Anyone who has children, or more specifically daughters, will be familiar with the myriad peculiar demands that are made when it comes to getting dressed in the morning. A friend's daughter insisted on wearing a Newcastle United football shirt over her pyjamas to nursery. My own would wear only wellies for the best part of a year, pairing them with everything from party dresses to swimming costumes. But for the artist and illustrator Jenny Williams this is all rich fodder.
Three years ago Williams started a blog, What My Daughter Wore , to document the sartorial choices of her 12-year-old daughter Clementine and her friends as they trooped through her New York loft. Williams says that for the first year "there were probably two people who looked at the blog on a regular basis". Once she started posting the pictures on Instagram , however, things changed and in 2013 What My Daughter Wore was named one of the 25 best blogs by Time magazine.
Now Williams' illustrations have been made into a book of the same name . The blog, and now the book, feature Williams' coloured pencil drawings of her daughter and her friends and occasionally one of Clementine's older brothers. (Williams has two: Whitman, aged 14, who lives at home, and 22-year-old Paco, who lives nearby.)
One of Williams' illustrations of her daughter
It is part homely art project, part alternative family album, part street-style blog. It is kooky and sweet, but its popularity also demonstrates the appetite for street-style blogs and the modern obsession with recording our best outfits via Instagram feeds. For Williams, though, capturing the zeitgeist was the furthest thing from her mind when she started it.
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"I'm probably an atypical New Yorker in that I'm pathologically unambitious," she says. "My kids were getting older so I was just looking around for a project that I could do on a small scale, using the inspiration that was at hand, which was the children. It was a way to get myself drawing every day."
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"I'm probably an atypical New Yorker in that I'm pathologically unambitious," she says. "My kids were getting older so I was just looking around for a project that I could do on a small scale, using the inspiration that was at hand, which was the children. It was a way to get myself drawing every day."
With the exception of the outfit she's wearing on the book jacket, Clementine, 12, is her own stylist
The pictures in What My Daughter Wore are an insight into a particular kind of teenager - the creative offspring of Brooklyn's Williamsburgers who can throw together an effortlessly eclectic ensemble at a moment's notice. These are girls who mix vintage finds with leopard-print Dr Martens and their mums' old rock-concert T-shirts and wouldn't be seen dead in pink (unless it was worn ironically, of course).
Williams, 46, says Clementine is "a very enthusiastic participant and collaborator" in the project. She describes her as a quiet, creative person who loves film-making and dressing up, hence the abundance of masks, wacky headgear and what Williams calls "funny make-up".
"There is an age where kids, particularly girls, are very unselfconscious in the way they dress, at that particular age girls tend to be more experimental," Williams says
"There is an age where kids, particularly girls, are very unselfconscious in the way they dress, at that particular age girls tend to be more experimental," Williams says
Williams creates the drawings from photographs she takes of the girls on her iPhone or iPad. Most are taken at home, but some she snaps when the moment presents itself, such as the drawing of one of Clementine's friends sitting under an old-fashioned hairdryer at the hairdresser's. The drawing of Clementine wearing a camouflage dress and striped elbow-less top was done from a photo taken at a shop where she was trying on the clothes.
The girl's are their own stylist; they love vintage and their mums' old rock T-shirts
The only time Williams says she has ever styled her daughter was for the cover image of the book, which shows Clementine in a denim jacket and pussy-bow blouse. But the addition of a wire headband was Clementine's choice.
What My Daughter Wore is a whimsical celebration of the moment in a girl's life when self-expression is still an important part of getting dressed, when standing out is still a good thing. "There is an age where kids, particularly girls, are very unselfconscious in the way they dress," Williams says. "At that particular age girls tend to be more experimental." Inevitably, as they get older, teenage girls grow more aware of trends as the pressure to blend in takes over.
The real thing: Clementine and Jenny Williams. Photo: Jenny Williams
Williams says that she can already see evidence of this in the ubiquity of skinny jeans in Clementine's wardrobe. "Even now Clementine is outgrowing some of the pure creativity she brought to her clothing choices when she was younger. I can see she's starting to care a little bit more about what her peers are wearing."
Williams describes her daughter as a quiet, creative person who loves filmmaking and dressing up, hence her love of masks, wacky headgear and what Williams calls "funny make-up"
The most touching aspect of Williams' archive is that she has managed to keep a daily visual diary of her daughter's changing appearance, something that many mothers must wish they had done too. "It's very poignant for me," Williams says. "There's a bitter-sweet element to it where I can go back and see an evolution in her life and the way she's grown up. Childhood is over so quickly that it's nice to have this visual memento."
Williams creates her drawings from photographs she takes of the girls on her iPhone or iPad
Williams creates her drawings from photographs she takes of the girls on her iPhone or iPad
Clementine loves film-making and dressing up
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