Like Mother Like Daughter

Great Minds Think Alike

Full outfit pose

At the end of April 2024, my extended family worked together to plan a surprise 80th birthday party for my Aunt Lucille. My Aunt Lucille is a very active community member. In her 80 years so far on this planet, she also ran her own day care for awhile as well as helping organize and run events for various community organizations. You can always depend on her to make a dessert to sell for the bake sale, eggplant parmigiana for the craft fair, or answer all the vendor phone calls for the community tag sale. Any job that seems impossible or too much for other people, Aunt Lucille executes it well and makes lots of friends along the way. Not only was I able to see most of my extended cousins at this gathering, but also I caught up with many of the people who's children she helped raise, and neighbors and friends that were still living in the area.  My role at the party was simply to KEEP IT A SECRET and attend.  

Knowing that I didn't have to do anything except show up, I made sure I wore a lot of pink. When I think of my Aunt Lucille, I think of the color pink, so I wanted to incorporate it into my outfit for the day. I am wearing a black heart button down off white shirt with a frilly peter pan collar that also has a black velvet tie around the neck, a black denim studded mini skirt (you can see the matte black studs around the pockets), black and pink diamond tights, a pink long sleeve button down cardigan, pink and black platform creeper style sneakers, and a big light pink and white heart shaped bag. The heart bag repeats the heart shaped buttons, even though they are different colors, just as the diamond pattern on the shoes reflects back at the diamond pattern on the tights and the studs on the skirt. Even the ribbon design on the bag reflects the ribbon and frills on the shirt.  

My coworker always says that I always put soooo much thought into my outfits, as if not everyone did that. I guess that's why I'm writing about my fashion pursuits on my fine art website. Because fashion in every form is an art to me. 

Mom and me at the party

Now, come to find out, I wasn't the ONLY one who thought black and pink were the right colors for the occasion. Here's a candid photo of my mom and I. She also wore a pink blouse with silver bling around the neckline, black slacks and shoes, and matching jewelry and makeup. I think our lipstick colors almost completely match too!  We didn't even plan it. It just worked!

Me with the table arrangement my mom won but didn't want because she "already had too many vases"

My cousin Susan and her partner Vera made all the flower arrangements at the tables. We were instructed that the winner of the vase arrangement at each table was whoever's birthday was closest to Aunt Lucille's. I guess at my mom's table it was her, but she didn't want to deal with taking a vase home I think. The flowers worked really well with the different pinks in my outfit too! Luckily I brought Pahl with me, and he was very good at holding the vase with flowers on the car ride home. 

Pahl holding all the things so i can unlock the door

Pahl stands at the ready showcasing a little of his "normie" style clothing and holding all my things so I can open the door. Even without any pink in his outfit, the flowers and bag work harmoniously with the green of the lawn and the rhododendron to the right. 

I think for some people my day to day fashion wouldn't be considered normal, but it's the closest thing to normal outside of my fantastical and awesome historically inspired alt EGL fashion pursuits. Funny enough, my extended family was a little disappointed that I didn't wear one of my EGL outfits to the birthday party. It's nice to know that my family now expects me to be eccentric, and I'll be sure to pick out an official EGL outfit to any parties going forward.