The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
With a little help from my friends
Some months ago, I had the idea of writing a piece that would bring me and my childhood friends together. You see, we live in different places across the world, yet we all come from a remote, simple, yet fascinating place. It is quite literally in a corner of the globe, where we had our own little universe.
We also come from a simpler time, when we would call a landline and ask, “Hi, can I please speak to…?” Sleepovers where we curled each other’s hair. Pretend musicals (some infamously recorded on a tape recorder). Pool parties captured on digital cameras, with photos that would eventually make their way onto Facebook. I know this sounds like a movie, but it is true. We know it.
I got married last year, and I feel like it truly brought us back together. As the bride, it was hard to spend as much time as I wanted with each of them, but my heart was constantly full just having them around. It felt like a full-circle moment. Four of them got engaged during that trip. In my mind, it will always be the summer of love.
Sometimes I look at all of us and can’t believe how far we’ve come: both literally and figuratively. We are so different from each other, and yet something still ties us together. Call it identity, call it love, call it something else entirely. It reminded me of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. We are more than that group, around twelve friends, but the concept still holds.
Since I’m interested in fashion and culture, I decided to ask them all a few questions about their personal style and about a potential object that could travel between us, like the pants. Mind you, we are all in our thirties, but these answers read like we are still thirteen. Maybe that is saying something by itself…
First I asked them to describe their style in three words and some of the answers were:
“minimalist, natural, relaxed”
“boho, vintage, flowy”
“dark, simple, under”
“elegant, feminine, refined”
While these words sketch an outline, they don’t quite capture the full picture. Style, after all, is abstract. But it does give an idea of the diversity within our group. I wanted to go deeper so asked them about their favorite clothing item today:
“my Polène número Dix handbag - trendy, goes with everything given it is brown, very Paris style.”
“for sure my vintage jean jacket. This has been my answer since 2019, when I got the jacket. I got it for my 24th birthday when I was living in London. My friends thrifted this vintage bomber jean jacket from a vintage store in London and then had the inside lined with this amazing pattern that they also found in the vintage shop.”
“a sporty tennis dress because I am enjoying my tennis and padel classes and I love how I look with that dress.”
Milla Jovovich wearing a jean jacket for GAP
What emerged from these answers is that clothing is never just clothing. It holds other things within it. Identity seeps through garments which makes the idea of sharing a single item between all of us both more complicated and more interesting.
So I asked the question more directly:
If we had a "traveling clothing item," what would it be?
“a silver bracelet where each wearer adds an engraving”
“a leather bag” (x4)
“an oversized shirt so it fits all”
“an oversized jacket”
The idea of the bag came up four times. I think this is a very strong signal. First, because of the literal metaphor of a bag. Somewhere where we can hold objects as well as memories, and pass them on.
Leather also comes up as an idiosyncratic material. Materials can hold meaning, and leather does just that: durable, worn-in, tied to where we come from, seems to carry a certain weight. It lasts, it adapts, it ages with use. In that sense, it mirrors the kind of connection we’re trying to describe.
There is tension between sharing meaning and the practicality of the item fitting us all. Which also reflects the tensions between our personalities. Some of us dream, others have their feet on the ground.
Interested in the reasoning behind these choices I pressed further:
Why that item? What makes it universal or special?
“because everyone can dress it differently, and it has a personal component of carrying items. I also think it would be cool to do like a what's in my bag video, like in Vogue, for everyone in the group with the same bag. Also leather is a natural material that is very used where we are from and goes with everything.”
“you can leave things in the pockets for the next user”
“its meaning comes from the marks people leave on it”
“reminds us of our roots and where we all met”
Personal trace and shared origin take center stage. The traveling object becomes a shared talisman, but still a carrier of individuality even if it is shared. This makes me think, even if the item is shared individuality doesn’t disappear; it becomes more visible. It being shared accentuates the need for distinction between the wearers. It can’t be mass-produced, replicated, or detached from context. Fast fashion could never.
Given this deep dive into individuality I asked next:
How it transforms in your context?
“I travel a lot so it would be very used”
“day to night in Manhattan”
“it could break from walking so much… and gain sentimental value”
“if it’s too cold I would cover it with a big fur coat”
The object becomes a story creator. Starts to feel less like a fixed item and more like a story, something that accumulates moments, accidents, and contexts as it moves.
In many ways, it begins to mirror us. We are all very different women. It has not all been a walk through the park. We have had challenges, mountains to climb. Our contexts have shaped us and we have shaped our contexts.
The different transformations given to the objects gives an idea of the depth of human experiences in the group. So then I asked:
What do you think ties us all together? Even from afar?
I have included all answers here because they are so worth it
“a coming of age together”
“knowing each other since so young”
“shared experiences at a very important age”
“we grew up together”
“you leave… and then come back to the same point but different”
“a friendship built without pretenses”
“we adapt, we evolve, and we move forward together”
“no one takes offense at silence”
“we don’t let life pass us by”
“nobody knows you like your childhood friends”
“we don’t expect anything… but we know we can rely on each other”
How beautiful is this? Twenty-five years have gone by, with their fates and furies, and we all still go back to the origin.
So to understand that origin I asked what color or texture do you associate our friendship to?
“colors of the beach and the sea”
“blue or yellow”
“green – hope and friendship”
“wool”
“I don’t have this level of abstraction… green”
“green because it symbolizes hope”
“that rough cardboard we used as kids… wavy and textured”
“pink… or navy blue like the sea in the beach town we always go to”
“embroidery and leather”
“denim”
“red”
Two themes are palpable: symbolic (hope, sea, childhood) and tactile (denim, leather, wool, cardboard). Again, green comes up four times, a signal.
It makes me think about what people are now calling the “nostalgia economy.” Nostalgia is a way of assigning value. If brands can tap into this, not in a performative way, but in a real way, their objects will gain value and become additive to the circular economy.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see more green, more texture, more leather, and more tactility in what comes next. Some brands are starting to understand what is really meaningful and will survive and be passed on for generations of strong willed women.
And to my friends, thank you for your insights, but more importantly, thank you for the way you move through the world. Fashion has a lot to learn from you.
Hermoso y creativo artículo, con una narrativa que recorre amorosamente el fuerte vínculo del grupo, las distintas versiones de la moda y logra plasmar con palabras lo intangible. Congrats! ❤️