The NYT's Style section has a habit of quoting a young woman who just happens to have been the most popular girl in my middle school. I cannot remember whether or not I liked her much at the time, I just remember that she was the most popular girl in the grade. I remember this so vividly because there wasn't a most popular person at my high school. (When only a tenth of the student body has the social skills to register popularity, it effectively doesn't exist.)
While the hierarchy of junior high may seem to be on a national if not universal scale when you're 12 or 13, things tend to get put into perspective, when you learn later, as goes the cliche, that the popular football player now works at a gas station. Well, absolutely nothing has changed, hierarchy-wise, since back in the day. The girl whose opinion of how to be cool meant everything, well, her opinion, for reasons I do not entirely understand, still matters:
Those words certainly resonate with Marina Albright, 22, a senior at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., who was trawling thought Barneys New York on a visit to Manhattan late last month. She turned up her nose at a selection of kaleidoscopic Pucci tops. "I wouldn't want one," Ms. Albright said. "They're almost like wearing a big double G.," she added, alluding to Gucci. Instead she gravitated toward a slouchy, poor-boy cardigan from Marni, pulling it over a tunic-length T-shirt and loose velour pants. "This sweater is Bobo all right," Ms. Albright murmured approvingly. "It works very hard at looking like it's not trying too hard."
She's seriously quoted in the Style section all the time, week after week, and while I'm long since over the ups and downs of middle school, in my heart of hearts I wouldn't mind if the Times came to me, not Ms. Albright, for a sound byte about Bobo chic. I'm sure there's some boring reason behind this (say, a family friend of hers works at the paper), but it's far more amusing to look at this as some bizarre message that, contrary to what you're reassured while in middle school, what's cool then continues to be cool later, and the people getting attention then continue to get attention indefinitely.
2 comments:
I really wouldn't place too much fashion cred on being quoted in the NYT Style section, because most of their articles are pretty lame. Mary-Kate dressing like a bohemian hobo? It's just a new incarnation of the time-honored tradition of rich kids dressing poor, like how Exeter boys used to fix their loafers with duct tape, or how private school kids always make sure their uniforms are a little ratty. It's certainly not news, and though I love the NYT I certainly don't consider it cutting edge when it comes to trend-spotting.
Having nothing better to do, I ran her name through Factiva and learned that she's been in there five times. I'm a journalist myself, so I immediately suspected that we'd find the same byline at the top of each story. And so we did: Ruth La Ferla.
If I were to dig a little deeper (I won't, because I'm not that bored), I bet I'd find some connection between the two of them. It's got to be either that or that La Ferla interviewed her once back in 2000 and decided to keep in touch with her for future stories about trends among the young. That's much easier than talking to strangers who may or may not fit the story you're trying to write.
Post a Comment