Local Author Looks Deep Into Her Closet
Los Angeles writer Adena Halpern lives her life through her clothes, or at least that’s how she tells it in her first book, which is all about the culture of fashion.
In “Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown: Notes from the Single Girl’s Closet,” Halpern recounts how she splurged on a Vera Wang dress after breaking up with her boyfriend. She would wear the $4,000 black gown whenever she got depressed, which at first was all the time. Donning the dress with super-high heels, she would just talk on the phone, watch television or pay for the pizza delivered to her door. And the Target underwear? “I love Target underwear. Shoot me,” she said.
Known for her “Haute Life” column in Marie Claire magazine and her Oscar coverage for Daily Variety, Halpern looks deep into the closets of American women—as well as her own—to give a lighthearted view of how fashion has influenced her life and those around her through the years.
“It’s like a snapshot of different times of your life. You often equate a moment to what you or somebody wore at the time,” said the thirtysomething transplant from Philadelphia, whose book debuts July 10.
Halpern’s recollections also unwittingly recount a brief history of American fashion, from forgettable Dolphin shorts and parachute pants to more staid Juicy Couture drawstring pants, Lacoste polo shirts and “8-Ball” leather jackets.
She also offered her take on the Los Angeles shopping scene.
“When I came here in 1991, there was no Barneys, very little ’in’ places that offered up-to-the-minute fashions,” she said. “I bonded with my first girlfriends here because they had faced the same problems. Over time, it changed. Now, of course, everything is at your fingertips.”
The idea for the book stemmed from her Marie Claire columns, but Halpern said that even before then, she had wanted to write something for every woman who spends more than 15 minutes trying to get dressed. “This is more of a love story, about the people I love, and told through what I wore,” she said.
The book has received positive feedback, with an endorsement from model Cindy Crawford. Others have likened Halpern to a real-life Carrie Bradshaw, the star of HBO’s “Sex and the City.”
ABC’s “Good Morning America” is putting the book, published by Gotham Books, on its list of summer reads. It will be available through popular bookstores, as well as through online resources such as Amazon.com.
Halpern is making a local appearance at 7:30 p.m. July 12 at the Barnes & Noble store at The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. —Robert McAllister
