Worn Out works like this:
Photographers Jenny Jimenez and Kelly O hit the streets of Seattle. Over the course of a spring weekend, we stop all sorts of different people and ask them about what they're wearing. Then we turn the pictures over to The Stranger's editorial department, which is composed entirely of people who claim they couldn't care less about fashion—a fashion statement in and of itself—and they interview the photo subjects about their outfits. Then they dump the whole package on the production department, which lays it out. Production dumps it on our printer, which dumps it on our distro squad, which dumps it on you.
There were probably tons of fashionistas who were home sleeping, out of town, or otherwise unavailable when Jiménez and I hit the streets. But our scatter-shot process ensures that the people we run into on the sidewalks—and in the restaurants and clubs—are completely random and represent an honest cross-section of REAL people wearing REAL clothes drawn from their REAL closets.
Worn Out is all about seeing what people are really wearing, of their own free will, as opposed to telling you what some soulless national chain store (or even some local indie boutique) wants you to buy. We figure that you already know what you're doing; you make the trends. There's a truly independent spirit in Seattle: An astounding number of people around here wear clothes that they love, that they're comfortable in, that they sought out or found or made or stole. Seattleites have taken the words of Mr. T to heart: "Everybody gotta wear clothes, and if you don't, you'll get arrested," Mr. T. says in the groundbreaking film Be Somebody. "But that don't mean you have to let some fashion designer in New York or Paris tell you what to wear. Clothes express your personality, so express yourself, and not someone else." KELLY O
Edited by Dan Savage & Kelly O
Photos by Jenny Jimenez & Kelly O
Profiles by Paul Constant, Eric Grandy, Jen Graves, Amy Kate Horn, Brendan Kiley, Cienna Madrid, Charles Mudede, Eli Sanders, Megan Seling, Ari Spool, Annie Wagner, and Jonathan Zwickel.
