It was the fall of 1999 when my lover was revealed to me. The darkness of night had started to come early and the air had just begun to garner a crisp chill. I wanted to attend a soiree my fellow classmate was throwing in celebration of our senior year, but my mother worried that the night air in conjunction with my bargain bin threads would leave me with the "coups", as she so eloquently put it. In order to satisfy her need to keep me bundled from top to bottom and my need to venture out into the night air, I threw on wool-lined trench coat, wrapped my neck with a tassel lined plaid scarf and topped my head with my mother’s beanie. I was a sight for sore eyes...even underneath my heat enveloping layers.

Charmaine, my confidant and what some may call road dawg, would have her mother to pick me and drop us off at the party. The horn blew just as I gave myself one impetuous once over and kissed my content mother on the cheek. The whoosh of air that hit me from my front door made me thankful for my mother insistence on my outer garments, but I wasn’t so thankful by the time I reached the car door and hopped in the back seat. My eyes fell upon my lover and I could feel beads of sweat begin to trickle down the spine of my back. Beautiful, seductive and exuberantly understated…I was in love at first sight. Yet, my lover was wrapped around every inch of Charmaine’s curvy 5 foot 8 inch frame. Charmaine went to give me a hug and I pulled back ever so slightly before snapping back from the valley of betrayal that Charmaine and her Chanel bag totting mother had instantly driven me to. You see that night in the backseat of Charmaine’s mother’s car; I had fallen head over heels with fashion. To be more specific, I had fallen in love with Charmaine’s leather BCBG pants and top, creamy tan, red and black cashmere Burberry throw and matching hat. What in the heck was going on? In all the year’s that I had known Charmaine, she could care less about fashion. I mean her mother didn’t take a step out of the house without looking impeccable, but Charmaine? I could tell that this year was going to be drastically different for the both of us. Charmaine and I had both succumbed to our mother’s fashion sense that night– good, bad and ugly – and from that point on things would never be the same.

When we got out the car to head to the party, I got a full-length view of the one that I would love forever in all its chicness. “My mother thought the outfit wouldn’t be complete without her black boots,” Charmaine said coyly. She was right, pointed toe with a two-inch heel covered in soft black leather, the boots made one long extension of her legs. How could you be with her and not me I thought trying to pull my wool-lined trench and myself together before walking into the party? All eyes were on Charmaine and what I thought should have been my leather pants and Burberry ensemble. The two mingled and buzzed about, taunting me all night. I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to do something and I had to do something quick. I had just fallen in love with something that hadn’t been a part of me until tonight. I needed fashion and I needed it at that very moment! I headed for the bathroom trench, scarf and beanie in tow. I stood before the mirror contemplating how to bring my new love to me, even if it was an essence of its presence to get me through the night. After all, Charmaine took my true love for that night. So, I pulled down my circle neck sweater to bare my collarbone and shoulders, tied the tasseled lined plaid scarf around the waist of my jeans and ditched the scarf and beanie in the bathroom tub. (If I would have known what I know today, I would have rocked the beanie slightly to the back and let tendrils of curls wisp my collarbone.) I stepped out of the bathroom and from the look of the crowd, I had acquired my own love for the night, I had acquired fashion. From then on our love has only grown stronger. Fashion takes me from trendy nightlife settings hugging my hips in skinny pants and platform heels to shopping excursions with my mother clinging to my arm in the object of a trendy tote and golden bangles. Our current rendezvous' involve gold accessories, designer sneakers, peep toe heels, folded ankle boots, bohemian frocks and African inspired head wraps…What? My love and I like to set trends too! The bottom line, my affair with fashion will never end…it won’t let me!