Everyday Community High Junior, Sophie Tulip puts on other people’s clothing. Her wardrobe consists of a myriad of vintage frocks, hand-me-downs, and eccentric pieces she has collected over the years; many of which depict not only her unique style sensibilities, but of her family, friends, and women of different eras.

Tulip has acquired clothing from all sorts of places. Albeit in many instances, she has not had to search far from her own family tree to find something with not only distinctive, but also sentimental value. “My grandma always gives me cool sunglasses from the 70s,” she begins to list things she’s received: A pair of black Doc Martens that belonged to her brother Christian, they remind her of when he was a preteen; A striped-burgundy floor length dress with bishop sleeves, from her father Malcolm, when we worked with the CHS Theater, “[It] reminds me of when I was little.”

For Tulip though, receiving clothes is not always a wholesome passing down of domestic mementos. Her black silk dress with a multicolored ticket-stub print, for example. Friend, Aiyana inherited dresses from a deceased great-grandmother and deemed the black dress ugly, handing it over to Tulip.

Maybe costumes or unwanted leftovers in their past life, Tulip’s clothes have no archetype for the story behind them. From “pucci-esque” to fabric that “feels like plastic,” Tulip has been collecting vintage dresses since sixth grade. “They’ve just become part of my wardrobe,” she said, describing the flamboyant to outrageous articles that she has acquired. For Tulip it’s verges comic, often wondering, “Who was the lady who bought that?”

More importantly, it intrigues her to ponder about how women dressed in the past, and the importance of it all.

For Tulip, the importance of self-expression through fashion has always been of great importance. “[My mother] really emphasized the importance of looking put together, and that what you wear will affect how you feel and determines how people will perceive you.”

It is with this mentality that Tulip finds a connection with the vintage clothing she collects. It’s a more intimate and direct expression of a time or facet of her personal style. “[It’s] not mass produced.” She explains, “To think that someone was wearing it before me.” It is that notion that makes it all worth it, having the clothes come by as they do, the idea that they are a depiction of more than herself.