BASICS WITH A TWIST

“She is such a copycat” – obvious who I’m talking about, that annoying 5 ft. 6’’ brunette who lives in my building and as a daily coincidence, exits the house the same nanosecond as I am – probably she’s looking through the peephole to catch the exact moment I put my feet out the door, otherwise I can’t explain how we meet in front of the elevator every morning, 8 AM sharp. Yeah, you’d probably say many people leave the house around 8 o’clock but do they live in my building? Do they dress the same as I am? I mean literally the S-A-M-E? My first encounter with this style-burglar occurred a few months ago, on a sunny summer morning when nothing, I mean nothing predicted the drama my fashion sense would have to deal with – patiently awaiting for the elevator, sporting a white cotton shirt + charcoal pencil skirt + black suede pumps, my jaw dropped at the sight of my neighbor who was wearing a white cotton shirt + black midi skirt + suede ballet flats (it was like seeing a shorter version of myself) – last week, here it goes again – I styled my good old denim jacket with a silk boho dress (the weather was still kind to last-season garments so I said to myself “why not?”); the moment I stepped out the door, oh my, what a surprise, my neighbor was wearing a flower printed midi dress, teamed with nothing but a denim jacket, which’ similarity to mine was going beyond any common sense. Yesterday morning: not in the mood of running into the copycat again, I get out of the house on the tip of my toes – the front door bangs against the wall – damn this drafty hallway, now I have to hide, though maybe she didn’t hear me – not in such luck, she steps out that same moment, wearing a long-sleeved jumper + black skinnies and the same pair of flats she wore last time I ran into her – did I mentioned my outfit was the spitting image of hers? – right, my jumper was short-sleeved but no need to explain the result was the same. As we stepped into the elevator I got hypnotized by the image reflected in the mirror (except the aforementioned differences + the fact that her hair was wavy this morning while mine was straight as a stick – wonder when she had the time to style her hair) was the one of two siblings whose mother did the shopping for them – good thing I never had a sibling, otherwise I know how I would have felt. Later that day, still haunted by the morning’s incident, I stopped by the mall for a bit of window-shopping: like in a bad movie, everywhere I turned my head I saw different versions of my outfit: seems like all the women chose to wear skinnies and flats the same day as I did. Now, I couldn’t go as far as affirming they were all copycatting me, it’s just that my basic, Plain Jane – style probably has more than one follower. Decided to step out of the box, so these kinds of incidents remain in the past, I picked five of my favorite basic items, turning to the street-style mavens for some inspiration on how to style them. The result: down-below. Waiting for your opinion.

WHITE SHIRT INSPO: