Chicago magazine

Fashion Saved My Life

WHEN YOU GROW UP IN A POOR NEIGH-borhood, the things that make you special are the things people hate about you the most. So you have a choice: You can go crazily special and become a unicorn, or you can try to fade into the background. Once I got a job at T. Edwards, I knew which path I had to take.

The store was on the fifth floor of Water Tower Place, across from the McDonald’s and next to the Lord & Taylor. It took me an hour and a half to get there by bus from the three-flat near 79th and Jeffery where I lived with my mother and extended family. T. Edwards was boutique in Water Tower Place. All the top

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