• Fri, Feb 10 2012

My Town Thinks I’m A Style Icon For Wearing Skinny Jeans

I’ve spent almost my entire life living smack dab in the middle of fly-over territory. That’s right, when the first in-flight movie ends as you’re travelling between NYC and LA, look down and wave. I’ll feel the love.

I’m not even in a capital city. I’m in the second largest metropolitan area of Indiana. That’s like finishing second place on The Fashion Show. Sorry Bravo, no one is paying attention. Our biggest tourist attraction is our children’s zoo. I can built my house on 15 acres of land and still live 15 minutes from downtown. You’re getting the picture here, right? We’re small. We’re a little, happy, polite Midwestern town.

So in my nice little town, I’m sure you can imagine that fashion have the influence that it does in bigger cities. This morning, the woman next to me at Starbucks was wearing Vans-inspired platform tennis shoes. She wasn’t being ironic. They had some serious wear and tear, leading me to believe that this was her everyday choice of footwear. The popular shoe choice in Fort Wayne, Indiana? Crocs or imitation-Uggs. Very few people here will spend over $100 on shoes, no matter how comfy they are.

My shoe choices have become something of a novelty for my friends and family. It’s not like I have a closet full of Louboutins here. Simply the idea of wearing heels on a regular basis is mind-blowing enough. Add to that fact that I own maroon t-straps and cobalt blue pumps, why I might just be the Carrie Bradshaw on my town. Yes, they still mean that as a compliment.

And then we come to pants. Oh Heavens. Let me tell you that the Midwest is strictly bootcut territory. Don’t give them your high-waisted or skinny-legged nonsense. The only variation on fit-and-flare jeans are fit-and-flair capris. Sorry Ash, your drop-crotch pants just have no place here. After all, this is God’s country. No one wears anything with the world “crotch” in the title, no matter how much you try to desensitize them.

Then there’s me and my skinny jeans. I’m not talking ultra-tight skinnies. I’m not talking jeggings. It’s plain old skinny jeans, and even worse… I tuck them into flat boots and throw on an oversized cardigan. Now this might sound like the uniform for most young women in the city, but in a small town, it’s positively trendy. And you know what, I love it!

I love there are such low expectations for decent fashion around here. No, there’s not much inspiration to be had from watching my fellow Hoosiers. But that’s what the internet is for! I sincerely appreciate that by picking up on a trend as ridiculously simple as skinny jeans (and one that’s been around for about 5 years now), I’ve managed to make myself look stylish.

New York Fashion Week is just starting. No, I won’t be hanging around outside the tents hoping to look awesome enough to be let inside. I might flip through the slideshows of designers I enjoy. But simply by knowing that Fashion Week exists and is happening, I’m a step above my fellow Midwestern citizens when it comes to the glamorous life of the fashion world. And to be honest, it’s kinda fun.

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  • Karen

    Holy moo cow, how I can relate! I grew up in central Illinois (howdy, neighbor) ((And no this is NOT near Chicago.)) And I can summarize the entirety of that fashion experience with this: You make an effort and dress fashionably–You are repeatedly asked throughout the day, “You got a court date or sumthin?” Not a bag of hoots, let me tell you. Why can’t they just let me have fun and dress up?

    I moved to the DENVER area when I was nearly 24, and I can say it is a big improvement… except that I work and spend a lot of time… in Boulder. Do I need to explain the situation? Okay, here. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/14/boulder-colorado-gq-worst-dressed_n_898319.html)

    Seems I’m doomed to be a fashion island where’er I go.

  • Laura Linger

    I, too, am from Indiana (Lafayette) and I find your article and attitude toward your fellow Hoosiers to be insufferably nasty and condescending. I no longer live in my home state, and I will tell you that I miss salt-of-the-earth, “unfashionable” people like I miss Arni’s pizza and the changing of the leaves in Brown County. Perhaps you should spend a little less time worrying about what other people wear (did it occur to you that maybe they can’t *afford* such wonderfully fashion-forward clothes as yours?) and start looking toward yourself to find out why you are so judgmental, especially when it comes to something so trivial. Or are you just Far! Too! Fabulous! in those skinny jeans of yours (sooo three years ago, by the way) for such self-reflection?

    • eGads

      You just made a statement that people who live in Indiana can’t afford fashionable clothes. Hahaha! Great that you miss the people of IN, but seems like you also missed the POINT.

    • Cassie

      Yeah, I feel like you missed the point of this article too. Skinny jeans are no more expensive than boot cut jeans.
      Also, by saying “sooo three years ago, by the way,” you have become the very person you are criticizing the author of being.

      I don’t think it’s “judgmental” to take into account the outfit someone is wearing. If a lawyer was representing me in court and showed up in Crocs, I would be disgusted. Your clothes represent you, and presenting a sloppy image is a choice, no matter what your income bracket is.

    • sarah

      I live in Indiana and thought the article was pretty condescending too.

    • Tobi

      Oh Laura….such irony and hypocrisy.

  • Steph

    I live in Omaha. People here are surprisingly more well dressed. Then again, most of the people I interact with on a daily basis are college students.

  • Rae

    Some of what she says is true…ish. I get comments on my “unconventional clothing too” but only at mainstream places. However, she sounds like the type of person who complains about how boring (We all know it’s Fort Wayne, right?), but just completely oblivious to the great local music and art scene here in town.

    She seems to get a kick out of wearing “fashion” in typical middle-american stores and such just to laugh at the boring old mid-westerners, but never goes to places where people with style are in abundance. She probably only ever goes to Piere’s when she is in town and thinks that’s the hippest it gets around here…but I’m presuming.

    She also seems to imply good fashion only comes with a high price. Yes, I can personally attest to a lot of stinginess and unwillingness to pay for a little quality from customers at the small retail store where I work. But great fashion can come cheap too.

    I think it’s her overall condescending attitude that turns me off. (Her ignorance doesn’t help)

    • Laura

      Ha, Piere’s, I thought that was funny.

  • Laura

    I live 20 minutes away from Ft. Wayne, Indiana and there are pa-lenty of trend followers there. You can go to Glenbrook mall and it’s skinny jeans as far as the eye can see…and 90% of them are tucked into boots…so it’s not really anything new or exciting anymore.
    So it’s kind of rude to say it’s just crocs and uggs territory.

    Although…I was the first person in my high school in Haviland, Ohio to wear skinny jeans, back in 2006, which I paired with my first pair of flats…I never got so many strange and dirty looks from girls like I did that first day, save when I shaved my head. But it’s just so common nowadays. (Though my 37 yr old boyfriend will never accept skinny jeans as either “IN” or good looking jeans, sigh, he hates them with a passion and will always consider them as ugly 80′s tapered jeans)

    • Laura

      Brain Fart, that wasn’t my first pair of flats, I don’t know why I thought that, heh.

  • Mary Dove

    I think you should be able to wear what you what whatever people think you look like, in most cases they are probably jealous anyway! Set a trend and people will soon follow! :-)
    Nicola Chapman

  • Abi Scalio

    Wow this is an interesting blog! I am shocked that people will go that low to make yourself feel uncomfortable in what you are wearing! I think its great you wear what you what and it will make you different and stand out for being you! You go girl!

    Nicola Chapman