million dollars to tell them which shoes look best with which jeans she’d probably just shrug and not even pretend to be sad about losing the money I told her this one time and she just told me I’ll take the loss if it means I don’t have to hurt my brain thinking about it Besides that’s what I have you for Alex and I may be best friends but we’re total opposites when it comes to caring about clothes I learned a long time ago not to push my fashion ideas onto her But even though Alex may not care about which shirt or shoes go with what her ability to think outside the box is mind-boggling I can be stuck on a design idea for days and all Alex has to do is look at my patterns and drawings for two seconds and boom She comes up with some idea that works perfectly but is not at all what I would’ve come up with alone Here’s a perfect example Last week I was trying to come up with an outfit for the school’s carnival I
had my black jeans and a loose sleeveless white blouse draped over my chair with a pair of flat black gladiator sandals on the floor I liked the combo but I wanted a little oomph Alex opened my closet stood there for about half a second and pulled out my red and-black paisley scarf The same scarf I’d passed over for being too busy Done she’d said I had my doubts but when I held the scarf up of course she was totally right Poof The outfit came together Alex was also the one who gave me the guts to start creating my own clothes When I was growing up my family didn’t have a ton of money and my mom used to take my clothes to Mrs Murphy this woman in our old apartment building to make them last longer She did an okay job letting out hems and waists to make my clothes last another year
SCHOOL CARNIVAL Design THANKS ALEX SLEEVELESS BLOUSE RED BLACK PRINT SCARF GLADIATOR SANDALS BLACK SKINNY JEANS
sometimes two but I loved the looks in magazines I never said anything to my mom about it I knew she felt bad making me wear the same stuff year after year Instead I watched Mrs Murphy match colors thread needles take out one stitch and put in another Eventually I started sketching and sewing on my own but I was sure my designs weren’t good enough so I didn’t tell anyone except Alex One day when I was about twelve years old Alex and I were at the drug store when I started flipping through a fashion magazine Alex had leaned over my shoulder set down the chips and soda she was holding and picked up a copy of the magazine instead Before I knew what was happening she’d paid for it Here Alex had said handing it to me Consider it an early birthday present Thanks but you didn’t need to do that I’d replied
