Why the name Coastally Collected you may ask? Well, in the fall of 2010, I started my freshman year at the George Washington University in Washington DC. Having lived in Southern California all of my life, I had no idea what East Coast Culture was like, much less had no idea how foreign it was to the traditional laid-back, effortless attitude that I had grown up around all of my life.
You might ask how I was so ignorant to this. Yes, I had made annual trips to New York City at the end of August for a week of shopping and for the U.S. Open, but my short trips gave me no sense for what the lifestyle was like.
So naturally, I stuck out a bit on my first day of class in my black destroyed Current Elliot skinny jeans, an oversize white tee and Nike high tops. I was among a sea of girls and guys sporting preppy pastels, a style that I never knew was popular, much less knew existed.
I was the tan, blonde girl who didn’t know that Vinyard Vines was a brand, not a place, that the country club lifestyle were actually a real thing and not a myth and that Lily Pulitzer was not some popular girl in the school and was actually a fashionable brand that was a popular, preppy, New England brand. I didn’t realize that seasonal weather consisted of actually wearing something more than my heavy array of Vince cardigans that I whipped out when the weather would be at a low of 55 degrees in California. You actually had to wear a coat, and say good bye to enjoying the outdoors. Also, being nice and smiley is not usually a thing back east, usually a thing that I was certainly not aware of. Hence, as my best friends told me, they couldn’t take me seriously and didn’t think I was “for real” until a solid month.
My first day, weeks and months reminded me of Lindsey Lohan’s character, Caddie in “Mean Girls,” in the begging scene where she first introduces herself as Caddie, the caucasian girl who was homeschooled from Africa and received the infamous comment from Karen, “If you’re from Africa, why are you white?”
So, my first week and first few months in the District were definitely a major adjustment for me all around. However, once I got used to my new surroundings, like Caddie, I adjusted A-ok. Now, I’m the one giving directions for how to navigate what line you should take on the metro or where you should go out for a drink in Georgetown (RIP Rugby) or what my favorite museum is (Newseum of course). I know where to shop for my Lily dress for the Foxfields and when I should whip out the Barbour Jacket.
All in all, Coastally Collected is a Californian’s take on East Coast fashion, food and lifestyle.
Keep calm and coast on,
Jules XX
coastally collected 