NIGHTWOOD

Nikki in her craft room!

• Dressed in Black: We’ve named this blog column in honour of the tune by The Shangri-Las cuz it’s a little moody sounding…like us! Check out other entries in this series by clicking on the Style & Fashion category. Now without any further ado, our fourteenth interviewee, Nikki MacMillan!

In 5 words or less, describe your style:
Seventies / Big Red / “Straggle Rock”

Describe two items in your closet that you love:

• A pair of vintage 30s shoes, red-brown with a chunky heel, that I got at an amazing vintage store in San Francisco. I kind of ruined them when I wore them on Halloween as part of my deceased pioneer costume but I hope to clean them up.
• My Courtney Love dress, which is black with little flowers, short-sleeved, button-down, which I altered from a larger/longer dress. It is made of rayon, which is a fabric that both Courtney and I would have worn in 1995 but in different ways.

Fashion trend you swore you would not partake in but have fallen victim to (and now kind of love):
Sweatpants and shorts that have things written on the bum like “Princess” or “Spoiled”. I don’t actually own these things YET

If you had to get a knuckle tattoo, what would it read?
I have given this a lot of thought in the past, and have decided on GOTH POPE or SUGA TITS

What do you listen to when getting ready to go out/stay in?

• the knife
• john lennon with or without plastic ono band
• the new yeah yeah yeahs
• ll cool j, specifically this one

Biggest fashion pet peeve?
When people are super judgmental of other people’s outfits

Your favourite style icon?
Tori Amos in the liner notes for Scarlet’s Walk, mermaids, Marianne Faithful, my friend Becky (Fin), myself age 15 (so daring!)

Favourite shoppes?

I try to obtain most of my clothes for free via clothing swaps or friendly giveaways. I like to alter clothes, so tend to accumulate a lot of “projects”. I do like clothes and fashion and expressing myself that way, but I do not love shopping that much.
My new favourite store is Kavanaugh in NDG, which has mostly vintage leather stuff but some other great finds too. I recently got a beautiful dark blue-black embossed leather purse there, as well as some really sweet tall mustardy brown cowboy boots, and two black and white lamps from the 60s. The people are so friendly and gave me such a great deal!! Should have gotten that weird sequined bustier thing too.

Your best vintage find/DIY fasion project?
My macrame boomerang dress, which was a giant paisley monstrosity that I altered into a mini-dress. It has sleeves like a BUTTERFLY and sometimes people comment about how short it is. Yay!

What do you see yourself wearing in 5 years?
Less clothes in general (more bikinis!)

• Bio:
  When not at her day job co-coordinating the Sense Project, Nikki spends much of her time setting up her craft room, thinking about what to eat next, and generally putting the Out in Outremont. She hopes to meet you in person at FaGAGAty Ass Fridays, where she will hopefully have made her hair into some kind of shape such as a bow.

How she rolls.