Hopping On

I’ll just admit it okay?

I’m part Trixie. I grew up on the North Shore. I went to a nice college. I wear my hair in ponytails and have been known to get a blond highlight or two. I wear black tops, jeans and black boots more often than not and think a pink tank top with a little Cubs bear on it is the cutest thing ever. I’ve lived exclusively on the North Side and maybe…just maybe, in my long distant past..I have gone tanning…

I know I know, I could lose serious readers this way.

But I have a point.

I follow the Trixies when it comes to fashion. I’m usually a few years behind when I finally catch on, but when I do it’s because I’ve been looking at what other girls like me are wearing.

One could definitely posit that I’m not a very “fashionable” person. I think that’s why Chicago suits me. We all generally wear the same thing around these parts – jeans, sneakers, t shirts – regardless of race, creed or color, Chicagoans basically wear the same thing but in different degrees of monetary value and hue.

But see, the Trixies are great at getting the word out. Once the thing for this year is decided on, it spreads like wildfire until even a blind person can see the trend. The Ugg boot for example, certainly Chicago is not the only city where the Ugg boot is popular but the sheer volume of bandwagoning must be unparalleled. Every Trixie from here to Winnetka had a pair. I tried, I did. I finally caved to an imagined peer pressure and purchased some fake ones. I couldn’t do it – they got wet and sloppy and I couldn’t walk in them. Alas…

This year there is a new trend and now that I have purchased mine, I see every other woman in Chicago has too. Again I have come in on the over-saturation point with my fashion purchases. But I don’t care! Because I have been looking for a cute hat and it just so happens that the hat I think is cute is currently the same style of hat being worn by 70% of Chicago’s North Side female population. So be it. Behold: My contribution to the 2010 Women of Chicago Conductor’s Cap Club: