Travel Style Inspiration and Being Influenced by an American Girl Doll

A conversation from a womb-like hotel room in Berlin

If I had to describe my friend Elizabeth in one word, I could never do it. If I had to describe her style in one word, it might be “iconic.”

I met Liz when we both moved into a one-bathroom bungalow in Dublin, with our 80-year-old landlady as our third housemate. During that year, Liz thrifted the most incredible pair of men’s, ochre yellow, corduroy pants and wore them with button up shirts and a swipe of red lipstick. She knows her colors better than most people and has a knack for picking the prettiest pale pink dresses that harmonize perfectly with her complexion. Once, she walked into a barber shop and said, “I want to look like Cillian Murphy” (Peaky Blinders era).

In those early Dublin days, I spent countless evenings lying on Liz’s bed watching meditatively as she embroidered a patch onto her signature denim jacket or applied a full face of makeup and then wiped it away, like a sand mandala designed to teach us about the impermanence of things.

Her vibe is wool socks and Mary Janes, septum piercings and blue mascara, dressing like a little boy on vacation and also, somehow, like a total babe.

Liz and I talk about style with each other constantly, which makes sense as we have accompanied each other through many evolutions in our early adulthood. “Everything’s changing but I’m still here” could be one interpretation of that eight-year long conversation about clothes.

Recently, Liz and I met for a three-day trip to Berlin and in advance we started a shared Pinterest board to gather outfit inspiration (obviously). When Liz saved a photo of Robin Williams as Mork to the page, I knew her backpack was going to be filled with sartorial treasures. Below, Liz and I lounge around in our pink hotel room and I ask her about travel style inspiration, her Berlin capsule wardrobe and about her fashion sense more generally (spoiler alert: it’s really cool).

Berlin Trip Capsule

Travel Style Inspiration

Sarah: Tell me about the clothes you brought to Berlin. What was the vision behind your packing decisions?

Elizabeth: I was thinking about a capsule wardrobe for an artsy city that wears a lot of black (allegedly). Thankfully we’ve learned that people also wear color, so that’s good, but I was sort of intimidated. I quickly realized that I don’t have any black in my wardrobe. But I have a lot of artsy!

The Items

• A men’s blue button up shirt, linoprinted with the phrase “Lucky You” - I made the linoprints for a work event that was all about oracles and fortune telling and that kind of thing. It’s inspired by Lucky Fortune Fish from childhood. I put “Lucky You! Lucky You! Lucky You!” on it because I’ve had a lot of bad luck this year. It felt cathartic.

• A short-sleeve sweater - It was designed by a Belfast artist (@lil.pilgrim.knitwear on Instagram) and I got it at the design school in Belfast. It has almost a sweater vest vibe to it and has these squiggly bits inspired by the London Underground. I thought, “Berlin has an underground as well, or at least a train” and I thought it was going to be cold.

• Green trousers - These feel like a Berlin item to me, I don’t know why. [Sarah: militant!] Militant! Yeah, maybe it’s a military thing.

• A Thrift Gremlin t-shirt made by @kathleenillustrated - She is very cool and a big fashion inspiration for me because she does so much customizing of her clothes. I’ve tried so many things because I’ve seen her do them.

• A black denim jacket - I bought this as a treat for the trip. It has huge pockets so I can go out and not carry a bag. Which has not happened yet, but I could.

• A club-worthy top - You know those memes where it’s like “Let’s go to the club” and it’s just a picture of somebody’s wardrobe and it’s all sweaters? That’s how I feel. So I brought this floral mesh shirt that felt like the most club appropriate thing in my wardrobe.

• A cargo skirt - My husband hates this skirt. I think it would be at home in a Berlin club.

• A pair of stompy boots

• Accessory - The real star of the show is this pair of spirit level earrings I thrifted. And they’re green! Which is one of my main colors.

Early Style Moments

Sarah: Growing up, what was your household take on style?

Elizabeth: My mom was very practical and I mostly wore play clothes, hand-me-downs from my older brother or cargo shorts and t-shirts that used to belong to my dad.

My mom has more feminine taste and I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy. She always tried to get me into things with frilly lace details, and I hated that, but we had a lot of fun shopping together.

Even though we had really different styles, I wore a lot of her clothes as a teenager. She had a tweed jacket with enormous shoulder pads that was her “working girl” outfit in the 80’s. I wore it to school just about every cold day during junior and senior year of high school.

I also wore a bridesmaid’s dress that belonged to my mom to my senior prom. It was a navy blue floral print with pink cabbage roses, poofy sleeves, and a v-back. It would be really in style now! [Sarah: God, you’re so cool!] But I got bullied in Facebook comments by moms from the school! They saw the pictures and were like “What the fuck is that girl wearing?” And I was like, “It’s a vintage dress and I can see you.” Tell me you don’t have taste, you know?

Sarah: Do you feel like being from California has influenced your style?

Elizabeth: I feel like my California style influence is the Beach Boys. But I hate dressing for hot weather.

I don’t feel like my style fits in California, or at least it didn’t when I was growing up. Vintage style was more popular in LA but I’m from Orange County and the style was mostly surf brands or ugly designer shit from the outlet mall.

Sarah: I can see elements of California in your style. The effortlessness of it, the colors…

Elizabeth: The colors! I wear a lot of burnt oranges and greens and that does feel very 70’s California to me. When I was a teenager I loved Big Sur hippie style.

Style Influences

Sarah: Are there celebrities or fictional characters who have been reference points for your style?

Elizabeth: 100%.

• Kit Kittredge was my first fashion moment when I was a child. My big first fashion decision was to cut my hair into a bob. I was entering a round, pre-growth spurt phase and I had this horrible little bob like Kit and I felt really good about it. But I look back at photos now and I’m like…a little lad, who loves berries and cream.

• Haley Nahman - She does the unbuttoned, structured, tomboy thing really well.

• The mom in “About Time” - In the movie they say “Her style icon was the queen” and I feel that’s a bit ungenerous. She wears Wellington boots and a big wax jacket. I don’t know, I just like her style.

• Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I. - I watched a lot of Magnum P.I. with my dad and I love Tom Selleck’s fashion in that show. He wears a lot of short shorts.

• Kathleen Kelly in “You’ve Got Mail” - Every single of of her outfits. She really hits it out of the park. She looks so prepared for the weather.

• Also Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally”… and Billy Crystal! - I thrifted an incredible white cable knit sweater that is giving Billy Crystal squatting on the ground. I think it will be cute on me but my husband also tried it on and he wants it.

Sarah: Do you and your husband share clothes?

Elizabeth: We do! He wears a lot more of my clothes than I wear of his. We have a button up collection that is very interchangeable but there are certain ones I won’t let him wear unless he’s going to be well-behaved because he’s known to stain clothing. And so am I, but for some reason I don’t care when I do it. When he does it I’m like, “How dare you?”

Style Words

Sarah: We’ve talked a lot about Allison Bornstein’s Three Word Method before, what are your words?

Elizabeth: Heritage, Academic, and Tomboy!

To me, this means that I wear a lot of vintage-y textures and natural fabrics. Linen, cotton poplin shirts…. I take a lot of inspiration from vintage academic shirts and also love sporty little shorts like a surfer would wear.

I like to wear a lot of really structured clothes but not in a structured way. One of my favorite summer shirts is a yellow Brooks Brothers linen shirt and I like it most when it’s a little wrinkly.

Sarah: I feel like the childhood style influences you described really show up in your three words… wearing your older brother’s hand-me-downs or borrowing your mom’s vintage tweed jacket. Was your “academic” word strongly influenced by the places you’ve lived as an adult?

Elizabeth: I’ve always liked academic looks but living in Oxford has definitely influenced me. In Oxford, people wear a lot of corduroy and tweed. I always see people there who have these old wool sweaters, worn over little button ups, and the whole elbow of the sweater will have been obliterated and they haven’t fixed it. I like that look.

Final Thoughts

Sarah: What do you want your style to say about you?

Elizabeth: I want baristas and men with little mustaches to think I’m cool.

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Thank you, Liz, for being the coolest! I can’t wait for many more mini-break Pinterest boards in our future.