Hi, I'm Vivienne

 It's difficult to pinpoint a time when I started to love visual storytelling—a love of all things artistic has always been a part of my identity. My parents tell me that as a toddler, I was fascinated by fabrics, constantly touching clothing to feel each texture, and I suppose that fasciation led directly into my later interest in fashion and style. Although I always had this affinity for the visual appeal of clothing and style, there were two events  that sparked my interest in the deeper meaning of what we wear and why.

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When I was about 10, my mom introduced me to the photographer Bill Cunningham, who interviewed and photographed strangers on the streets of New York about their outfits in video essays for the New York Times. In every video, Bill would identify a trend of the week through the people he saw on the streets, traveling the streets of Manhattan on with his bike and camera. I was immediately smitten with these videos, and every week I would check back in religiously to watch Bill's series. I had never before seen fashion portrayed as a topic interconnected to larger themes or even a topic that was remotely intellectual. After this introduction, I was itching to learn more about the history of fashion.

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A year after I discovered Bill Cunningham, my parents gave me a book that would be the catalyst for everything I wanted to explore in the realm of fashion. From the outside, it was not particularly eye-catching, but its contents were captivating. Titled "Fashion: A Visual History from Regency and Romance to Retro and Revolution," the book ignited my interest in the cultural history of style; through specific images or pieces of clothing, it explained the context and real meaning of fashion like I had never seen it.