"I'm not saying I dress for Facebook photos, but sometimes it can be embarrassing (especially when you work in capital 'F' fashion) to see the same red pants or denim shirt pop up in album after album. To avoid that fate, and to let my friends, neighbors, co-workers, and a certain hot dude at Birdbath know that I shower and own other clothes, I force myself away from my morning honing-mentality of settling on the same striped shirt/worn-in boat shoes/A.P.C. jeans combo to wear something that I know isn't going to be as comfortable as my security outfit. I think that two particularly bad years after college when I experimented in all the wrong ways (no comment on a certain British military jacket) has made my sartorial safety zone slowly turn into my father's. Sort of preppy, with a couple bright pieces and lots of button-downs and...khakis. Regression territory, huh?
"While I'm pretty good at not giving into it (I like to surprise the other R29 editors once in a while in, like, black Balenciaga), I can't—and won't—stay away from my J. McLaughlin anchor sweater. I bought it when I was irresponsible and 22 from the very, very lovely Norman at the Southampton J. McLaughlin store. He's a real gentleman, and I had already got a bunch of other stuff that year from them. A skull-print linen shirt, marijuana-leaf bathing suit, those kinds of things. So, when he pointed it out...I was obsessed. Since then, I'll put it on with alarming alacrity. Train, plane? I need it. Air-Conditioned office? Uh-huh. Man-version of a pashmina on an it-might-be-cold-tonight day? I've unashamedly done that. It's pretty ridiculously distinctive, covered, as it is, by tons of stitched-on, very-WASP-y anchors. But in a weird way, it also blends in and goes with everything. And, oh man, it's comfortable as fuck.
"As I've gained and lost weight, switched jobs, moved, and moved, and moved again, had a boyfriend, then didn't, it's one of the only things I haven't gotten rid of/sold at Tokio 7/wished I could burn. Though a lot of those Facebook pictures are now security-protected from everyone but yours truly (I wore it to my birthday three years running), I know it's there. And, as I'm working on being ballsy wardrobe-wise in the a.m., this cotton, V-neck dude is here to help say BFD and keep new photos unlocked."
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