The Vintage Addict

I never had a Coogi sweater which was the rave in Chicago

I was born to be different, I don't know why. Even if I tried to fit in with the fashion sense of my cohorts in elementary, high school and college, I always stood out even more. Chicagoans tend to  be very brand conscious. Name brand clothing is acceptable and the norms and off brand anything will get you "roasted" ( Chicago's version of the dirty dozen).There are very stylish and tend to match colors, accessories and footwear accordingly.  I am the opposite, I don't like anything to match EVER and "conservative" is not a word that anyone would ever associate with my fashion sense. 

My style of design was inspired by my mother and my grandmother Ruby. My personal style is inspired by a flair for the strange, the weird. My fashion sense is extraterrestrial meaning beyond the Earth. I wanted to wear a pair of bright lime green coveralls to my elementary graduation.

One of the dresses looked exactly like this!

Sidebar: I want every women, men or extraterrestrial that wear a Ruby Giraffe garment or product to feel the same way that I felt. I want them to feel stunning. I want them to transform into an even more beautiful creature than they were before.

When I was 18 years young, my grandmother called me to her house. When I got there, she presented me with 7 vintage dresses from the 1950s & 1970s. The dresses were so beautiful, colorful and amazing that I cried like a baby. I just ran my fingertips over the silken fabrics and embroidery again and again. My grandmother says, " what are you waiting for, try them on". I was like a kid in the biggest, best and  most elaborate candy store in the world. The garments transformed me, I had never felt so beautiful, sexy and sultry.  My grandmother and my then boyfriend Philip Stallworth claimed that I had the perfect figure for the vintage threads. I did. 

I was addicted to vintage after that. I started to watch movies from the 1940-1970s, I even watched black/white and foreign films with subtitles. I went to every thrift store, vintage or consignment shop that I could find looking for vintages dubs.  I loved the dresses, hats and gloves that my grandmother cherished from the 1960s.

 

 My own mother had a love affair with glamour when she often made her daughters wear lace gloves.