Recently one of my favorite vintage stores, Cur.io Vintage (right in Waltham!) posted this great article on the inimitable Tziporah Salamon. I’m not really sure that describing her as “stylish” even does her justice. She needs her own word. She’s just so…Tziporah. It’s like “That’s So Raven” only she was never on The Cosby Show. The article explores how she puts together her famous looks, even waiting years (seven, in one case) to wear certain finds until she has what she considers the perfect, complete outfit.

I can’t even handle how elegant this woman is, seriously. She’s just so…Tziporah. Compared to her elegance, I feel like the kid from the “I like turtles” video.

I had two main takeaways from the article (besides reinforcement of my own inadequacy):

First, style is not the same as fashion. I love this. As someone who also eschews labels (But not as well. I’m not so Tziporah), I truly believe this and it’s a big part of being a vintage shopper. The look vs. the label. She says it best (Obviously. For the love of gosh, this woman!) “And I’m not fashionable at all; I’m stylish. Fashionable is of the moment. Fashionable is the latest Prada, Gucci, or whatever is “in” this minute, and I rarely have what’s in-the-moment. In fact, when I buy new clothes, which I do, the more you can’t tell who it is, the better. I’ll never wear something with someone’s initials or name on it.”

The second, hats! She loves hats. She wears a hat everyday. She considers them an exclamation point on an outfit, and she’s right. And in a strange alignment of the Universe, my darling friend Leslie brought me a bunch of hats this week that belonged to her grandmother.

Hats from my darling, Leslie

One of my favorite hats (and also #1 on the list of things I would grab if my apartment was on fire) is this awesome hat from my grandfather. That’s the handsome gent in the banner of this blog.

Hat stands, I’m a big fan.

My Gramps was wicked smaht, kid.

The hats I wear are usually more of the baseball variety but next time I see a hat I love I’ll ask myself “What What Tziporah Salamon Do?” and maybe be inspired to try it on. And buy it.  And find every perfect accompanying piece to go along with it, even if it takes years. And wear them all beautifully…yeah probably not.