| Style File
Meet the Muse: Charlotte Kidd
30 Jun 2011, 8:49 pm
Girl-about-town Natalie Joos spends her days casting for shows like ADAM and Yigal Azrouël and editorials for the likes of Mario Sorrenti and Mariano Vivanco, but her passion is vintage clothing. Joos’ blog, Tales of Endearment, spotlights Joos’ “Muses,” impeccably styled girls who share her secondhand obsession. In a new partnership with Style.com, Tales of Endearment’s subjects will preview their shoots right here on Style File.
 Not too tight, nor too clingy. Those are the basic wardrobe requirements of Natalie Joos’ latest Muse, New York artist Charlotte Kidd. “My thought was, if some wild apocalypse happened, I’d always be able to get away in what I was wearing,” she explains. But this Kidd is more than all right. Her perfect getaway outfit includes a motorcycle jacket, oxfords, and sailor pants, and her wardrobe is complemented by a well-curated collection of eclectic pieces, such as prairie capes and baseball jackets. Style.com caught up with the Kidd Yellin art studio co-founder (she created the compound with Dustin Yellin in 2007) to find out where she nabs her enviable vintage pieces and talk about art’s influence on her sartorial choices. —Kristin Studeman
 How did you first become interested in vintage?
I was about 12 years old, with not much pocket money, and would go with my girlfriends to the flea markets and Goodwill to hunt.
And how would you describe your style these days?
Easy and simple. [I'm inspired by] Coco Chanel [and] strong women who are true to themselves.
Strong women—and yet in her story, Natalie describes you as a tomboy at heart. What’s the most feminine piece of clothing in your closet?
An antique wedding dress!
What are some of your favorite pieces from your wardrobe, both vintage and non-vintage?
An 1880’s bear coat that used to belong to a hunter, [a] leather jacket, my necklaces of porcupine quills that I got in the Amazon, Givenchy jumpsuits, stripey sweaters, a Louis Féraud white sixties coat, black ankle boots, and countless jeans.
Where do you like to buy your vintage pieces?
EBay and on road trips. Things are so picked over and everyone knows what everything is worth now, so you have to go off the radar. The Upper East Side, Palm Beach, Palm Springs—places where older ladies give away their Yves Saint Laurent for nothing!
What do you look for in particular?
Victorian mourning capes, white lace, worn-in motorcycle jackets, old Japanese army boots, 1920’s bathing suits, Americana.
How does your fashion sensibility connect with your artistic sensibility?
I get inspired by costumes in the films and paintings I’m looking at that moment. [Right now,] Picnic at Hanging Rock, Jules and Jim, Buster Keaton, the coolness of [Michelangelo] Antonioni, the colors of Japanese woodblock prints…
Finish the thought: What’s old is new again when…
You reinvent it!
For more from Charlotte’s shoot, visit Tales of Endearment. Photos: Natalie Joos |
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