Tricky Questions: Christy's Answers

So Kaley and I decided to start this whole journey out by answering a little questionnaire. Despite the fact that we created the questions ourselves, some of these were a little hard for me to answer. I wish we'd thought to ask something simple like what is a table? or have you ever seen a bug?, but instead, we decided to challenge ourselves with some doozies of questions. The following are my answers (Kaley's will come soon), and hopefully they give you some insight into why we are doing this. 


Oh, also, I'm Christy.


Where are you located? 
Last month, I relocated to Brooklyn, New York. According to Emmy nominee, Lena Dunham, being from New York makes a person automatically interesting. I think my daily subway sweat stains would beg to differ, but I am just going with it. I live in a neighborhood called Ditmas Park where I believe a spontaneous musical is bound to happen any day now. It's really great. I am not sure whether I can claim being a New Yorker yet, but I definitely think tourists in Midtown walk too slowly and that anyone who talks loudly on the subway should be fined one month’s rent.

How would you describe your personal style?
Probably “Wizard Chic”. Lots of cloaks, pointy hats, owls as accessories.


Not really.


I am probably super wrong about this, but I guess I would say I have a subdued nerdy, retro vibe. Is that even a thing? By the way, it took me about 15 minutes to write that description. I definitely do not have my style down to a science at all. I can, however, tell you the types of clothing I am attracted to. High-waisted pants or skirts are my jam. I belt almost everything I own like an addict. It’s all about that waist. I like colors. Bright colors. Colors that can usually be found in a sunset or on a Lisa Frank sticker. Patterns are great too. I like bold jewelry, though I don’t have much, and I wear simple flats daily, but I would rather be wearing heels. Wedges freaked me out at first, but I am coming around.


Describe/provide an example of your style on a good day and a bad day.


Let’s start with the good news. Sometimes, by my standards, I dress pretty well. Here is me on my best day:

And by “best day”, I mean best day I will ever have. In this picture, I am making a face like mmm mmm mmmmmm, which is how I felt that day. That’s Kaley in the background fiercely fluffing my train like a champion MOH. But legitimately, me on a good day…let’s see…

This might not be the absolute best example, but I like it. Here I am wearing my favorite color, a kooky pattern, and a bold piece of jewelry. I also have on my signature glasses, which (I hope) spice up any ensemble. Ordinarily I would have tucked and belted. Not sure why I didn’t that day. Obviously the hand on the hip is to indicate sass.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that I have more awkward fashion days than fabulous ones. Here I am on a bad day:

Proud to say I have not untagged this picture of me on Facebook

Yeesh. Even my fierce glasses couldn’t save this ensemble. T-shirt and Nike shorts. Totally off-putting toilet seat accessory. No sass to be found.


This picture was actually taken while I was working at camp, but I am not going to pretend that this exact same outfit doesn’t make an appearance or two in my week-to-week looks. I usually leave out the toilet seat though.


What is the story of your friendship with your co- writer?

Kaley, being older and wiser than me, was a camp counselor when I was a camper. She and her twin sister, Lauren, were always so funny and interesting, saying things like “fabulous” and performing selections from musicals. When I went to college at Baylor University, Kaley and Lauren were also there. For a long time Kaley extended a standing invitation to watch Spiceworld together (one of the better movies of the last century). This never came to fruition, however, as I assumed that camp counselor Kaley (who was so cool that she once made her hair look like Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers) was just being nice and wouldn’t actually be interested in hanging out with little ol' me.


When we worked together the following summer at camp, I realized that Kaley wasn’t so scary-cool at all. She was actually kind of just regular cool and sometimes she was even (in the best way possible) a major dork. From there, BAM. Friends for life. She became the person who hemmed my skirts, made lame days in Waco bearable, and stood beside me when I got married.


Provide a picture that best describes your friendship. Explain.


I actually have a series of pictures, if you don’t mind.

These are all pictures of Kaley and I attempting to “smize”, that is “smile with your eyes”. According to Tyra Banks, smizing is the key to modeling. Even though we used to get together every week to watch America’s Next Top Model, that’s not why I chose these pictures. I chose them because while I am legitimately trying to get a good smize in there, I either look sad or deranged, but Kaley is actually doing it! What talent! And smizing is not her only talent. She is absolutely glittering with gifts that I so admire. I really respect Kaley and even though I’m the one who looks like a lizard in all of these pictures, I know she respects me too, and that is a great foundation for friendship. 


What is the purpose of this blog?
Recently, I was on my way to a job interview at ABC when I saw Clinton Kelly (of TLC’s What Not to Wear). I was so excited because I seriously had just been watching this guy on TV before getting on the subway. He was on the corner talking to some fans, and he just seemed like the nicest man. Also, he looks as classy in-person, I swear. I was thinking about heading over and talking to him, but then I took a good look at myself. This is the man who, with his fashion-partner Stacy, taught me that clothing is a statement to the world of how you feel about yourself. I was dressed for an interview, but I kind of felt like my clothes were saying, “I want to take a really long nap.”


I now work at ABC and if I run into Clinton again, I want my clothes to say, “I am an interesting person who showers regularly and has big life goals.” The purpose of this blog is to hold me accountable to that but also to sympathize with other women who are normal and sometimes look awesome and sometimes look kind of dumpy. This blog is also a great way for Kaley and I to connect on something we are both excited about. She lives in Texas and I’m in Brooklyn. Plane tickets aren’t cheap, y’all, so being able to work together like this is really exciting for me.


Who are your style inspirations?

Stacy London

Kaley Eggers

Zooey Deschanel

Cher

My sister, Johanna Lammert

Diane Von Furstenberg

Emily Pirraglia

Sisters, Lya and Ana Morfitt

Whoever is wearing this jumpsuit

Can I Pull This Off??- An Intro

If I had to describe this blog in one sentence, I would say this:

It chronicles two best friends living 1,640 miles apart who are committing to suppressing their fashion laziness and amplifying their shared love of style to look as fabulous and beautiful as they are.

Okay, that was a terrible sentence. Any decent English teacher would point out it contains too much information, so let me break it down for you.

Christy and I (Kaley) are best friends.

As in “talk for hours”, “watch ridiculous TV shows together”, “disagree and still understand each other”, “our kids will be friends or else” -type friends. If we were in middle school and had a top-secret-best-friend notebook, we would mean it when we wrote “LYLAS!” at the end of our notes.

This is a photo of Christy and me getting ready for her wedding. I am laughing at something hilarious she said, which is typical. I am also wearing an alien hat, which isn’t typical. I usually only wear it when I’m studying. And getting ready for weddings, I guess. I don’t want to concern you with my fashion choices too early on.

When Christy and I are together, one of our favorite things to do is go shopping at vintage clothing stores. We love looking at (and sometimes purchasing) clothes. Because we love fashion.

Not in the sense that you’ll see us at Fashion Week (do real people go there?) or hear us talking about our favorite designers or anything like that. We just enjoy looking good because, like most people, we like to feel good about ourselves. And we feel good when we can be fun, creative and expressive with what we wear. Fortunately, we both realize there are boundaries on how “creative” we can/should get. You won’t see us duplicating Lady Gaga’s wardrobe any time soon.

Well… At least not frequently...

Christy and I keep our style choices in check by running things by each other, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say few people can maintain this dynamic in a friendship the way we do. When I ask Christy, “Does this look okay?”/ “If I get this what would I wear with it??”/ “Can I pull this off?!?”/etc, she always has a helpful, honest answer.

But despite the fact that we are capable of being creative and super stylish, there is a dark side to this tale.

Unfortunately for us both- and for the people that have to see us- there are many days when Christy and do not feel very creative. We feel quite the opposite- completely uninspired.

And in reality, I’m just trying to come up with a nice way of saying we get lazy.

Here we are on a lazy day at the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX. I can't help but think it's a bad sign that I'd rather look at the pile of junk in this picture than myself.

You’ll hear more about that as we continue in this blog, but basically for me that looks like turning to the old, familiar jeans and v-neck t-shirts rather than taking time to coordinate an outfit that makes it look like I care about myself enough to put thought into it. My laziness makes me look boring and feel, for lack of a better descriptive word, completely “blah.”

And, as we all know, if we don’t feel good about the way we look, we don’t feel good about ourselves across the board. So on those days, how can I expect other people to enjoy being around me when I feel like this?

As Christy and I realized how much our fashion laziness actually affected us, we decided we both wanted to break out of our style doldrums. We made a commitment to hold one another accountable to outwardly displaying who we are on the inside, and we agreed to check in with each other to ensure we’re both being as fashionable as we can (and ought) to be.

The only problem is: Christy and her husband recently moved all the way from Texas to New York City.

I know, I’m jealous, too.

Every picture she takes makes me want to move to NY- the city should just hire her.

Thus, the blog.

Since I can’t really pop over to Christy’s apartment to make sure her outfit is slammin before she heads out the door each morning (unless someone wants to make a huge donation…. Anyone?), we’re going to save money- and the environment- by checking in here.

We’ll each write a post each week with our best and worst outfits (Lord help us), with a number of other goodies thrown in. For instance- fashion challenges, questions, inspirations, and maybe even a tutorial every now and then.

We’re excited to have a chance to write together. And to share something we enjoy with whoever wants to read it. Who knows? Maybe it’s something you can relate to. If so, we hope you’ll check in every once in a while and share your thoughts with us.

As we begin, you’ll get to hear from both me and Christy (who is hilarious- seriously, you’ll love reading everything she writes) as we explain our fashion histories and answer a few backgrounds questions- about us, our friendship, and the blog. So stay tuned! It’s going to be great!