Outfit #3
“Discount Prom Shoes, Stripes, and Classic Black-and-White”
CS: These are the discount prom shoes I’m talking about.
KJ: Did you wear those kinds of shoes to your actual prom?
CS: At prom, you know, they had the ‘grand march’: we had to walk toward each other and meet in the middle: ‘And now, presenting [boyfriend’s name] and Caroline Smith!’ like we were getting married. I wore a beautiful Vivienne Tam dress. It was Saks 5th Avenue, and I was very excited. I had my eye on this Miu Miu dress but my mom was like, ‘I’m not spending $3,000 dollars on a prom dress.’
MB: She wore flip flops her entire life.
CS: My mom’s been through a lot of phases with me. I went through this phase where I thought I was a surfer chick, you know, in northern Minnesota, and I rocked flip flops all winter. I had my surfer phase, I had my punk phase. I think everyone had a punk phase, though, didn’t they?
KJ: Do you think there’s a Midwestern regional ‘style?’
CS: Well, you’ve got the “Northern Gentleman,” which is like raw denim, a chambray shirt, and Eastland shoes. I think women just dress like the people they look up to. And since I’m friends literally only with other artists, that’s who I tend to dress like. I will say that in Minneapolis, people dress a lot safer than the coasts. I really like being in New York and L.A. for that reason. You see someone go by and you say to yourself, ‘She does not have Skechers on right now—that’s amazing.’ I’ve been spending more and more time in L.A., but I will always consider Minneapolis home.
KJ: How does winter affect your style?
CS: I get really crabby in winter. Everybody gets crabby in winter, but the winter here goes on too long. I just want to wear a fucking outfit without a coat on. I don’t want to wear this blue puffer coat over it. I just want to be like, ‘Hello world, this is my outfit.’
I love Leandra Medine [of Man Repeller], and her thing is crazy layers. One of the reasons I became so obsessed with her is because of her unusual ways of layering – she’ll wear like feather sleeves under a sweater under a jumper. She calls herself the Man Repeller because she used to say, ‘I can’t find a boyfriend’ and her friends said, ‘It’s because of the way you dress. It repels men.’ I love her. She helps me pick out outfits via email for big events. I emailed her once to see if she could help me put together stage outfits, and she’s helped me pick out a few. I went to this exciting Grammy party around Grammy time and she helped me pick out an outfit.
KJ: Is your “stage style” different from your “street style,” or are they more fluid?
CS: I try to go for something that I would never wear off-stage. It would just be too loud or too much. Everything on stage looks so much smaller. The makeup has to be bolder, too. You see someone come off stage and you think, ‘Wow, she’s wearing a lot of make-up.’ But if I don’t wear it, I look sick. You have to overdo it and go really big. It’s like the stage rules for dancing – you have to take up a lot of space and think about all the negative space between your arms and your legs and your body.
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Although neither Caroline’s street outfits nor her stage getups come close to mirroring her mom’s taste—you might even call the mother and daughter duo fashion opposites—one thing was clear as we spent a few relaxed hours chatting with them: they both have style. Moreover, they respect each other’s individuality. They embrace one another’s identity. It’s the same affirmation that comes alive in Caroline’s newer tracks—and that passes visibly between the two when they have a heart-to-heart. Come to think of it, maybe it’s love.
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Kinzy Janssen is The Riveter‘s associate editor. You can follow her @KinzyJ.
