DIY Couture??

Over the weekend I'd gone shopping over to Dubai Mall to get some much needed retail therapy. I found this top and sneaked in a pic on my iPhone to email out to my best friend in New York. She's going to kill me for narrating this, but this "safety pin top" brings back quite a few old memories for us. While we went to college in Boston, the conservative New England culture dictated the way kids dressed, and we all wore clothes that were quite preppy and J Crew'ish. After graduation, I moved to Dubai, and Payal got herself a job and moved to the fashion capital that is New York. I visited her a few months later, and found my otherwise plain Jane bestie had gotten herself quite an NY makeover. Her dressed down all-black wardrobe was suddenly replaced with leather pants and these trendy geometrical tops that I didn't quite understand.
One evening while going out, I found Payal wearing a ripped t-shirt with a few safety pins decorating the front of it. "It looks like your t-shirt ripped and your pins are holding it together," I'd said. "That's PRECISELY what I got it to do!" she'd responded. She'd seen a designer version of a top with safety pins all over it, balked at the price, and decided to instead do a DIY version at home. I'm glad in time she moved past her weird clothing phase, and we could still be friends.
And here, ten years later, is yet another safety pin top in a designer store (with a balk-worthy price-tag), that might lead to a young, innocent and very clueless girl somewhere, trying to copy at home... Who of course, will have a very cynical and unforgiving BFF who'll make fun of her for it a decade after the deed is done. If she's very, very unlucky, said BFF might decide to start a blog. Aah... Memories.