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NADINE KAM / NKAM@STARADVERTISER.COM
Nadine Kam in an Oscar-styled selfie snapped by Angelo Bruno during the H&M shoot.
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NADINE KAM / NKAM@STARADVERTISER.COM
Nadine Kam snaps a selfie in Topshop’s dressing room in New York, 2009.
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I’ll show you mine, you show me yours.
I’ve been snapping selfies — camera or cellphone self-portraits — since 2008, mostly in the interest of self-protection while shopping.
I often noticed that I looked terrific in the dressing room, but when I got home … not so much. I became convinced some stores use "skinny" mirrors or angle them in a way to make shoppers look taller or thinner than they really are. So I started taking selfies to confirm what I really looked like in the clothes.
My first was snapped in the dressing room at the Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th at Waikele Premium Outlets. The dress was a frothy yellow that I would never wear, but I had to see what it looked like on a body.
After a while the aim expanded to the vicarious thrill of trying on clothes I could not possibly afford: "Look, I’m wearing Givenchy!"
Lately I’ve added a documentary element, creating a record of pieces actually owned, worn and styled.
Last November the selfie hit the mainstream in a big way when the term was named "word of the year" by the Oxford English Dictionary. And, of course, Ellen Degeneres’ recent star-studded Academy Award selfie garnered 3.3 million re-tweets. Never mind that it turned out to be a promotion for Samsung, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, paid about $20 million for the product placement.
Now we want to see your Selfie Style.
Snap pictures of yourself in some of your favorite looks and email them to SelfieStyle@staradvertiser.com.
Be sure to include your name and a description of what you’re wearing, including brands and shops, and we’ll pick a few of our favorites to run in the Today section and online.