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Best Dressed List Style Profiles: Carole Greenwood

December 29, 2009 by Ryma Chikhoune

I met up with Best Dressed List:DC finalist Carole Greenwood, one-half of The Beatings (alongside Stewart Lupton) inside her friend’s studio space, since she was in the midst of moving. After our interview, we headed to Georgia Avenue Thrift, where Carole found some great pieces. I came out with a gem myself…the 90210 soundtrack. “It’s either a hit or a miss at this place,” she said. “But I love it.”

BYT: How has your style evolved throughout the years?

Carole Greenwood: I don’t know…my mom’s a really great shopper and loves clothes and my grandfather designed back in the 40s. He designed women’s clothing for a manufacture in New York. He was like a pattern maker and designer. And so, ever since I was a little girl, you know, he would make clothes for me. I would go over to his house and he would pull out drawers of fabric and say, “OK, tell me about the dress you want.” And I would pick fabrics and we’d talk about it and he would just sew it and by the time I’d left, I would have it…

I always had a great sense of color and pattern and make…He would pull from all different eras and make really contemporary clothes. And my mother had a great sense of, like, buying stuff, so she knew how clothing were made and she would show me seams and fabrics and read labels and stuff. I remember being in, like, 5th grade and getting my school clothes at Loehmann’s, which is pretty mortifying, because…you would change in this huge dressing room with all these, like, women of all these shapes and sizes and all kinds of weird underwear. As a child, it’s, like, pretty terrifying.

BYT: I’ve heard.

CG: Stewart remembers going to Loehmann’s with his mother and having to sit in there, as a kid, and watch all these crazy women change. But you know, I had really amazing clothes, but not like everyone else had…I wanted what everyone else had, but of course I never had that…So, I think that, like, you know, I really understand classic style. I understand fabric and how things are made. So, when I buy clothes I’m very particular about it. But I don’t source just from one place. I mean, I’ll look for specific things and then, I can get it at Urban Outfitters…I can get it at Loehmann’s…I can get it at Relish, which I love. It’s one of my favorite stores.

But the other thing we find are from going to places like Georgia Avenue Thrift. You find the most amazing things. Like, last year, around this time, I went looking for wool skirts and I found four kilts…and they were $5 each. So, I didn’t have to go to Relish and spend $600 on a skirt. I can get them at Georgia Avenue Thrift, so, you know, I have, I don’t know, I just like what I like…I really like color and I really like patterns and I really like mixing different patterns together. I think a lot of people are really nervous about that. I’m not, because I feel like I’m an artist and so, I can just wear whatever I want. But I did live in London…like in the 80s and 90s. It was a time when everyone wore only black and I remember coming home for Thanksgiving one year and everything in my suitcase was black and my mother was like, “oh my god, that’s so grand.” You know, but you figure out how to use it and black is now what everyone wears all the time…summer, winter…whatever.

BYT: how old were you then?

CG: That’s in my twenties…when London was very important in fashion…it was starting to be incredibly important and much more interesting to me than, like, Paris because those clothes are like, you know, almost non-human. They’re not things that people really wear. You know, they’re very sculptural and architectural. They’re not very comfortable and you can’t find a way to put them together or whatever. But living in England, you know, you have the classic tweeds and, you know, costumes even. I remember being in this dress store in Bath…there was this black satin dress that had…it was almost like a Mary Poppins dress or Jane Eyre…black satin, high collar, buttoned all the way down very tightly, fitted…just coming out with pleats in the front. I tried it on and I really wanted to buy it and I was with a friend of mine who said, “I’ll just buy it for you.” And I was like no, no, no, no. And I still think about the dress I didn’t buy.

BYT: It happens quite frequently…

CG: I know, it happens a lot. Stewart and I were at Florence two years ago and we went into this store where there was this black satin skirt that I really liked…I said, “OK Stewart, we’re going to just take a picture with me in this skirt, and I’ll have it forever, and I don’t need to buy it.” It was at a point when the dollar was really weak. It would have been, like, $800 dollars. And I already have 10 black skirts so… and every time we pass by a window and we see something really cool it’s, “let’s take a picture. We don’t have to buy it.” The good thing about shopping at thrift stores too is that you can buy it super cheap….

What you wear is really important for you…it’s not so important for other people, because it makes you feel a certain way and if you feel good about the way you look, you know, you generally have a more positive outlook….D.C. is really changing about style. It used to be only suits or whatever…Mixing and matching is a good way to go. You can’t be so dogmatic about fashion. Sometimes I think the biggest investments I have are my clothes.

BYT: What do you feel best in?

CG: That’s a good question. I don’t know.

BYT: That’s an amazing coat.

CG: This coat I got in a thrift store in Georgetown. It was $20. And it’s the warmest coat I own. The fit is the trick.  I think I feel best in things that fit me well and that are comfortable. I’ve taken to wearing a lot of short skirts.  I didn’t wear short skirts before. I was always very self-conscious about my legs. I remember, we did a show…then we had this party at Comet…we each sang a song. I said, I’ll do one to start to lower the bar and open the night up. I wore a really short skirt and my friend, who is the artistic director of The Washington Ballet came up to me and was like, “You have really great legs.” I was like, “Really?” And I thought, well, if he thinks I have great legs then I can wear short skirts…I just feel really comfortable in short skirts.

BYT: How do you feel about tights? You seem to have fun with them.

CG: Love them! I’m obsessed with tights. I used to wear them all the time as a kid, but I felt so self-conscious about them. I have all types of tights and I shop for them excessively…In the summer I wear tights too, because it’s not so great to wear short skirts with nothing…I’ll go to American Apparel and get almost garish colors, but I think they’re great.

BYT: You were talking about London style. Do you have a favorite designer?

CG: So many! It’s hard to just name one. They constantly change, because the person in front of the house is always changing. I mean, I love Ralph Lauren. He’s really great with color and fit and fabric.

BYT: Classic American style.

CG: Very classic. Everything is assembled so intricately. I have a lot of pieces from him that I really love. I love the look. I mean, he’s really good at mixing different patterns and prints. I mean everyone wears black all the time. Like, you’re wearing black and you look great…but it’s definitely thought out…there’s the pattern with the black and white and you know, the boots are specific…I think it’s OK to be monochromatic, but I like wearing color and pattern.

BYT: I’m noticing the polka dot garment you have on underneath.

CG: I like polka dots and plaids…mixing and matching. You have to try it on and see if it works…

BYT: How would you describe Stewart’s style?

CG: Well, when he first started out with Jonathan Fire*Eater…you know, they all went to St. Albans [School], so they all had that prep school look…ties and shirts. Now, he really likes to wear vest and shirts and ties and pants. He always has on nice shoes…He’s much more of a performer than I am, so he’s about the whole look. Head to toe…and how everything comes into balance…

BYT: Is there something that you own that is close to your heart?

CG: I have a suede jacket that my grandfather made for my mother in the 60s…You can see the stitches. It has a removable collar…I love everything about it.  It’s very special to me. Good clothes are always invested with emotion. I mean, I have a dress that he made when I was really little for a wedding….it’s almost a 20s dress. I gave it to my nieces when they were little and now it’s come back to me…I have a lot of special stuff like that…I remember being in a very important moment or time and what I wore. So then the clothes take on even more meaning….It’s not so much the clothes as material items, but it’s more of something happened and that’s what you were wearing. You remember yourself in that moment…That’s another great thing about D.C. There are a lot of important moments in this city and we dress for those moments.

Check out these other style profiles: (And come back for more)

Holly Thomas
Eric Brewer
Jade Floyd
U.S. Royalty

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