Fashion

OVER THE RAINBOW

07/19/2017

I can pretty much pinpoint the moment that my love affair with gingham began. It was 1995, and I had spent the majority of that summer transcribing the entire Wizard of Oz (word for word) on a giant stack of college-ruled notebook paper. I can’t really give you a valid reason why I did it. The Wizard of Oz is a favorite, yes, and there’s obviously the Judy Garland angle, but decades later the only thing I can deduce is there was something about the music, the colors and the wardrobe that made me yearn to commit it to memory. Some sort of magic that existed in the combination of these parts. A magic I wanted to store, permanently, into a back corner pocket of my brain in a place that I could draw from when I felt so inclined. That memory emerged for the first time the following fall, quite literally in the form of a Dorothy Halloween costume. And it wouldn’t be the last time.

Fast forward to today, over two decades later, and you can still find me- without fail- gravitating toward EVERY. SINGLE. BLUE. GINGHAM piece I come across. My track record does not really show me as a “pick a lane and stick with it” gal, but when it comes to my obsession with gingham, predictability is key. My current favorite is this gingham cut-out cami dress I snagged from SHEIN. It’s the perfect summer throw-on: easy, lightweight, with a cut-out detail that’s just a little bit sexy. Plus the knot detail feels super New England-y. AND it’s only $23. Need I say more? I paired mine with my go-to white Converse and a cloth clutch for a casual weekend look.