Closet Psyche: A Street Style Swan Who Wore His Pieces Once
Closet Psyche: A Street Style Swan Who Wore His Pieces Once
Jalil Johnson has a delightful case of the Cinematic Buys.
On this episode of Closet Psyche, I’m digging deep into the shopping brain of
.Jalil Johnson is everywhere. He’s in every street style photo like a glam beacon among the throngs of fashion week guests, posing in a butter-soft silk pencil skirt, a snappy kitten heel, and a little hat. He’s at events, laden with brooches and baubles. He’s on your Instagram, pumping out mirror selfies at his Saks job, donning a Jackie O turtleneck and a neck dripping with pearls.
Jalil is originally from Hurt, Virginia, a tiny town located in the southern part of the state. While growing up in Hurt, there was not much of a shopping world, but he had rich experiences with clothes at home, specifically dressing up for Sunday church with his mother and grandmother. “Growing up in a religious home in the South, going to church was a big thing,” says Jalil. “Lots of color ruffles, embroidering, and sequins. The whole nine yards. You were dressing up for an audience with G-d so you’d have to look your best.” The runways came later in 2013/2014, when Jalil clicked into the high-fashion K-hole of Tumblr. “I got addicted. To give you an idea of how much, I reached the limit of how much I could reblog.”
Here in New York City, Jalil has made up for lost time not shopping in his youth and has collected a lot of clothes. A lot of them. Recently, the street style siren has been able to take stock of what is in his closet more thoughtfully not necessarily because he wants to, but because he has been forced to! He recently moved into a new apartment and has hauled his whole wardrobe with him. How bad is it? Well, Jalil showed me one of his garments—a Raf-era Calvin Klein western top—that was limply dangling from a metal hanger. Quelle horreur! Cue the Mommie Dearest joke.
Name: Jalil Johnson
Profession: Fashion Office Coordinator at Saks
NEVERWORNS item: Usually, I say bring one item, but ever-the-shopper Jalil brought three. That is ok because there is a theme here, as there always is with Closet Psyche. The first piece is a Raf Simons-era Calvin Klein western top, the other is a blue mesh Dries Van Noten collared “raver” top, and then a chartreuse silk shawl by Replika—and you can feel its softness through the Zoom screen.
When did you buy them? Jalil bought the Calvin top in summer 2019, the Dries piece in 2020, and the Thierry Mugler-inspired Replika shawl last year.
Where did you buy them? Both the Raf and Dries pieces were from late night scrolls on The RealReal. The shawl was in-person at Replika.
What drew you to these pieces? Jalil initially saw the Raf-era Calvin top in high school. “I loved what Raf did at Calvin because I think America…it’s going through a lot right now, but it’s a very interesting country because it’s so big and there are so many cultures mashed together,” says Jalil, adding. “It was really spectacular and special. I was in high school when this collection came down and I was like, ‘I need a piece of this in my life right now.’” Well, fast forward a few years later, and Jalil found the piece on The RealReal, heavily discounted.
Jalil first saw the Dries Van Noten top while on a job assisting stylist Solange Franklin. “She pulled this top out of the bag and she’s like, ‘Oh, I bought this for my husband.’ I was like, ‘Oh my G-d, it’s such a good top.’” Fast forward, two months later, Jalil saw the top on The RealReal. Once again, it was heavily discounted. See the theme here!
As for the Replika piece, Jalil bought this in-person in anticipation for the Thierry Mugler exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. “I have an actual Mugler suit. It’s really chic. It’s very Easter Sunday. I was thinking, ‘Oh, I could do this [the shawl] with my Mugler suit with maybe a little hat and a heel. I ended up not going to the event, but I also was like, ‘This was on such a deep sale. Even if I don’t wear the Mugler suit to the show, I can still find a reason to wear it [the shawl] because it’s very swan.’”
Why ultimately don’t you think you’ve worn it?
Raf-era Calvin Klein top: “I think it ties to something you said earlier that it’s such a nostalgic thing where I saw it and I had wanted it so bad. I didn’t think I’d ever have a chance to own this piece because it was so expensive. I had no money still when I bought the piece and it’s not like I was rolling in dough, but it was just really affordable in a sense. I think it was like $300, which is a steal for what it retails for. I’m very, ‘I don’t want anything to ruin it because I think it’s such a grail of a piece because it’s from a specific time. Raf touched it, X,Y,Z.’ But also the other thing is with it being this specific, you can only really wear it with this kind of look. No matter what you put it with, you’re going to look Western, which is fine, but I think there’s not a lot of versatility with this piece.”
Dries Van Noten top: “I think it either looks great on a Tony Soprano type or a muscle guy, and I’m not trying to be either one of those. I also think it’ll look really great on a waifish frame. Maybe I’m having trouble styling it. The other thing is I bought it with white pants but I kind of felt like I was a finance bro. Finance bros are fine, but I am not trying to dress like one.”
The Replika shawl: “I think it was a sale thing. I also went to this place for one specific thing, but they didn’t have it. Then I was like, ‘Okay, well, let me find something else.’ I found this one top, and then the sales person, who’s really nice, said ‘You should get this one too. It is $95. It’s basically free.’ I was like, ‘This is amazing. I will wear this to the Mugler thing and then I’ll wear it for the rest of my life. It’ll be great.’ And I’ve never worn it. It’s been literally in the bag that I bought it in for this whole time!”
On the one-time-wear, bathroom-mirror-photo debacle: Jalil, who shops a lot online, mentioned to me that sometimes he will buy something, wear it, and at that point, realize that it is too uncomfortable or not the quite right look. He gives the example of Balenciaga stirrups that he bought…and wore once! “I took my bathroom photo, but I was like, ‘Oh, these are actually kind of hard to wear in person.’ I think that’s another thing that happens is I’ll buy an item and then I’ll wear them and be like, ‘This is actually kind of difficult to operate in.’”
What does your closet look like? “I try to wear all of my clothes, but I think sometimes you just gravitate towards the same things over and over again. What I realized, too, was when I was packing up my closet, it was like, ‘Oh my G-d’, I have so much stuff that I didn’t even know I had. I have just so much stuff. There was a point where my organization skills might’ve made it hard for me to see something. Naturally, I didn’t go to it because I didn’t see it.”
Dig more into the film component and tell me how that influences your purchases: After our interview, I had Jalil write about what he is feeling the moment he sees a look or a piece in a film that he wants to recreate. “Films offer a treasure trove of captivating ideas because they often strive to depict various facets of reality (and when you think about it even fantasy movies are depicting some sort of reality, right?) Watching a movie is like stepping into a world where every detail, from the way a scarf is tied to the strut in one’s heels, can become a source of inspiration for me. A great film can evoke a visceral response, which will leave me wanting to emulate the elegance of Gwyneth’s scarf in A Perfect Murder or the graceful stride of Kim Novak in Vertigo as she transforms for Jimmy Stewart.”
The Diagnosis
Jalil says that he gets inspired by the runway but also film. I call this the Cinematic Buy Syndrome. Despite its name, the term is not exclusive to film. The tidal sensation can occur after being drawn to an image or a person and needing the associated object. An example is seeing a majestic girl on the street and instantly wanting her shoes, or needing to nab a slick pantsuit just like the one in a killer ‘90s-era Peter Lindbergh editorial.
I do find this syndrome mostly occurs with film because there is a built-in world; a beautifully laid-out, in-motion fantasy that helps us understand how the look or piece would function and appear in our own universes. The gorgeous characters help, too.
We strive to become a slice of the characters we see in these films. That snappy little Gucci sandal will give us the sexy pep of Cameron Diaz in The Sweetest Thing or that black scoop neck will transform us into a sensuality-soaked Diane Lane in Unfaithful. (Can you tell that I myself am deeply afflicted with Cinematic Buy Syndrome yet?). In Jalil’s case, he watches Vertigo and immediately wants to throw on a gray skirt suit, go uptown for a frosty martini, and trot around Bergdorf’s. Surprisingly, there is a hint of a Logic Box Buy affliction because we are imagining all of the ways we can wear something in all of the scenarios, but Cinematic Buys are more dreamlike because there is a longing; the desire to become the character we admire. There’s a throbbing vacancy; an all-consuming want that seemingly only the perfect shoe or bag can fill. And if you understand this sort of yearning, you know exactly what I’m talking about and how films can turn our worlds upside down—and our closets, too.
I love when we believe that a purchase will transform our life; when that one slingback or single leather jacket feels like it has the power to change our entire destiny. These sort of purchases rely on the idea that once we get that one item, we will be more confident, more sexy, more elegant, more alluring, more professional, more whatever. Cinematic Buys make us want to dress better for our better selves—and that’s aspirational. I don’t believe this is a bad thing, and in fact, Cinematic Buys are a good thing because they inject magical longing into shopping, which is the ultimate propulsive core of, well, shopping. After all, clothes are the vehicle to “becoming”.The Nostalgia Grail Reflex. We all have this. How many fashion lovers wanted the Balenciaga City Bag (Le Dix, if you’re nasty!) but couldn’t afford it at the time because they were, like, in high school? And then finally, they get a job and they can finally buy it.
Sometimes we wear these purchases that we dreamt about years before; and sometimes we don’t. Jalil mentioned there were two pieces on sale that he had seen when he was in high school and during his first-job days assisting: the Raf-era Calvin top and the Dries Van Noten top. A Nostalgia Grail—and all of those tender hopes and dreams that come with it?—mixed with a bout of Sale Hypnosis? Recipe for an instant buy.
Diagnosis
The topical prescription is that Jalil needs the deep plane facelift equivalent of a closet cleanse; an honest overhaul. He mentions that he doesn’t know what he has because he has so much stuff in there. I always say, go through your closet every two, three, four months depending on how often you shop just to know what you have and to take stock.
One of the most obvious prescriptions, especially for chronic online shoppers, is to delete shopping apps from the phone and remove autofill payment information from favorite sites. Everyone needs some friction, even for a second, which allows for a moment of reprieve; the potential to think over what is in your checkout bag. (Read my Long Lady Wallet piece for Vogue to get an idea). This method has already worked wonders for Jalil. “I have to log onto my computer which adds that additional barrier and I have to think about my purchases a lot more,” he told me over the phone. “I’ve gotten so much time back.” He has made two purchases since then, including a pair of overalls that he was inspired to buy after seeing them in an editorial. “I was like, ‘I’m still thinking and thinking, so I think it is safe to say I want them.’”
Stop nighttime scrolling and leave your phone in the other room before you go to bed. Once again, creating habits that promote friction between the initial urge and the temptation to buy helps. In this case, we are fully removing the stimulus…the phone. Also, we shouldn’t be sleeping next to our phones anyway. I feel like I’ve watched some sort of video about a Nordic study where the phones killed plants they were next to over time.
There’s really no major below-the-surface prescription for Jalil. Like everyone in fashion, Jalil is prone to light cases of Label Dickmatization and Sale Hypnosis. Other than that, Jalil shops from the gut and the heart even though it is often from behind a screen.
Like I mentioned, Cinematic Buys are the most beautiful form of shopping. When we’re watching a scene that makes us feel so deeply, rousing something within us that makes us so rabidly want to buy what we see, we search for that item with purpose. It’s an emotional urge coupled with physical urgency. Of course, if we’re buying that item online, it doesn’t always work out in real life. Like everyone, Jalil could use a healthy dose of shopping in-person to understand what is comfortable or not. Be like a swan and relish in those fabrics, trot in those shoes!
Watch NEVERWORNS here. I like this episode because Brandon of James Veloria talks about the Nostalgia Grail.
I would like this one hundred times if I could. JALIL!
Adore Jalil Loved this, so much and always love your shopping theory names! laughing as I delete my shopping apps. Excited to actually enjoy a cinema before bed without trr scroll 🥰