Muses in Malls, Modeling Makeshift Merriment

In my particular neck of the woods, there's a certain mall that we savvy Hartford-area-consumers tend to hit with typical New England, stressed-to-the-max vigor during the holiday season. I worked there for about 4 years when I was in college and grad school, and don't get it twisted, I consumed a staggering amount of Pretzel Time, Sbarro, and Au Bon Pain - in addition to acccumlating a veritable portmanteau of questionable cheap accessories I decided I needed - while wandering this cavernous building on my 30-60 minute breaks.

But as burned-out as I am on wandering the mall, I'm like the proverbial moth to the light. Like many girls on a budget, I'm constantly hitting that shit up for regular H&M, F21, and Gap runs. There's also a Macy's and a Lord and Taylor's that are rich with sweet scores.

Cue Cher (Alicia Silverstone from Clueless) asking contemptuously, "Can we please be more, generic?..." ..But ay, the mall can always yield treasures untold if you go in with a lioness's skill and a narrowed eye. It's how we put it together and swing out with our swagger ... or at least this is what my 8th grade students assure me.

When I first decided to start this blog, the first person I told was my beautiful friend and creative kindred spirit Beth Bannon, an artiste extraordinaire on the verge in the fields of makeup, graphic design, and tattoo / body art. She agreed to help me with Mission: Find Stranger with Great Style, Pt. I. We went trolling through the mall to do some Christmas shopping. We were also, for MSW's sake, trolling for cute girls in killer outfits, feeling vague twinges of guilt at acting on the same urges as those guys from the "My New Haircut" videos ... our creep factor was formidable!

But like most Northeastern shoppers on that frenzied Friday, including ourselves, most shoppers were dressed, ultimately, for comfort. People had piled themselves into snuggly sweats, super-beat Uggs or Target Ugg-knock-offs, pilly leggings, and windbreakers. My boo has a slammin' bod, so she looks amazing in everything, and I had looped on a few superfluous necklaces in an effort to look cute, but in the end, we blended right into the dull, panicked holiday masses. We were getting discouraged. Then, right around our 3rd loop, we were floating through H&M in daze when we saw her: a vision in a totally eclectic ensemble, all disparate elements and nubby-luxe textures and color.

"Should I do it?" I demanded. Beth paused and then nodded gleefully. "Yeah, do it!"

So I rushed up behind this girl (almost tripping over a dress rack and eating cement floor) and let loose some kind of garbled request involving words like "fabulous, blog, brand-new, creepy .. please?.."

"Huh?" Fabulous Girl wrinkles brow and steps back nervously.

Me: "Um, so cute, MetroStyleWatch ... err ... know we're strangers ..."

Fabulous Girl's Friend: "C'mon, Mayuki, do it!"

So with both sets of girlfriends giggling nervously and casting awkward glances at each other, Mayuki graciously agreed to grace this page! (I had an ever-so-brief stint of working in freelance journalism, but I'm really too much of a doofus to do it well. Hence the beauty of a blog.)

Above, here she is in these great cognac-colored, chunky-heeled boots, bottle-violet tights, black short-shorts (I'm fairly certain they're high-waisted, but I really think she would have drawn the line at me peeking under her shirt to check), a textured gray tank, cropped black leather jacket, and a freakin' sweet mustard scarf with some plum patterning. Her hat , though, was definitely the crowning glory - beanie meets beret, full, festive, in some kind of rich black velour. She also had a furry leopard-print handbag which, alas, didn't make it into the frame.

We all called somewhat confused holiday wishes at one another and scampered off with our respective wifeys ... and I was thrilled with the picture. It's not an outfit I would ever think to put together, especially for shopping, and I loved that Mayuki was rocking it in the land of NorthFace and cords. That sense of spotaneous expression and joyful dressing was why I wanted to write this blog in the first place.

Plus ... the holidays are a time for celebration. The rest of us may not have Mayuki's singular flavor or panache, but I'm sure we all share the same joie de vivre. So if you're seeing this, Mayuki, please know you inspired me!

Merry, merry!

xo - MSW