things, and an early 2000’s girl is definitely one of them, so as you can imagine, the Olsens have and continue to be majorly impactful on my style. For the longest time, I dreamed of having a giant slouchy Balenciaga city bag to tote all of my crap around in. What I think the Olsens get best is their understanding of layers. They always make it look so effortlessly cool. They always manage to look just a little chaotic, but in a way, I deeply want to be. It’s that mix of dirty and sophisticated, think trashed Birkin.
Fran Fine
Oh Mr. Sheffield! The queen of kitsch herself had to be on this list. Fran Drescher’s outfits as Fran Fine are some of my absolute favorites. The biggest thing I’ve taken away from Fran is to find a style that works for you and run with it. So many of Fran’s looks are composed of some type of turtleneck, a mini skirt, and tights; even her suit sets follow a similar equation. Fran knew what worked for her, and I think because she had the silhouette locked down, it made it easier for her to explore other things like color or print. Whatever her secret might have been, it managed to secure a rather successful Broadway producer, and isn’t that something we all aspire to?
Tracee Ellis Ross
No one is cooler than Tracee Ellis Ross. She’s funny, confident, and dresses better than anyone in Hollywood. I really admire how all of her outfits feel so true to who she is. They're classic and clean, but there’s always something interesting about them. I think Tracee has also really found a way to balance bold and over-the-top with not feeling too ostentatious. If she’s going bold on color or texture, she’ll pull back on the accessories. She always has a statement piece, but it’s never competing with something else in her outfit; it’s the centerpiece but still complementary. Tracee just gets it, but with a mother like Diana, you kinda were born getting it.
Dita Von Teese
I love how much Dita admires fashion; she is so undeniably committed to it. She studies it, she’s fixated on it in a borderline neurotic way, which as a sick person, I clearly aspire to. I most love the way she understands her body; similar to others on this list, she understands what works for her. She uses her style to highlight her favorite things about herself. Her tailoring is also always impeccable. While I think Dita is perhaps best known for her formal outfits, I quite favor her casual style. A full skirt, a playful flat, and a tight top seem to be her uniform, which, in case you can’t tell, has been a core part of my style in the warmer months.
Beth Ditto
Beth Ditto is the forgotten fashion girl. She’s so cool. So much of her style is a juxtaposition: it’s kitsch, it’s polished, it’s trashy, it’s classic, it’s edgy. But at its core, it’s playful. I love the way she goes bold with her hair and makeup as well. It all works together, even when it’s not supposed to. I think my biggest takeaway from Beth is the energy in which she wears her clothes. They never wear her; they just serve as an extension of her energy, both on and off stage.
Some other people whose style I admire
Alan Cumming, Alexa Chung, Blair Waldorf, Courtney Love, Debbie Harry, Diana Ross, Elvira, Grace Jones.
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