Androgyny, Prada and Taylor Swift: My relationship with perfume

Do you wear perfume? In my extensive, scientifically conducted research (wave to the five friends I consulted as my subjects) it appears women either love perfume, or avoid it like the plague. I'll admit that I haven't always been a fan. In high school I went through a phase where the only scent I was attracted to was that of Johnson and Johnson's baby powder. Which is comforting and soothing in a way similar to fluffy down pillows, Grandma's hugs, and chamomile tea.

I was first introduced to fragrance in junior high during a clandestine meeting in the girls room. A friend passed me a can of Love's Baby Soft, which she aggressively applied in a noxious cloud. Love's Baby Soft was the must-have scent among those of the junior high set in the 70's and 80's. Featuring top notes of talcum powder, babies, innocence, and light-heartedness, Love's was simple. Basic. It was a pastel angora-blend sweater, the kind that shed little bits of material all over your corduroy skirt but you didn't really care.


I left the Baby Soft behind when I entered high school, and stuck to my Johnson and Johnson's powder. After I graduated, Calvin Klein introduced a revolutionary fragrance meant for both men and women that spread like herpes - CK One. Everything about this scent screams 1994. The packaging was made from 100% recycled materials, and the bottle is sleek and austere, a nod to the 90's minimalism trend that dominated runways. CK One smelled clean and crisp. It was reminiscent of sleek, unsmiling women who flat ironed their center-parted hair, and carried Prada nylon backpacks.


My brush with CK One was short-lived, probably because I'm uncomfortable embracing androgyny. Next came Clinique's Happy, a fruity, citrusy scent. If Happy were a person, she’d be The Girl Next Door. A particularly perky one. She’s young, easygoing, carefree, friendly to everyone, and she smiles a lot. For awhile I alternated between Happy and Juicy Couture, a sickeningly sweet scent with notes of watermelon, apple, pink passion fruit and lilies. Juicy is something Barbie would wear. Or Taylor Swift. I was a fan of these scents when I was a new mom, and I craved a simpler, sweeter time, absent of four a.m feedings and shirts accessorized by spit-up.

As of this moment, my favorite perfume is A Scent by Issey Miyake (which I'm dangerously low on.) It's a warm, delicate, feminine scent with hints of jasmine, hyacinth and cedar - very sophisticated, romantic and quiet. I like to wear it with cozy materials, like soft sweaters and velvet slippers, such as the items I chose today:

Thrifted Marc by Marc Jacobs cardigan; thrifted J Jill white shirt; thrifted Seven For All Mankind button-fly jeans; Stuart Weitzman velvet flats; Nordstrom rack necklace

If you wear perfume, what's your favorite scent?

(Like this post? Check out my thrifting 101 series, my thoughts on staying true to your personal sense of style, and my internal debate over a velveteen blazer. And consider becoming a follower. I LOVE my readers!)

The Trojan woman

I was always kind of a quirky kid. Unlike most other little girls my age, I had no interest in participating in ballet or gymnastics. Instead of planning tea parties with the neighborhood children, I created fantastical worlds out of leaves and acorns and played in the dirt. When I got a bit older, I skipped right over the fluttery teenage crush phase most girls go through. My friend covered their walls in glittery, sticker-adorned posters of Andrew McCarthy, Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp. I couldn't understand the practice of taping a magazine cutout of your teen dream to your bedroom closet door; the idea of waking up to some picture of a celebrity staring at me gave me the creeps. Instead, the focal point of my room was a gigantic bulletin board, on which I tacked vintage postcards, bits of fabric, vintage school jacket pins, a NYC subway map and old ticket stubs.

To be honest, I really didn't care much for the popular movies of my schoolgirl years. I preferred to spend my weekends watching old black and white films from the nineteen forties and fifties.Those actors had style. The spoke with affected accents, smoked through jewel-encrusted cigarette holders, and moved snake-like through Art Deco rooms. The men wore hats, the women fur-trimmed capes and New Look dresses with nipped-in waists. They didn't need computer-generated special affects or lighting technicians to look fantastic.

One of my all-time favorite film actresses of that time is Katharine Hepburn. Why her? Well, her background is fascinating: she was the descendant of King Louis IX and daughter of a suffragette. After an early spell of box-office success she endured a series of flops, leading critics to call her "box office poison." She had extremely progressive social views, giving fuel  to rumors that she was a Communist. In addition she possessed an extremely unconventional attitude as an actress of her time. Unlike other starlets, she was prickly with the press and often refused to grant interviews or be photographed, and denied requests for autographs. As my grandfather said, she had moxie.

In regards to fashion, Hepburn preferred a more androgynous, modern style that was a clear contrast to the cleavage and curves of her co-stars. She remains famous for introducing women to wide-leg, high-waisted pants, which she often paired with sharply tailored blazers, flat loafers or sneakers. Once, when RKO executives took away her slacks (to force her to wear a skirt), she walked around the lot in her underwear until they returned them. Kate’s pants became a symbol of independence for women, liberating them to be more active and have more choices.

I suppose I was channeling a bit of her when I dressed this morning. If she moved from Hollywood to Santa Fe, that is.

Thrifted Blues Heroes leather jacket; J Jill white shirt; Paige wide-leg denim pants; thrifted Fossil belt; Frye Billy cowboy boots; Lucky turquoise blossom studs.

My favorite part of this outfit has to be the boots. I've been searching for a pair of cowboy boots forever, and as luck would have came upon these during a spontaneous trip to a new consignment shop.

Maybe they're not perfectly suited to wear with such wide-leg pants. Other bloggers might showcase them with short skirts, or skinny jeans. But as Hepburn said, if you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.