The Sactorialist

I always see Alexa around town, and she impresses every time. I am happy to have her as my inaugural Style Profile subject. Thank you Alexa!

Name? Alexa Shapiro

Age? 21

Job/Profession? Newsagent at Newsbeat (20th & J in Midtown)

Hometown? Davis, CA

Best fashion advice you received from your parents? In 3rd grade, we had a “Spirit Week” at school, each day of which had a different theme (most involved costumes).  The Spirit Day I most anticipated was ‘60s day, as at that time I was going through a phase inevitable to young girls- an uninformed obsession with the surface of the 1960s.  Naturally my main reference points were The Beatles and those hippy-dippy flower power caricatures of Halloween costumes at drugstores.    My mom was my salvation from parading in plastic peace sign earrings and polyester bell-bottoms.  She searched through her closet and gave me some absolutely stunning clothes she’d saved from college.  Needless to say, I was scandalized when I lost the end-of-day best costume contest.  Of course my 3rd grade mind attributed this to the ignorance of my peers, who were clearly hung up on the siren song of rose-tinted plastic Lennon-esque glasses.  My mom’s clothes were transcendentally beautiful, and kicked off a now eternal devotion to vintage.  My dad, who at UCD is notoriously known as “The Hobo Professor” (for electing to dress with defiant indifference), also had some effect on the development of my aesthetic, despite his charming disregard for his own.  He’s a lepidopterist, so I was raised in the company of butterflies- a wonderful environment which has had a profound effect on my attention to complexity, pattern, color, etc.

Favorite icons of fashion? Some of these are kind of abstractly tied to fashion, but…
Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin, Oscar Wilde, Bevan Thomas, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Alfons Mucha paintings, Angela Davis, Eustace Tilley (the dandy New Yorker mascot)…

Describe your personal style. I think saying Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time’ll do.  A timeline oblivious to linear time:  The Renaissance up to the 1970s, all points between overlapping into what occasionally, fairly, could be considered a costume rather than an outfit.

Who are your favorite designers? I admire too many to mention. Willow, Etro, Dries van Noten, Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Manish Arora, YSL, Sonia Rykiel, Stella McCartney, Anna Sui, Nina Ricci…

What is your most cherished fashion item? A brown velvet dress that I have worn every other day for the last two years.  Tragically enough, it appears to have the life-span of a gerbil, and is already a shredded rag.  It’s my favorite dress of all time, but I do believe it has one foot in the grave.  My close second, though, is a wondrous Naik Fur jacket sewn by Amy from Atelier.

What do you feel best wearing? In the immortal words of George Costanza, “I would drape myself in velvet if it were socially acceptable.”

What is the first thing you see in another person’s outfit? I first try to establish a fictional, idealized context for their outfit, around which a story can be imagined.  For instance: there’s this man I see around town very infrequently, who looks and dresses quite a bit like James Joyce.   Fascinating!  He’s so elusive, though.  Every time I see him, he immediately, mysteriously disappears around a corner, or slips down an alley, or fades into a garden.  He wears exquisite silken trousers, tweed coats (with elbow pads!), tortoiseshell spectacles… And none of it seems affected or even contemporary.  The fibers of his garments are of subtly ethereal quality.  So, I like to assume that it is James Joyce, and that I’ve never caught up to him closely enough to make eye contact because, were I to fully register his identity, all of history would crumble pathetically at the well-shod feet of his paradoxical revenant time-travelling double life.  I’ve come to accept that he must be admired from a distance.

An item you will never be caught wearing? Pants.  I’ve consistently worn dresses for the last 4 years or so.

Who do you dress to impress? Old-fashioned dandies (I pine for my very own Sebastian Flyte, to have as a best friend), and old men –specifically, Woody Allen. Should the stars align in expression of a sacred, ancient fate shared by the two most unlikely chosen ones (Woody Allen and me), causing our paths to cross on the streets of Sacramento, I must instantly woo him into a verbose stupor.  He must be driven to rattle off some nonsense, like, “Oneiric zaftig succubus!” and then forthwith become my other best friend (assuming Sebastian comes around and ditches fiction for reality).

What are your favorite stores? Atelier, Ecothrift, antique stores.

Favorite item you own? My tapestry bag and amber necklace.

Guilty pleasure in fashion? Always wearing high heels. I’ve walked ten miles in 3 inch heels more times than I’d care to recall. An impish old woman once warned me against it, with one eye bulging, welling with the teary sorrow of a flashback she said to me, “Honey! I wore those damned things everyday for fifteen years when I was a secretary. That hurt my back, believe you me!” But alas, her caution was no cure.

Do you have a signature fragrance? Predictably, Chanel No. 5. I was first given some by my petit ami in high school, who brought it from France itself (how novel!). I have worn it since. But lamentably, perfume has lost signifigance with my generation. Nobody recognizes the scent. I’ve more than once been told I smell like an old bookstore. Imagine that!

Favorite fashion publication? Lula, RUSSH, Vogue (Paris & Australia), L’Officiel.

Favorite restaurant? Basically anything along Broadway. The foods of at least 20 cultures are represented on that street.

Favorite band? I am stuck in the trough of a once triumphant musical wave.  I am temporarily addicted to Bruce Haack, David Bowie, and Serge Gainsbourg .  Nothing else will do.