how i wear anklets as a 28 year old teenager
+ my unexpected color of the summer, more shoe recs
We talked about it over voice messages, probably around March. It was Ethaney’s idea.
I really want us to make jewelry.
In May we did a wholesale buying trip in the LA jewelry district and came home with plastic sacks of baroque pearls, cabochon, cat’s eye, jade, carnelian, quartz, aventurine. Glittery and smooth. They sat untouched for a few weeks.
Fast forward to June. We’ve been spending evenings after work learning how to turn these little beads into something beautiful and structurally coherent. Hunched over my dining table (now turned beading station) watching Youtube videos on how to use pliers and jump rings. Spontaneous trips to Joanne’s. Taking breaks to chow down a working dinner of baguette sandwich and beans. Constant dramatic gasping and shrieking when one of us breaks a needle or messes up the bead pattern.
We laughed snarkily at how our beginner creations were looking very summer camp, very Pac Sun, very Billabong, very Disney gift shop, very middle school boy named Jake wearing a shark tooth necklace, very roadside souvenir. And honestly…they were. But I think that’s what ultimately feels so refreshing and summery about wearing them. Amateur bead jewelry works in channeling a carefree summer spirit, especially in anklet form. Anklets remind me of being a teenager. Worn with a pair of Rainbow sandals and Bullhead cutoff shorts with that little flower bubble bead on the back pocket??? You were unstoppable.
I am dying for a nice hot summer day. But where I live, it’s been gloomy and windy for what feels like forever. Gray days with blustery gusts of wind that pierce through the holes of my knit sweater, causing my skin to pucker up into goosebumps. Californians want California back. My only mode of escapism right now is wearing anklets. I can pretend I’m a beach town girl with no job, no responsibilities, no worries. Reverted back to my teenage years.
I think the key to styling an anklet in a Fashion way and not a San Luis Obispo visitor center way is in the shoe choice. My favorite shoe to wear with an anklet is…