Mississippi, the Anti-Fashion

So after spending the past few recent posts lavishing attention on NYC, I want to turn my attention back to Mississippi. Cause, lord knows after two weeks in Manhattan, the man and I both needed a bit of Mississippi as an anti-dote to, well, all that.

I can’t seem to quite figure NYC out. I know it’s supposed to be some fashion capital, but personally I think London has it all over NYC in the style stakes. For example, the place was awash with Chanel 2.55 handbags. These $5000 quilted throwbacks to the 80s don’t impress me. It seemed like every other girl in the fashionable districts of Manhattan had one, though, which is a bit soul-crushing in its lack of taste or individuality. To get away from a scene like that, go somewhere real, somewhere like Mississippi.

In Mississippi, the vast majority of the population neither knows nor cares about what a Chanel 2.55 is, and I find something refreshing in that perspective. The clothes people wear back home are pretty much strictly utilitarian, made for hot nights and hotter days. To wit, the photo above is of me in the summer uniform of the typical Mississippi girl: tshirt (theirs usually say things, but I only wear plain), Nike Tempo shorts (apparently also called Norts), and flip flops. (Winter uniform? bootcut jeans, tshirt, trainers/Clarks desert boots, North Face fleece jacket.)

The girls and women of pretty much all ages wear this everywhere except church and school/work. For church you put on a dress, or at least a skirt, and for just about anything else you put on a pair of jeans. I like a place where wearing a pair of jeans is dressing up. I also like a place where you can wear cute sundresses all night long and never get cold.

On the other hand, it can get a bit samey after a while, especially with all the girls wearing pretty much the same thing like clones (with Vera Bradley bags). Still, it has a zen-like simplicity that appeals to me. It’s nice to get by with the bare minimum in clothes and no one judges you for having/not having a Chanel handbag. It really is relaxing to just not care sometimes. When people don’t have expectations of you, then you really can wear whatever you like, and that is what style truly is. Style is also making the best of whatever is to hand, and given the closest Gap, much less anything else, is about 60 miles away, folks where I am from definitely learn to make do.

I dressed all kinds of crazy and awful when I was growing up there, and my southern roots still show themselves from time to time. I like wearing flip flops everywhere. I love a good pair of Levis 501 raggedy cutoffs. And I adore the pure simplicity of a 3-pack of Hanes white v-neck tshirts from Walmart. I’d rather have them than some tacky Chanel handbag any day.