Keatyn loves fashion! Shoes. Bags. Designer clothes. Putting together outfits for her with an unlimited budget is lots of fun! Because Keatyn tells you all about her clothes, I thought it would be fun if you could actually see the outfits she describes. She usually starts with a great pair of shoes.
I’ll just say it. I want Keatyn’s closet! I can’t talk about the series without taking a moment to reflect on all the clothing boards I created for these books. One hundred and thirty-three of them in total!
Originally, I starting using Polyvore to put together Keatyn’s looks, just so I would have an idea of what they looked like, could keep them straight, and write about them. Then it sort of became a slight obsession. I’d spend hours searching the Internet for the perfect combination of clothing for Keatyn to wear. And along the way, I had a great time with her style.
For those of you who don’t know, I have a degree in Fashion Merchandising, so I’ve always loved clothing. One of the things that interests me the most about it is the psychology behind how people choose what to wear and what it says about them. Regardless of your budget, two people could choose the same top and pant, but with accessories, hair style, and shoes, can make them look completely different. And I think that’s awesome and what makes us all individuals.
Keatyn’s clothing throughout the series also helped me to show her growth. When you first meet Keatyn, she already has a funky style. She mixes everything from vintage finds to designer wear, with no regard to price. It wouldn’t be unusual for her to mix an inexpensive dress with a designer shoe. But, when she dresses for other people, she usually has help. She often listens to what Vanessa tells her to wear or she will let her mom’s stylist, Kym, dress her. No matter how she came up with her outfits though, you will notice in the first few books, she gives us full, detailed accounts of what she’s wearing because it’s really important to her. As she grows up in the books, fashion is still important, but she starts making her own decisions. Choosing everything herself. And she doesn’t feel the need to list everything. It also shows that there are things more important in her life. Like surviving her showdown with Vincent.
For her school uniforms at Eastbrooke, I knew she couldn’t just wear a simple plaid skirt and oxford. She’d want to bring her own style to them. Something else that made her stand out there. It was a challenge to create multiple looks for her. In order to do this, I first had to name the school. Choose its location, school motto, colors, and mascot. I created twenty-one different uniform looks that Keatyn wore throughout the series. Along with that, I created fourteen more school spirit looks, including what she wore for dance practice, games, and Homecoming spirit week.
One of the times clothing really allowed me to show a change in Keatyn was in choosing her dress to wear on the field as Homecoming royalty.
It’s weird.
I want to look amazing in my dress but, for the first time in my life, it feels okay to want to blend in. To be part of something bigger than me. I get Whitney’s wanting to stand out. I never want to look like anyone but me. But what I really want is for the alumni to look at me and say, There’s an Eastbrooke girl.
And then again, when she wears one of her own looks, it gives her confidence.
I’m actually kind of excited to see Whitney. I hope she looks me up and down and gives me a dirty look. It will mean that I look good. Today is the first day that I haven’t worn one of Kym’s looks. I’m wearing a look I put together myself. As you would expect, it started with a new pair of shoes: deep red suede Louboutin T-strap platforms with leopard heels. I paired them with the plaid skort, a cream-colored Dolce & Gabbana ruffled-front silk blouse, red silk headband, black cardigan, and a fun Juicy Couture charm bracelet.
The clothing boards also held a few clues as to who Moon Boy would be. Aiden was the only boy in the series who got a few clothing boards of his own. He had two for Date Me. One showing what he wore to Pajama Day for Spirit Week, and also what he wore to Homecoming. (Which was interesting, since he wasn’t her date!) He has another one devoted to him in Adore Me for the dirt scene. And one for Hate Me featuring what he was wearing the night of the pool table scene. The other thing cool about Aiden is he shared Keatyn’s love for shopping and understood her love of shoes. (In fact, he had a lot of shoes himself.) Dressing both of them was a lot of fun.
And we can’t talk about Keatyn and Aiden and not mention the boots. Keatyn loves boots, and not just cowboy boots. She’s equally partial to any kind of boot or bootie. In fact, out of the 133 clothing boards, she has boots as part of her outfit in 44 of them. (Plus, an additional 8 pairs on the board that show her shoe shopping trip haul.)
I’ll leave you with a few of my personal favorite clothing-related scenes. This first one shows Keatyn’s willingness to stand up to Whitney in a way she never did with Vanessa.
Look eighteen is what I want. The navy, black, and red plaid skort; red lace bra—and if it happens to show a little under my skinny ribbed black tank, oh, well; short red cardigan, with only the middle button buttoned; black leather sliced cuff; and vintage black and gold Channel earrings. Kym showed it with a pair of cute flats, but I decide to go full out sexy and wear the black platform Gucci boots I brought from home.
My hair is full of big curls and my bangs are held back in a poof with a silver barrette. My makeup is soft and natural, except for a black eyeliner swoop and as much mascara as my lashes can hold.
And later. . .
As we walk away, I hear Whitney comment to the table, “Those boots are slutty.”
I know she’s the Queen. I know I shouldn’t do this, but I’m not letting her get away with slamming me. She knows I heard. She thinks I don’t have the balls to turn around and call her on it.
But guess what? I do.
But I’m not going to turn it into a fight. I’m going to pretend it wasn’t a slam. I’m going to kill her with kindness.
I turn around, smile big, and point down at my boots. “Oh, Whitney, honey, we really need to work on your designers. These boots aren’t Slutty, they’re Gucci.”
And this one, clothing was a way of showing a different side of Aiden, who is as much of a chameleon from a clothing standpoint as Keatyn.
When I come out of my room, ready to show off my new outfit, I am literally stopped in my tracks at the sight of Aiden.
He’s playing pool, wearing a plain white t-shirt, dark jeans, a scrumptious black leather Burberry Prorsum motorcycle jacket that I recognize from an ad, and the gunmetal Burberry aviators I got for his birthday.
He looks bad.
Do-me-on-a-motorcycle bad.
He looks so good it’s practically criminal, especially since he hasn’t shaved in a couple of days. That scruff is perfection.
It revs my motor just looking at him.
He pushes the glasses down his nose and checks me out.
“You look different,” I stutter out.
I get a smile and the result is devastating to my insides. A bad boy with a brilliant smile and gorgeous, blinding white teeth.
He sets his pool cue across the table, holds his hands out, and looks down at himself. “You don’t like it?”
“Oh, I like. Why don’t you dress like that for school?”
“Because we can’t?” he says with a smirk. Then he struts over and touches the tops of my thigh highs, his hand brushing under my skirt and giving me a thrill. If I didn’t know him, I’d so be running the other way.
After I did him. Probably.
Doesn’t every girl need a bad boy at least once in her life?
“These are such a turn-on. It kills me when you wear them with your uniform skirt. All I can think about is . . .”
“Is what?”
“Getting under it.” He tilts his head at me. “It’s cold out.”
“Uh, yeah, it’s been cold all day.”
“It’s warmer here,” he says, both his hands sliding up my skirt.
And it does suddenly feel very warm, like I stepped into a sauna of the hotness that is Aiden. I swear, he looks amazing in everything he puts on. Suit, school blazer, football pads, white shorts, sliders, and nothing at all. But this—this almost beats nothing at all.
And this, where it was all about the clothes and how they meant something to both of them.
“Oh my god. It’s my dress.”
“Your dress?” Kym asks.
“Yes, the dress from my dream.”
I examine the dress closer, shocked at how closely it matches the one from my dream.
Sweetheart neckline. Corseted bodice. Tiered bottom in an ombré of pinks.
I look at the label to see who designed it and find a note.
I thought on the night of your dreams, you should wear the dress of your dreams.
Hope this is close.
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Aiden
“How did he do it?” I ask Kym, quickly taking the dress off the hanger, holding it up to me, and twirling around.
“He told me about your dream. I called in a favor and this is what we came up with. Is it close?”
“It’s like the dress of my dreams on steroids. This corset and these feathers. They’re ridiculously beautiful. I can’t believe he remembered.”
As I spin around, I get tears in my eyes remembering how he went to all my rehearsals. How I trusted him enough to tell him my dreams. About my scripts. About wanting to act.
“Don’t cry,” Kym scolds. “We don’t have time to redo your foundation.”
While I quickly change to a strapless bra and slip into the dress, Kym sets out diamonds.
“This thirteen carat pink diamond is surrounded by cushion-cut diamonds, adding another eight carats. Price available on request,” she reads off the card that arrived with them from Harry Winston. The diamonds have their own guard who will follow me tonight.
“All right,” Kym quizzes, “Diamonds by?”
“Harry Winston,” I reply.
“Shoes?”
“Louboutin.”
“Bag?”
“Fendi.”
“Favorite stylist?”
“Aiden,” I reply, teasing her.
“You say my name?” Aiden asks from behind me.
He’s dressed in a black Gucci tuxedo, a pair of Aviators perched on the top of his head. He looks like sex on a stick.
Seriously, no one is going to look at me.
Gracie and the girls are dressed up too. They’re having their own pretend red carpet with their new nanny, Miss Praline, who, with a little time and some luck, may just end up Mrs. Garrett Smith.
Aiden looks me over. “I don’t know, Kym. I’m not sure those are the right shoes for the dress.”
Kym scoffs at him as he pulls a box out from behind his back.
It’s a box I recognize.
My eyes fill with tears as he opens the lid.
I delicately lift them up. “You had the heel fixed?!”
“Yeah,” he says, pulling me close. “Seems like the perfect night to wear the shoes that are the real you.”
He takes my hand, leads me over to a chair, then bends down and puts the shoe on my foot like he’s Prince Charming.
Actually, he is my Prince Charming.
Yesterday, on my actual birthday, he spoiled me rotten, giving me a gorgeous, not-for-a-rainy-day dress and taking me to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean for dinner. I was shocked to find our families and closest friends waiting there to surprise me. It was a truly celebratory night.
Afterward, all dressed up, he took me to the Santa Monica pier for cotton candy and a ride on the Ferris wheel.