Fashion-blogger of What I Wore and newly published author Jessica Quirk knows that in order to reach your goals in life you often have to start small. For her, it was learning to sew on her mother’s sewing machine by the time she was ten years old. She went on to attend Indiana University years later and graduated with a BA in Apparel Merchandising, a minor in Marketing and an Associates Degree in Costume Construction Technology. With an army of loyal and supportive followers and a smart fashion sense that comes quite naturally, Quirk has won the admiration of thousands of women since her blog first began four years ago.
What started as a creative way of sharing the thrifty items in her closet turned into a passionate display of her daily life and the clothes she wears while living it. Every day Quirk presents her latest finds from stores like J Crew, LOFT, Anthropologie and Target and offers helpful tips on how to shop smart and feel confident while doing it. Other blog feature includes her many creative DIY projects that coach her readers through easy ways of adding a unique touch to their own outfits. However, Quirk makes a point that there is also a business side to running her blog; one where the advantages and disadvantages often coincide. Although being her own boss has its perks, she also has to take care of many legal issues on her own while trying not to let it all hinder her creative spirit.
Her book “What I Wore: Four Seasons, One Closet, Endless Recipes for Personal Style” is like “a cookbook for your closet.” According to Quirk, getting dressed is like cooking: you need to feel comfortable and have confidence when adding new “ingredients.” After receiving many questions over the years from readers wanting to know what to wear to a wedding or company picnic or the like, Quirk knew she wanted to publish a book filled with her thoughtful answers.
To make the book compatible with all her readers both young and old, Quirk drew her own illustrations instead of using photographs of herself as she does on her blog. “It was important for me to put a faceless model on the page so women can really focus on colors, cuts and combinations of the cloth—and imagine themselves in those looks,” she explained. In fact, creating the illustrations for the book was her favorite part. “I’ve been a life-long artist and it is so surreal to see images I’ve drawn in a book that’s now on shelves,” she said.
Since she has been blogging and snapping photos of her daily outfits for years, I wondered: what is her favorite season for fashion? “I love fall,” she said. “I always associate it with new beginnings because of the school year calendar. Although it’s been many years since I’ve stepped foot in a classroom, I have such great memories and love to go through the same back to school shopping rituals that I did as a teen.”
Perhaps the most important thing you need to know about Quirk is that she loves to work on projects as much as she can. “I’d love to collaborate on a capsule collection someday,” she said, “[but] in the meantime, I’d like to just keep sewing as a hobby.”
