Quad Style: Elizabeth Winkler

My name is Elizabeth Winkler. I’m a second-year English major and I need to start cross-stitching again. Though this is, perhaps, predictable, most of my RSOs are word-oriented: I write for MODA’s Blog and Magazine, the Viewpoints section of the Maroon (as well as being on the paper’s copy-editing team), am on the staff of Sliced Bread, and just joined the Ultimate Frisbee team! When I’m not bemoaning the lack of hikable nature close to campus, I can usually be found in one of Chicago’s coffee shops (I’m on the hunt for the city’s best scone) or a vintage market. 

How would you describe your personal style?

Definitely vintage-inspired. Deliberate, playful, original, confident.

I’m in love with this vintage top (sweater? shirt? both?) from the Randolph Street Vintage Market and bag from the Chicago Vintage Clothing and Jewelry show in Andersonville a few weeks ago. The necklace was my grandmother's, the earrings are from somewhere in NYC’s Koreatown, vintage corduroys and belt from 10 Ft. Single by Stella Dallas, bralette from Victoria’s Secret, and a pair of vintage shoes by John Fluevog from the Rummage Room, my local thrift store.

Where do you find style inspiration?

I knew you were going to ask this question, but it’s still a hard one to answer. A lot of my inspiration comes from the clothes themselves – that’s part of the reason I love vintage so much. Each piece has its own life, its own story, and shopping in vintage and thrift stores is a quest for something that speaks to me, that I can’t walk away from; there’s definitely a romance to it. I credit my grandmother with setting me on this path – I used to spend hours in her attic trying on clothes she’d saved from every decade of the 1900s, growing into dresses and out of shoes, waiting for the day when I could get my ears pierced and try on her earrings. Beyond that, I’m always inspired by people who challenge any preconceived notions I might have about fashion, be that in the places they shop, the colors and patterns they combine, or the unique and interesting looks they create.

“Each piece has its own life, its own story, and shopping in vintage and thrift stores is a quest for the one that speaks to me”

I’m wearing Zara faux-leather pants, a vintage cropped blazer from No Relation Vintage in NYC, Forever 21 top, my grandmother’s earrings and jaguar pin, Doc Martens Leona boots, and an amazing silver purse that was also my grandmother’s.

Where do you like to shop?

I find most of my favorite pieces at vintage, thrift, and second-hand stores, but I’ve been known to spend hours in Forever 21 or Zara finding one piece that I love and that will last me more than one season – buying “fast fashion” doesn’t have to mean subscribing to that industry’s traditional waste cycle. Oh, and if you’re ever in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, hop off the subway at Bedford Street and go to 10 Ft. Single by Stella Dallas. It’s a vintage store and it’s amazing and yes that is in fact its name.

Do you have any fashion regrets?

No regrets because it all added up to the person I am now, but there are some things I did in the past that I wouldn’t do today. Case in point: slip-on Merrills.

“ There’s an incredible beauty to the fact that the only restriction on our clothing choices is imagination ”

This dress was my grandmother’s (petticoat!), and I’ve combined it with a leather jacket my mom found in Vermont, a necklace from Earth Girl Designs in the Adirondacks (you can see the silhouette of several ADK mountains against the sunrise/sunset), earrings from a vintage store in Lincoln Park, and another pair of vintage Fluevogs from the Rummage Room.

What is your relationship to fashion? Has it changed over time?

Until I was 12 or so I didn’t take much of an interest in where I shopped, and I really cared about other people’s opinions of what I wore and how I looked. By the time I left middle school, though, I had decided that the only opinion of my wardrobe that mattered was my own, and had started to gain confidence in my body. I became a very recognizable figure at my high school, pushing the “polo and kilt” uniform to be more than just an unappealing shirt and a miniskirt, and refusing to subscribe to the leggings-and-sweatshirt norm on free-dress days. I have always been thrifty with money, even with something I love as much as clothes, so I am very deliberate about what I buy – if I don’t love it, it doesn’t come home with me.

Why is fashion important to you?

It makes me happy. That’s the simple answer. There’s an incredible beauty to the fact that the only restriction on our clothing choices is imagination – mine, yours, a  designer’s, a thrift store curator’s. I have fun with clothes, often in ways that break fashion norms, and, I hope, remind those I interact with that social restrictions only matter as much as you let them. I am a firm believer that a great outfit is anything worn with confidence. That, I think, is one of the most important aspects of fashion: it pushes you to embrace risk, to trust yourself, to become more decisive, and to grow not only in self-acceptance, but in self-love.

“That, I think, is one of the most important aspects of fashion: it pushes you to embrace risk, to trust yourself, to become more decisive, and to grow not only in self-acceptance, but in self-love.”

All photos courtesy of Grace Peguese, to see more of her work, check out her portfolio here.