“I Call This Look…” points out our everyday performance of combining experiences with fashion

by Joanna Demkiewicz

Journalist and STEVIE ZINE founder Alana Levinson is using the most malleable performance space there is – the Internet – to explore how she performs different identities via fashion. As a Medium staff writer, she has found the ideal sharing space to post stories that are a part of her identity campaign, aptly called, “I Call This Look…”

For those of you who have yet to discover Medium – get typing. Medium calls itself an “idea distribution system,” in which users can publish their own work, and follow and interact with other writers and publications, like The New Yorker, Matter, (and even, ahem, The Riveter.) It’s half blogging platform, half social network.

“I Call This Look…” might seem simple at first glance, but Levinson’s intentions behind mirror selfies paired with mini biographies are to explore how often she uses clothes to transform, especially on days when being herself doesn’t feel great. The universality of feeling “off” and reaching for that yard sale kimono or those bold, rhinestone flares – the ones you’ve had for three years but have only worn once, to a costume party – is what makes Levinson’s project so approachable. In short, we’ve all been there. Or rather, we’ve all needed to be outside of ourselves for a little while, whether it’s for inspiration, avoidance or experimentation.

Levinson’s first “look” was “Miranda, the barista with delusions of grandeur.” Miranda, she says, “is still figuring things out, but in some ways has the confidence of a woman three times her age.” Also: “She drinks rosé like a sailor, carries her cigarettes in one of those vintage cases covered in rhinestones, and is barefoot whenever possible. And she doesn’t have lovers, she ‘takes’ them. Often while wearing this glamorous robe.”

Levinson has invited others to submit their own “looks” by uploading a selfie and story to Medium and tagging the post #ICallThisLook. She’s branching out of her own self-awareness and its connection to fashion because she wants to learn more about how different women perform their gender.

“I think we all do this kind of performance — on a spectrum from subtle to extreme,” she says. “And in addition to each having our own individual sense of style, we also bring our own set of experiences to each outfit.”

I spoke with Levinson about Rihanna, thrift store finds, and the subtle performance of dressing.

Joanna Demkiewicz: What inspired you to begin this campaign, and to kick it off with Miranda? 

Alana Levinson: This project started innocently enough. One day, I was wearing a particularly wacky outfit and posted a selfie on Twitter with a description of the person I was “being” that day. After doing it a couple of times, I noticed that these tweets were kind of popular. Even when the outfit was relatively normal, people seemed to enjoy the characters I came up with. But I only had 140 characters, so I couldn’t really get as creative as I wanted to. When Medium launched its new Letters feature, which allows you to send an email newsletter straight from the platform, it seemed like the perfect time to start the series over. I honestly didn’t plan anything out, not even that first one. It just came to me that morning.

JD: You buy a lot of your clothes from thrift stores. Do you always imagine a story behind each clothing item you buy? What’s interesting to you about wearing someone else’s clothes as your own?

AL: Almost everything I own is from thrift stores. Not fancy, boutique ones: I’m talking Salvation Army and Goodwill. From a young age, I’ve always been a big fan of thrifting because it’s cheap and I like hunting for my clothes like they are pieces of treasure. Even more than that, though, I’ve always loved the idea that the clothing item had an entire life before me. Who was the person that owned this and what did it mean to them? Were they wearing it on their first day at a new job, or when they fell in love with someone? I think sometimes we forget how many memories we carry in our clothes.

JD: Why do you think the act of taking on another persona for the day is an empowering aspect of performing your gender? Why do you think this is exclusive to identifying as a woman (or do you)?

AL: There are a lot of shitty things about being a woman and getting dressed in the morning. Thinking about how you are “fat,” or how you’ll be catcalled on the way to work, for example. But in this project I’ve actually channeled that hyper-awareness of how I’m perceived into something fun. I like the idea that I can be different people depending on how I present myself. There is freedom in that.

I don’t think this is exclusive to identifying as a woman, although I do think our options fashion-wise lend themselves to a wider array of identities, and I’m not sure men really think through how they are perceived in the same way. But I’ve gotten two really hilarious “looks” from men, so maybe I’m wrong! In general, though, I do think girls learn how to do this at a very young age when they are encouraged to play dress-up with their friends.

JD: What do you say to those who might claim your “looks” are stereotypical or judgy?

AL: In launching this project, I set out to explore all of the different women that are in some way a part of me. Each look is very detailed and specific because I have access to that narrative through some kind of personal experience. Sometimes that means I’m poking fun at myself, or maybe a woman I have known.

JD: I’m dressing as you today. What am I wearing and why?

AL: My style is so all over the place that it’s hard to pick just one outfit. I feel the same way about clothes as I do about perfume: I’ve never been a fan of signature scents. Different occasions/moods call for different expressions of self. But I think if you boiled my style down to its essence, you’d be left with jorts, Vans and a t-shirt. At heart, I’ll always be a girl from San Francisco.

JD: If you could “mood board” about fashion right now, who would be on your board? 

AL: Every single look in Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” music video.

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Joanna Demkiewicz is The Riveter’s co-founder and executive editor. Find her on Twitter at @yanna_dem.