BW: How old were you when you
realized you liked fashion?
FS: I was about 8yrs old. My Dad
was always fly and that inspired me
to always maintain a great appear-
ance. My mom always had maga-
zines in the mail from stores like
JCPenney's and I would spend days
analyzing them and picking out dif-
ferent clothes I wanted to wear and
photos of everything I dreamed to
someday have. Those magazines
shaped my style and gave me an
idea of how I wanted my future to
look. I knew then what I wanted
and I worked really hard to get it
and I did. However, I did not have
the means like that, well my par-
ents didn't. We weren't poor but we
ws not rich. My parents were high
school graduates, but no higher ed-
ucation than that. My mom always
worked in patient care and my dad
was a painter, mainly worked for
himself. I lived in one home grow-
ing up with both of my parents.
My dad was always dressed up and
I can still smell his colongne. He
always wore Levi jeans and kepyt
them with heavy starch. Q-Lee
Cleaners took all his money.
My mom on the opther hand will
only get dressed up when we was
going somewhere, especially some-
where fancy. Holidays were a time
when she dressed us up as well. I
have a big sister and 3 older broth-
ers, and a younger brother. My sis-
ter never lived with us because she
was much older. She was always so
fly and kept the latest brand name
clothes. I used to wish I could live
with her. Back to my mom, she had
a lot of vintage Louis Vutton bags
and I used to play with them and
wear her heels around the house.
My m om was also teh Avon lady in
our neighborhood and that was fun
samples of lipsticks and perfumes. I
was trying m,y hardest to be a "girly
girl" in the household, being that I
was the only little girl in the house.
It was hard because my brothers
would always be around listening
to rap and playing video games, so I
adpted taht behavior. My mom was
not girly at all. I used to love when
my mom put me in dresses as a
young girl. I can remember having
bells in all my dresses and I would
prance around the house all day. I
woulsd be twirling and clacking my
shoes, and I can hear my dad telling
me to stop all that noise.
I would love when the JCPenney
catalog come in the mail. I would
look at that book all day long until
it was memorized. I would circle
the things that I wanted. As a child,
we didn't go shopping much. It's
totsally different for me as a parent
because my kids and I shop too
much. They have probably never
worn the same thing twice. The
culture and times have changed.
In Jr. High school, I went to the
homecoming dance and I wore
a piece from my mom's closet.
Come to find out, it was her mom's
clothes. That made it more special.
It was a burgundy suede vest and
burgundy wide leg pants with an
off-white button down silk blouse.
I felt like I had finally fit in with
all the fashionable people. I was so
misunderstood in school, especially
middle school. I felt like a reject. I
was smart, I was skinny, I had big
teeth, long thick hair, and minimal
friends. I never had a boyfriend.
And the guys that I'd like, teased
me. I always had an eye for fashion
but who would listen to me. You
couldn't tell anyway because I never
had the fly clothes to dress up with
and my uniform skirt was always
long. I can recall one day having a
field trip in 7th grade and we were
able to wear our own clothes. a girl
critized what i was wearing because
I ahd on floral pants with a match-
ing top. She said that it was childish
and that her little niece had that
same outfit and I'm too old to be
wearing that. Little did she know,
I was not picking out my own
clothes yet. My mom was still in
full control. After that, my parents
went shopping for my brother and
I without us. they came home and
was so excited to show me my new
shoes, they were LA Gears and
they were pink and purple. I cried
and had a fit. They assumed that I
was being ungrateful, but they had
no idea of how bad I was teased at
school for the previous outfit that
they bought me. It was so tough for
me.
High school was not that bad
because my brother gpt a job at
McDonald's and started buying me
all the latest sneakers. (Jordan's, Air
Max, New Balance). I had all the
Tommy Girl apparel. I then started
working there and was probably
one of the fisrt students with a cell
phone. I was on the dance team,
therefor I became popular. I kept
my hair done and nails done. I
dressed so fly because I was able to
buy my own. It never stopped after
that! Even when I started having
kids, my daughters and I was al-
ways fashion forward. I didn't even
realize that I was reliving theose
moments that I used to dream
about as a child looking through
the JCPenney catalog. I used to pr-
say for times like this, it was always
"one day I will have a daughter and
we will dress alike, or one day I will
have so many clothes in my closet
to choose from.
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