Factory Girl: In the Closet with Emily Owen

As of late, I've found myself feeling a tad forlorn with this "business" of fashion. For more than a decade, devouring the glossy pages of a fashion magazine has served as my cure for inevitable bouts of the quarter-life-crisis blues. Nothing gets me more out of my head and outside of my baggage than losing myself in the beautiful illusion that is FASHION.

However, recently, fashion magazines seem less focused on the art of fashion and more obsessed with celebrity. How mundane! There is a plethora of publications in which profiling a reality star is appropriate, but an elite fashion magazine is not one of them. I don't pick up a fashion magazine to catch up on salacious LA gossip or mindlessly analyze which silver-spooned celebutante "wore it better" or to read "style-tips" from an over-indulged 16-year-old reality star sporting a $5,000 weave and hideous spray-tan. Save it for the tabloids, girl.

I read fashion magazines, because I want to get lost in expertly styled garments that tell a story.

Fully realizing I'm at high risk of becoming bitter and old for my 27 years, I decided it might be best to take a bit of a vacation from the modern fashion world before wrinkles prematurely take residence on to my face. I've seen what  perpetual disdain toward pop culture can do to a person's face, and it's not pretty.

So, on a particularly bitter pale-grey Tuesday afternoon, I contacted our local vintage goddess, Emily Owen, founder and sole creater of Virgin Vintage, which consists of a vintage shop on Etsy featuring rare, vintage finds (all in mint condition).  She also has a stunningly laid out website dedicated to the vintage lifestyle.

When Emily invited me to her charming, retro-chic home to go through her personal vintage collection, I was honored. It's a very special/intimate thing to be invited into the closet of a woman.

The porcelain-skinned-beauty led me into her closet and I found myself lost, in total bliss, as I took in her collection of bohemian penny-lane-like coats, factory-girl leopard print, silk kimonos, beautifully beaded purses, crocheted dresses and retro, daisy-adorned Vans.

Don't tempt me with a good time.

Being surrounded by vintage fashion was the breath of fresh air I oh-so needed. It was a necessary break from the celebrity-saturated world of fashion, and a pure (virginal) glance at the garments for the beautifully made works-of-art that they are.  I was equally taken with Owen herself. How lovely to spend the afternoon with a girl who so deeply knows her craft, for she is an absolute encyclopedia about the history of style. Check out her website.

Being in the closet isn't so bad — so long as you're surrounded by beautiful vintage clothing.