Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown: Notes from a Single Girl's Closet

The story of a young woma‛s life, one outfit at a time.

Tucked inside the fibers and buttons and pockets of the clothing in our closets are the stories of our lives, the lessons w‛ve learned, the people w‛ve loved. Like so many of us, Adena Halpern has used clothes to conform, to seduce, to console, to show off, and to hide. Her ability to relate fashion to her inner life—in a way that is about so much more than just the clothes—has endeared her to many readers, one of whom called her“the real-life Carrie Bradshaw”

But fashionista, sh‛s not. Adena is: every teenage girl who had to have what all the other girls had, whether it looked good on her or not; the college coed who swooned for the boy in the leather jacket; the heartbroken young woman who chose a rebound dress over a rebound man; the woman who is forty-five minutes late to work because she has a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear. She is a lover of clothes and shopping whose passionate memories are always tied to not only the clothes that she wore, but to what everyone else was wearing, too. This is the affectionate and funny story of Aden‛s life, an unconventional love story that readers will want to share. You will never look at your own wardrobe the same way again.

"Halpern, a 30-something writer for Marie Claire, rehashes her life's pinnacles and pitfalls, epitomized by the clothing that marks seminal moments. Target undies constitute her covert economic side; the Vera Wang is her 'breakup' gown, worn in solitude to buoy her spirits. Between these two extremes, each garment in Halpern's sartorial spectrum hooks to a stage in her life — from the Madonna-inspired do-rag that wowed her suburban high school to the hideous Lycra flower dresses in pre-Barneys Los Angeles, an omen that she's erred in moving there after attending college in New York. 'Fashionista, I am not,' she claims, but six-inch platforms, Fair Isle sweaters and Dolphin shorts induce torrents of memories relived in vivid, intimate detail. Prone to shopping benders, Halpern fixates on clothes to a frightening degree; her biggest romantic challenge is never to repeat a date outfit. Yet she has serious wit up her sleeve, belying her shallow posturing. Her shrewd eye for the image culture and its throttlehold over women, herself included, touches on the pressures of perfection. At times, Halpern overstates her points with an endless parade of anecdotal outfits. But her bubbly, sisterly writing glosses over any downers, freeing readers to bask in wardrobe nostalgia. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Reading Aden‛s story made me want to throw open the doors of my closet and hear the stories my own clothes have to tell—from my first Galliano gown, to a pair of Earth shoes that I wore in eighth grade with a pair of Calvin Klein jeans. This book reassures the girl in each of us that sh‛s not alone in her search for the perfect outfit and the confidence that, we hope and pray, comes along with it."

–Cindy Crawford

“You'll fall in love with Adena, her mother, her family, and her friends. I did. Though she can't control her life or lovelife (who can?), she can control her closet and her spirit shines through that closet”

–Ilene Beckerman, author of Love, Loss and What I Wore and Makeovers at the Beauty Counter of Happiness

“For years, ‛ve been looking for someone to write about shopping in a funny, smart, modern way. And ‛ve found her... a girl after our own high-heeled hearts”

—Lesley Jane Seymour, Editor In Chief, Marie Claire

ADENA HALPERN wrote a popular series of essays titled“The Haute Lif” for the back page of Marie Claire magazine, which reaches 3.1 million readers monthly. She is a contributing writer for Daily Variety and has written for The New York Times. Adena earned her bachelor of fine arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and a master of fine arts degree in screenwriting from The American Film Institute.