Of mica + memories

Do all things style go back to our playground days?

Recently I went on a modernist architectural tour in New Haven with Docomomo - and it was moving in so many ways. I grew up in a home designed by modernist pioneer, Henry Hoover, just steps from his own. And I’m sure that’s why it’s what I’m generally drawn to, where I find both beauty and emotional pull.

But there was a tiny moment on the tour that made me think, and it happened not in one of the homes. But in the driveway.

I found mica.

Is this a universal childhood thing? Mica, generally in a rocky driveway. You’d see the sun land on it, a flash of brilliance. And there was something about holding it in your hand, peeling away the little sheets of shimmer. Collecting mica was something I did as a child, finding it, hoarding it, putting it in the darkened corners of a neatly swept tree house.

Another moment fixed in my memory: a babysitter I loved who kept a drawstring bag full of stones: polished ones, mini geodes, pirates gold. I loved opening this bag, taking them out, lining them up, turning them in my palm to see the light they cast.

I swear I’m getting to the style part.

(a sparkly bag and sparkly cardigan had for me an unignorable siren call.)

If you know me, you know I have a longtime Trinny Woodall obsession. I also have a Tibi obsession. And I don’t think (unlike some of you!), these things run counter to each other. My style DNA (approachable, modern, heritage, Miami) embraces both, but more importantly for me, I like to learn from all sources when it comes to style; as long as there’s something new to impart, the teacher doesn’t have to look or dress like me.

One thing that’s very uniquely Trinny is what she’d call a magpie tendency, her love of all things shimmery and sparkly. For Trinny, this at least originally came from something she does and I don’t necessarily, which is dressing to flatter. It was the idea of bringing light to the face that started it all with Trinny, from a Saint Laurent silver scarf that’s one of her trademark items especially after a long flight, to a full on sequin trench. Trinny has a makeup brand and a makeover background and is at heart driven by the notion of making herself, and you, look your best. And thereby feel your best. Whereas most often I think in reverse. I feel my best when my style reflects who I am, and I believe I look my best not by flattering my body or skin tone, but via the confidence, the sureness in my skin that feeling like myself gives me.

Now the Tibi devotees among us will note that silver and sparkle aren’t a hard no in Tibi world. Many of us have one if not both parts of a sequin skirt and cami set from a few years back. Or the silver version of the trademark Stella pants or joggers. But there’s never been a mention of the way shine flatters the face with any Tibi sparkly piece. To me it seems more about texture - one more interesting element like acid wash or patent. And when it comes to some of the more full-on items, I haven’t seen Tibi incorporate them in day to day looks the way Trinny does. (In fact Amy is more of a contextual dresser, where Trinny recently said something along the lines of, rather than trying to dress LA on a visit “I’m bringing myself to LA, and I’m ok with that.”) but I like the unexpectedness of a daytime or non-holiday sequin, and don’t see why that can’t be one more texture like a silver jogger. Here I am in fact trying that out:

(and here’s the shoe I have on, on sale, since my foot grew!)

(Here, too, though I was way too hot in the little bit of Paco Rabanne sequin in Miami, because I like it layered I think. I hope someone gives it a happy home.)

But something Amy from Tibi does talk about a lot that I very much respond to is the power of nostalgia in dressing, the idea that we gravitate toward and feel at ease in certain things because of a link to our past. (If you’ve followed her on IG, you start to see a lot of it in her designs, the track jackets and other athletic inspired pieces maybe most notably.) And when there’s a link to your past, you have a leg up on feeling yourself. That thing I so go after in my looks.

So. The other night I put on this to go to dinner for my mom’s birthday:

It’s a Marie France Van Damme silver skirt, one that Trinny has + I then found used, pulled up as a dress with a Tibi sweater and old Tibi shoes. When I wore it with a shoutout to Trinny one of my Tibi-loving friends observed: “I think you always dress more sparkly after you’ve just watched a Trinny episode.”

I think that’s certainly true. My style DNA allows for a lot of variation within what feels “me.” I tend to play harder in the Miami realm when I want that bold feeling and lean into the heritage/approachable bits when I’m craving more quiet. Still me, just as I’m me when I’m feeling social and me when I’m feeling like I need solo time. I was mulling this over.

And then the next day on the trip, in the driveway outside a breathtaking home Eliot Noyes designed for himself and his family, I stepped outside and saw the mica.

It was a total flood of sensation. The driveway of a modernist home like mine. The unexpected shimmer glinting from the other stones. The stacked up sheets of shine that I could peel away in my palm. A quicktime flash of projector images, like an art history class of my own childhood, speeding faster and faster. With a heart pang, I missed my parents, even though they were just inside.

I wonder if for me the Trinny shine and sparkle feels so right because of these childhood memories. Because in a way, unlike other things that reflect someone else’s nostalgia (say, something varsity-jacket inspired), these feel earned because they authentically reflect my own. The mica, the polished rocks, sea glass — I was sometimes uber social, a party girl, a joker, but in my heart I was more often as an only child, a quiet collector of pretty things. It was, I think, an assurance that there was beauty in the world and would be forever, that when I needed to I could see it and touch it. It comforted me. I think it still does.