casual slay - styled by shawna
stylist, costume designer, and greenpoint buyer shawna illuminates facets of her personality and creates new realities with every outfit.
describe your style...
my style has evolved over the years so many times, but right now it’s definitely biz caszh. overall, when dressing i love to position the idea of the femininity of my curves, hair, and makeup with the underlying more masculine aspects of my personality. it’s nothing revolutionary these days, but i still dig the classic power of a woman who can make a men’s suit look sexy. i wear a lot of suits. they sort of effortlessly make me feel pulled together.
what was the inspiration behind this shoot?
i debated what to wear and decided the most honest depiction would be to not dress up for the camera but show real outfits that i wear every day. i work in fashion but don’t agree with spreading the illusion of a glamorous lifestyle. at the moment i like the idea of having a uniform and am trying to embrace the concept of capsule dressing as opposed to excessive options. i’d rather have 10 timeless well made pieces than 100 things i’ll hate in a few months. that’s a big change for a person who used to do a wardrobe change 3x a day and never wore the same thing twice!
how did you first get interested in clothes?
my mother loved to window shop and used to drag my sister and me with her to the mall as soon as we could walk. trying on clothes and putting together outfits was just something that was a part of my life from the very beginning. my parents also never restricted the media that we consumed. at a very young age, i saw women and men in film and music who had such incredible style and i grew up wanting to emulate them in whatever way i could. the entire cast of the lost boys, emmanuel seigner in frantic, kim bassinger in 9 1/2 weeks, everything annie pots did, figures like those and so many others really ignited my interest in style and shaped my philosophy that you can literally wear facets of your personality and create a new reality with every outfit you put on.
earliest fashion memory?
my older brother showed me how to french roll my acid wash jeans when i was five, telling me that “this is how the cool girls in the 8th grade do it.” i remember being a young child in the 80s and looking at the older “bad kids” and thinking they were so cool and wanted to look like them. the girls had such big bangs and i was obsessed. even in my small country hometown, punk, new wave, and metal played such a huge roll in how they dressed. when lacking inspiration i still think of those 80s girls who seemed so tough.
outside of buying what are you up to these days?
i’ve been working freelance as a stylist and costume designer for the past 8 years. it has been such a huge part of my life for so long that my work and identity have become intertwined. currently, i’m giving myself a little more breathing room to slow down the hustle, work exclusively on projects that excite me, and take more time to nurture relationships with my friends and family that too often get neglected. it’s a big change, but it’s kind of exciting to rediscover who i am when left to my own devices.
