Keisha Davis
occupation: actor, nanny, and shop girl
“No one is going to be a better me than I can be, so I have to do it right.” Keisha Davis
Keisha feels that being bigger challenges her to have to be more creative with her clothes. She likes the opportunity to be inventive, and she is. I love the way she made the one-shoulder metallic dress for her “diva” look, how she mixes her boyfriend blazer with a tie-dye head scarf, and most of all, how sharp she is in her Gwen Stefani-inspired sleeveless fur coat/vest with her grandmother’s ’70s glasses, belted biker shorts, tank, and pumps. Keisha is refreshingly open and unaffected by what people think of her. She feels that people give her funny looks when she is walking down the street because they don’t feel that someone her size should be expressing themselves in their style. I have…
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Amber Doyle
occupation: co-owner of Against Nature Atelier in NYC’s Lower East Side
“[I like] harsh, dark glamour. Harsh elegance.” Amber Doyle
Amber loves her vintage monkey furs, but what makes them and everything she wears poignant for her are its details, origins, and loss of breath when she sees it. Her excitement is palpable when she explains how she found the original owner’s picture in the pocket of one of the furs, with the date of the photo of New Year’s 1949. The photo now sits in a frame on Amber’s mantle, as if the woman in it is a relative, making explicit the chilling and considerable emotional connection that antique clothing and its context has for her. She attributes her obsession with the beauty of detail to her Native American roots and the beadwork she would do as a child in Chicago. The appreciation for authenticity…
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Wilson Standish
occupation: music and fashion blogger and freelance writer for UR Chicago and Time Out Chicago
“[I am inspired by] historical strong men – not brute strength, rather mental vigor and confidence. Lincoln and James Dean come to mind, and 1950′s architects that all seemed to wear bow ties. My grandfather is a big inspiration. I got most of my classic suits, shoes, and ties from him, and I know if I’m wearing something he would be proud of, I’m doing something right. Art Deco is a big part of it and the ’60s modernist movement. Also classic American, from the Western Front to the beaches of East Hampton.” Wilson Standish
You would expect someone with the name Wilson Standish…
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Linsey Ballas
occupation: student
“I draw inspiration not from direct sources such as “style icons” but from different eras, mentalities, and ways of life. Such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paris’ 1920′s expatriate community, the witty tunes of Cole Porter, the chess playing scene between Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen in the original “Thomas Crown Affair” (subtle sensuality expressed through intellectual games), romanticized views of the world, color palettes, ironic takes on tradition, Amory Blaine (‘The Young Egotist’) from Fitzgerald’s novel This Side of Paradise, Jean Honore Fragonard’s painting called The Swing.” Linsey Ballas
Style for Linsey is like living in her own book. It seems as though anything and everything, consciously and unconsciously, becomes a new sentence or paragraph in her wardrobe and then like a chameleon, her experiences continuously manifest into something…
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