issue 253

My best friend from basically birth is on the up and up. She lives in New York City. She’s a beautiful young fashion designer who helps head up the powerful duo Love Brigade. And their namesake is sweeping the nation, little by little.

Ever since we were very small, my friend has had what some might call a unique sense of fashion, what others might call (or have called) crazy, but everyone has always agreed that she is the only person who could pull off her look. One day in middle school I saw her walking through the hall wearing plum colored tights, a plum skirt and a plum velour turtle-neck with her hair divided into five braids of various sizes. I remember thinking how crazy she looked, how I would never be caught dead wearing an outfit like that, but she had somehow made it work. And had also somehow sidestepped the colossal humiliation that middle-school seemed to represent all because she was sure of herself.

When we were in college she would layer shirts upon shirts, wear lime green and leopard print together, and cut holes in her pants and shirts in ways I would have never imagined. She wore outfits I still wouldn’t be caught dead in, but she never cared and always looked good. Just very bold.

I’d seen her participate in a few fashion shows while we were in college, but that was the last of my involvement. Most of Love Brigade’s success began to occur while I was out in Oakland, so all I experienced of her new fashion line were the phone calls and the occasional photo, which was very occasional because she doesn’t even own a camera.

Needless to say, I was excited to attend Love Brigade’s fashion show for the Up and Cummer’s Fashion Forward event. However, no phone conversation or photograph could have prepared me for what I was going to see. What used to be a girl with a dream was suddenly a girl with a career. She was really a designer. It was dazzling, to put it simply.

As soon as we walked in for the interview (I was also covering the event) I saw her walking through the hall, a string of beautiful models following behind her.

“I’m going to show them the walk,” she said, quickly hugging me. Her outfit was still outrageous, but this time it was chic and smart and made so much sense. This time, I wanted to take the clothes right off her back and go change my outfit.

“You look so great,” I said. Her black and white striped dress hung effortlessly on her now much thinner frame. She had it pinned in the back with a few funky broaches. Her boots crumpled around her calf. It all looked so easy on her.

“Oh thanks,” she said, shrugging it off. “But this isn’t what I’m wearing tonight.” You can imagine my surprise.

Later, I went backstage to a room full of models getting sequins glued on their faces, hair was being sprayed to stick straight up into the air. There were people sorting through racks of clothing, half eaten sandwiches sitting on sad paper plates and miniature bottles of water strewn about the room. Everyone looked great. I felt what might have been imagined eyes of wonder on me as I hung out with her and the other Love Brigade crew. I was on the inside of a very elite club. How wonderful.

My friend changed into her new outfit, another Love Brigade creation. She wore an amazing pair of pants that looked straight out of a space station. Her dream was fully realized and it all worked.

Hundreds of people had shown up for the event. A few members of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus were there, looking very rock and roll. Everyone in attendance had at least made an attempt at being fashionable, which is more than can be said for a lot of events in Jacksonville. One woman even wore a dress so short that even crossed legs couldn’t hide an indecent snapshot of what was underneath. Perhaps Perez Hilton would take note.

Finally, Love Brigade’s models started walking down the runway. Their models were serious and very professional. They knew how to pose for the camera without making it seem like they were posing for the camera.

And the clothes were stunning. It was seriously more amazing than I could have imagined. I wanted to buy everything I saw, if I could actually afford to. I recognized bits of my friend’s style in every single piece, and I knew that these were clothes she had been designing for years in her head. It had just taken that long for the rest of the world to catch up, me included.

I feel proud anytime something great comes out of this city, because I think this city is great and I feel like the world should know it. I never dreamt one of those things would come out of my best friend, practically my sister, but it has. She is off showing the world how fashionable Jacksonville can be by being her same old fashionable self.