Styled by another lifetime.

When I was little, I was very obsessed with all things retro and/or vintage. This was before Dita Von Teese was wandering the streets looking as though she fell out of a pin-up calendar. It was before the days of Rachel Zoe and Nicole Richie strutting around in caftans. It happened for me sometime around a time in my life in which playing dress up at home simply wasn't cutting it for me, so I started wearing the bell bottoms my mom made for a Halloween hippie costume every day... including to school. My fashion choices generally did not fall in line with what the cool kids were wearing and I still remember finding my sister's John Lennon-esque sunglasses and wearing them on the playground only to be berated by other students.


"What are they thinking?!" I'd ask myself internally. Obviously I was a picture of cool. First of all, the sunglasses belonged to my older sister, who clearly must have been wiser than me to own them, just not smart enough to wear them in every day life. Second of all, they had a rosy color to the lenses-- which in hindsight is both ironically amusing and a little sad. Still, however, I often felt it was only a matter of time before the popular kids saw things my way and started wearing what I wore.

Those incidents were certainly not isolated to my infatuation with all things "make love, not war" (a concept I wasn't entirely informed enough on to be saying anyway). In kindergarten I wore my Halloween costume pretty much every day until fitting into it was no longer a negotiable task. This was at a time in my life in which my mom kept me in check enough that I would wear "normal" clothes to school and come home and change into my gown. I was Belle from Beauty & the Beast and I was lucky enough to have a mother who made my Halloween costumes from scratch, so the look was priceless. Not only did my dress look infinitely more chic than the ones you could buy at the Disney store, it also lacked the annoying "BELLE!" gem hanging from the neckline of store-bought versions. "What is that?!" I always wanted to know. In my opinion, my fabulous costume and air of five year old well-read sophistication should have been enough to communicate who I was portraying.

(Please note the tiny image of Belle's face hanging from the neckline of this store bought version)

In fifth grade I did a huge thesis project for G.A.T.E. called "Teenage Culture of the 1950s," and not only did I embrace the subject with a fervor, I also decided to bring my Halloween costume into the daylight yet again. After being a Pink Lady for Halloween, I proceeded to wear pedal pusher capris on regular basis and I distinctly remember this being around the time I bought orange cat's eye sunglasses at the GAP at Tower City mall in Cleveland. Sunlight be damned! I wore those things all the time regardless of weather.

It wasn't until middle school that I really started to crumble under the pressure of being a nerdy weird kid. It could have happened for any number of reasons. Not to say elementary school was a walk in the cool kid park for me, but middle school was really the time in which I discovered just how much of a loser everyone else considered me to be. Like many girls my age, I recognized Limited Too was the place to be shopping. Though I'd long been a wearer of GAP Kids clothing, I knew I needed to cut ties with all things associated with being a kid. Convincing my mom to deck me out in American Eagle was not really an option, but Limited Too was still childlike enough that she would put up with getting me a few outfits there. The days of wearing Halloween costumes on a random day in April were long gone.

Until now.

While I have no intention of going to class wearing the black pleather catsuit I purchased for my Cat Woman Halloween costume this year, I am loving the throwback trends currently being featured in magazines everywhere. Late 1960s/early 1970s fashions have been some of my favorite looks for a very long time. Give me hot pants! Give me bell bottoms! Give me flowing silky blouses and long, glamorous locks of hair! Pulling off the late 1970s punk look has never worked out well for me, but those other things I can do. Those other things identify with both my inner nine year old hippie and the glamazon dying to get out a la Jerry Hall.

Of course, wearing time-defined trends head-to-toe is not my idea of style. The idea is to integrate your favorites into a modern look, perhaps pairing it with a handful of other eras and bringing everything right up to the present.

All the more reason I need to own a pair of these 1950s-inspired Prada Rectangular Cat's Eye sunglasses. Ooh, be still my heart be in my life!