October 16th, 2009 §
“My name’s Ashley, and I’m from Brooklyn, New York.”
“What’s your favorite thing that you have on right now?”
“Umm… My boots. I wear these like everyday.”
“Are they special in any way or are you like, oh these are just great!”
“They’re just … great. Like the style kinda, a little retro-looking and old-fashioned.”
“How long have you been in Philly for?”
“About three years.”
“What do you think about Philadelphians and their sense of style?”
“Philly, I really like it. And it’s really … Their style is more of an artsy-side-of thing than New York and those more high-fashion kinda – They have the artsy too, but they have a mix of everything. But Philly, I really like it. Especially down in South Philly, that kinda style.”
“Right, so when you get dressed in the morning, what are you thinking, like your accomplishment for the day with your clothes or whatever?”
“When I get dressed, it depends on my mood. Like, I’m very versatile. I could one day be tomboyish, another day be really girly and wear heels or something. Today I’m just wearing black from my friend, he’s a fashion designer, so he wants everybody to wear black today. So I’m doing that.”
“Oh, what’s his name so you can give him a shout-out.”
“Isaiah Little, he does Blackcloud Clothing. Shout-out.”
“What’s your current obsession?”
“With clothes?”
“No, just anything.”
“Oh. Obsession… I don’t know… ”
“It can be clothes if you want. Really anything…”
“Okay. Blazers. That’s my new thing right now, like finding blazers and this piece. I don’t like wearing pants – I like skirts, tights, I love leggings. I’m obsessed with tights.”
“And is there anything you want to say to Philadelphia today?”
“Philadelphia, keep rockin. Umm … Go ahead. Stop raining. It rains too much!”
(Sorry this isn’t a smiling pic, but she looks so tough this way!)
Of course, after I took Ashley’s (is this the proper spelling of your name?) picture, she was lookin fresh the very next time I saw her. Thus the title of this post. The cut, the bookbag, and the hat are killing me.
October 9th, 2009 §
(Just a quick note – I didn’t get the spelling on a lot of the names in this post here – marked with an asterisk- so if you know any that I mess up, please comment on this post and I’ll correct it)
“I am Queen Sumiyah Mu’El. I’m a resident of North Philadelphia, part of the Morrish Cherokee clan here in North Central Philadelphia.”
“What is the favorite thing that you have on right now?”
“I’m wearing the traditional Fulani indigo bogolan cloth from Bamako, Mali (in West Africa, right next door to Senegal). It’s a traditional cloth that’s worn there a lot, by special people who are special. Like me.” (smiles)
“So then, the next question is, what do you think when you get up in the morning and you’re gonna get dressed?”
“I’m always thinking culture, in terms of Africa. Africa, you know, I’m a descendant of Africa, even though I’m born here. I wanna represent the ancient style, because I think that everybody’s so into the stale kind of dress. You know, everybody kinda wants to look more, you know, Francé or European. I tend to want to keep the idea of the culture going.
Actually, I’m wearing two different types of cloth. I’m wearing the bazan* cloth, which is the cloth that’s on my head, and the bubu, which is the cotton bazan (her main dress). But the bogolan is a little more heavier cotton. This is really worn in the fall and winter months. And I kinda like mixing up the different patterns to kind of give you a different type of array of how it’s put together. I don’t always have to match pattern to pattern, but color to color, I like to do that.”
“Is there anything you think about Philadelphian’s and their style, anything you wanna comment on?”
“It’s kinda boring.” (laughs) “I don’t see a lot of eclectic things going. It’s like, when I get on the bus, trolley, train, I don’t see a lotta sisters with gaylays (head tie) and beautiful gold jewelry, you know um, beautiful styled locks. It’s usually when I get dressed and I got on something from the Continent, I only see myself just that one place. I don’t see a lot of women of the African diaspora wearing the cloth. The cloths. Not just from, you got West Africa, North Africa, Central Africa, South Africa – there are different weaves and textures in every aspect of the continent. But I just tend to like the West African cloth.”
“Is there anything you wanna say to Philadelphia?”
“Get some culture!”
“And last question is, what’s your current obsession right now?”
“Ohh my god, the African lace is so fabulous. I’ve been going to New York. I have a fabulous tailor. My tailor’s here at the flea market today, and she’s such a gem sent by god that she don’t even charge me to sell – we do barter.”
October 7th, 2009 §
“My name’s Sol Jung and I’m from Tokyo, Japan.”
“What is your favorite thing that you’re wearing right now?”
“I guess the favorite thing that I’m wearing right now is the scarf. I got it from my grandmother.”
“Oh cool. In Japan?”
“Yeah, in Japan.” (brief polite babbling in Japanese)
“Now I lost my train of thought … Oh! Is there anything, what do you think about Philadelphians’ fashion, or anything you wanna say to the city, or anything like that.”
“Well, I still haven’t really explored the city too much yet. I’m going to school here, so I’m mostly busy staying on campus. But I’m starting to see the kind of vintage stores that they have here, and I think it’s really great. I think I’ve really yet to check out the fashion of people who live here, especially West Philly, but I look forward to doing that more as I come to the farmer’s market…”
“What do you think when you get dressed in the morning?”
“Uhh, I always want to look a bit formal, but put-together, because I’m going to class. (laughs) But I also want to still wear things that I like. I usually like to add in bright colors with like shoes and accessories and things like that.”
“And what’s your current obsession right now?”
“My current obsession I think is high heels. I’m trying to find comfortable heels that I can wear to class, so yeah.”
“That’s tough, er…no, how do you put it? A difficult mission??”
“No, yeah, it’s pretty hard. Cause heels tend to be expensive and I don’t wanna spend that much money.”
“Cool. I think that’s all my questions. Is there anything you wanna say to Philadelphia?”
“To Philadelphia? Oh, Philadelphia, I thought that I wouldn’t like you, but you’re really growing on me, and I’m happy.” (laughs)
Sol has so many nice soft shades going on, topped off with that beautiful puff of a scarf wisping around her neck. I should’ve asked her if she had just purchased that wicker basket, or had something in it for later…
October 5th, 2009 §
“My name is Mukethe and I’m in Philadelphia via Louisville, Kentucky.”
“What’s your favorite thing on right now?”
“Probably this blazer. It’s nice and warm, and I think it matches almost everything, but that just might be my personal opinion.”
“Nah, I mean it looks like it has a lot of versatility.”
“Also my penny loafers, which have a lot of life in them. But I think they have a lot of life left as well.”
“What do you think about Philadelphians you’ve seen today and their style?”
“Um, I mean I love Philadelphian’s style cause it’s so diverse. I mean, at the (Clark Park People’s) Farmer’s Market, you definitely see like, the hip-hop style, the yuppies, the hippies, the hipsters, so … ”
“Is there anything you wanna say to Philly? About anything …”
“Umm, I love you guys.” (laughs)
“Right, and what do you think when you get dressed in the morning? What are your main…prerogatives? (mighta used that word wrong here – was thinking about that Bobby Brown song)
“My main prerogative? Probably my number one is comfort. Not just physically, but, I don’t like showing a lot of skin these days, and I dunno. I try to look like a boy. That’s like my main directive.” (laughs)
“What’s your current obsession?”
“Now that it’s becoming fall again, probably blazers.”
“Word.”
“Yeah.”
“Cool, thank you.”
Mukethe was working for The Food Trust‘s table at the Uhuru People’s flea market when I took her picture. The Food Trust is a non-profit organization located in Philly that’s trying to ensure everyone has affordable access to nutritious food. This means providing education on nutrition to kids in schools, and increasing availability of fresh food in the neighborhoods where there’s no such markets within any reasonable distance, among other things. Can we talk about the lack of supermarkets in Philadelphia neighborhoods providing real food? I’m not gonna get crazy on the blog here just yet, so in the meantime, please check out The Food Trust‘s website.
October 2nd, 2009 §
“My name is Miranda, and I’m from Philly and Florida. Let’s just say Florida.”
“Okay. How would you describe what you have on right now?”
“Dirty?” (laughs)
“Is there any particular stuff you think about when you get dressed? Or, um, things that inspire you, or like, things you aspire to look like?”
“I guess I find a lot of things, and get a lot of things for free. And… I wear the same outfit most of the time.” (laughs)
“What’s your favorite thing on right now?”
“Uh… I guess my necklace. It’s got things that people have given me on it, and bones that I’ve — teeth that I’ve found, and stuff I’ve made.”
“Cool. Let’s see … So, in Philadelphia, what do you think about Philadelphians and the way they dress?”
“I dunno… Philadelphians are pretty hot. They got good style.”
“Anything you ever saw that freaked you out, or like, whoa, I’ve never seen that before, or …stuff that you’re like, I can’t believe they’re wearing this here.”
(long pause)
“I don’t think so. Sorry. I wish I could come up with something better than that.”
“Oh that’s fine. And your current obsession, is what?”
“My dog. Wait, does it have to be clothing?”
“No, not at all. You can wax poetic about your dog all you want.”
I should point out that the teeth she mentions in her necklace are animal teeth, not human. (If you click the picture, you can see it up close.) Ahh, here’s to brown tones and well used things.
