Do you ever read an article in a publication and think, “Hm. Shouldn’t this story have been in another magazine or newspaper?” Like the tale of the man who denied owning the crack in his own ass. It was on TheSmokingGun.com, but shouldn’t it have been in TheOnion? Well, in today’s Times Styles section, wonderful Paper editor Alexis Swerdloff has a detail-packed story about Vashtie Kola, “a kind of renaissance woman who moves easily among fashion, film and music.” Though I’ve never heard of her, she certainly has the hipster bona fides.
For starters, “her former roommate is the legendary street artist Earsnot of the IRAK crew.” And “she directed a Pepsi commercial that starred Will.i.am and LMFAO.” Also, “she is shooting a feature-length comedy called “Bodega” in October and recently got a Polaroid SX-70 (’the same camera Andy Warhol used for his portraits,’ she said) to take photos of her friends for a possible book.” Her friends even claim she brought back the 1990s — in 2006.
These are genius details, all presented without comment, which is the style of “Styles.” They don’t make fun of fleeting trend — they exalt it. But I can’t help but feel that this story would have been more fitting in the (newly-reinvigorated) edgy Observer. Then you would know for sure that it was okay to laugh at an anecdote like this, instead of being completely puzzled by it:
NOT long ago, Vashtie Kola — a downtown party hostess, fashion designer and music video director — started wearing a chambray shirt, which she would pair with cutoff denim jean shorts and tights. She didn’t think much of the outfit — in fact, she called the top her “stanky chambray” — until she noticed that young girls at her parties were working the same look, including wearing their hair flipped over one shoulder, just like hers. “It was really weird,” Ms. Kola said. “They were mostly brown girls, girls who wouldn’t normally wear chambray.” It soon became very clear that they were trying to dress like her.
Do you hear that, brown girls? You are now allowed to wear chambray. All your life you dreamed this day would come. Thank you Vashtie. Or, as you spell it on your website, Va$htie.
Her Cool-Kid Clubhouse [NYT]
