I have been obsessed with clothes since the 3rd grade as I remember. At least, that’s when I started having strong opinions about what I wanted to wear. This didn’t do great things for my popularity in school. I was kind of weird, I’ve always been kind of weird. I didn’t quite fit the aesthetic of my wealthy suburban school. I didn’t wear the right things, and if I did, it wasn’t for the right reasons.  Let’s take for example the jawbreaker-print Dr. Marten’s boots I got on deep discount from a sidewalk sale at Jacobson’s in downtown Birmingham, not to age myself with an extinct retailer. When I first wore them to school on my eight-year-old feet, the most popular girl in my class said to me, “You can’t wear Dr. Marten’s. The Hanson Brothers wear them, and you don’t even listen to Hanson!” I didn’t. This was true; not only were my clothes weird, so was the music I listened to. I had a Hole patch ironed onto my backpack (Please remember here, I was 8.). I can’t say I wasn’t bothered by her comment. I mean I still remember it 26 years later, but it didn’t stop me from wearing them.

My oldest sister is 7 years older than me, so when I was in the third grade, she was already in high school. She was that late 90s raver girl, and I looked up to her hardcore. So, did I want to wear big boots, the baggiest possible pants, and graphic tees paired with colorful bracelets? You bet I did! Everyone else in my class? Pretty preppy for the most part. I can’t say I stuck by that look. By the 4th grade, I remember loving brightly colored petal pushers, bell bottoms, glitter, and floral prints. Back then, my mom mostly took us shopping at Old Navy, TJ Maxx, this one consignment store that used to be downtown, and she occasionally treated me to an item at the iconic Limited Too.

It wasn’t until middle school that ridicule made me try to change myself a bit. One mean girl, who had been my friend in elementary school, started giving me these awful up-and-down glances at school and was telling people how “poor” I was. I started spending all the birthday money my grandpa would give me at Abercrombie because that’s where everyone else shopped. However, I never really got the hang of fitting in or dressing like everyone else.

By high school, I had thrown trying to fit into the wind. I started thrifting most of my clothes, shopping vintage, mixing it in with probably too much Forever 21. I used to spend hours every evening layering up outfits and taking pictures in the mirror with my digital camera to see if I liked the looks. I was showing up to school in high heels with cute socks, slips layered over t-shirts, 1960s dresses, and patterned tights — just some wild combinations. After all those growing pains of finding my style, I ended up being voted best style in Senior superlatives.

I wish I had more photos from this era, but alas going to high school in the early aughts created a hiatus in documentation. We were no longer using film cameras as often, but we didn’t have quality camera phones to document every move. Digital cameras were the norm, but we never got any of the photos printed. Unfortunately, illegally downloading music via Kazaa and infecting your computer with viruses was also the norm. My desktop got one that made it play “Tootsee Roll” by the 69 Boyz out loud at random and also consequently destroyed my hard drive, and I lost most of my saved photos from high school.

I studied fashion merchandising in college in Chicago. I have since come to realize it’s not exactly fashion that fascinates me, but style.  Sure, there are designers I love, but the fashion industry overall is pretty icky to me. What resonates with me is people who have curated their sense of style that transcends trends.

I’ve gone through many phases in my style, but one thing I will say is it has always been experimental.  I am a collector at heart. I have been collecting vintage clothing since I was 14 years old. Yes, as a result, I have far too much clothing, but I am always finding new ways to combine, passing things on to others, and freshening up with new (to me) pieces from time to time. One thing I love to do, which I think will be a big focus of this space, is deep-dive into pieces I collect. If I find a vintage designer piece, I want to figure out what year and season it is from. I love to find twins of vintage I own in media and on other people. So, if you’d like, I’d love for you to follow along as I study style here on this blog.

One more thing, you will likely only get the reference of this blog’s name if you are my age or older. It has a little story: my childhood best friend and neighbor’s aunt used to call me Netscape after the browser. Netscape used to be THE internet browser when normal people using the internet was just becoming a thing. As I set to carve out this little space for myself on the internet, the memory of this nickname leaped into my mind. So, Nettescape it is.