New York (AFP) - It wasn't so much wedded bliss as wedding mania. A serial New York bride was busted Friday after juggling eight husbands at once and getting hitched six times in one year, prosecutors said.
Liana Barrientos, 39, pleaded not guilty in a Bronx court Friday to charges of fraud.
Prosecutors say she lied on the license for her most recent wedding in 2010 and faces four years in jail if convicted.
New York state records show she has been married 10 times since 1999 and that 2002 was a particularly busy year -- in which Barrientos walked down the aisle six times in different towns.
Prosecutors did not specify the reason for her marriage binge but all her husbands came from overseas, including Egypt, Pakistan and Mali, and immigration officials have been involved in the case.
Six of her husbands used Barrientos to apply for permanent residency in the United States, including husband number six, Rashid Rajput, who in 2006 was deported home to Pakistan following a terrorism investigation, prosecutors said.
Still in her mid-20s, court papers show that Barrientos celebrated Valentine's Day 2002 by getting married a fourth time, seemingly without a single divorce.
Just two weeks later, when most brides might be winding down their honeymoon, she married husband number five. Two weeks later, it was the turn of husband number six.
She then closed out the summer of 2002 with another three weddings in May, July and August, before calling it a halt for eight years.
It was after she applied to marry her most recent husband, Salle Keita, on March 4 2010 that the authorities caught up with her.
When she applied for the marriage license, Barrientos stated she had never been married before, court papers show.
She was arraigned on felony fraud charges at the state supreme court in the Bronx on Friday.
Prosecutors say she is currently married to four people and was once married to eight men at the same time.
All her husbands were foreigners, coming from Bangladesh, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Georgia, Pakistan, Mali and Turkey.
The New York Times reported that Barrientos has past convictions for drugs and theft. source: Hot news
WASHINGTON (AP) — A necessary burden for most Americans, Tax Day is an accounting nightmare for thousands of gay and lesbian couples as they wrestle with the uneven legal status of same-sex marriage in the United States.
At tax time, and Wednesday is the filing deadline, it gets complicated because most state income tax returns use information from a taxpayer's federal return.They live in a country that recognizes their marriages, but some reside in the 13 states that do not, an issue that will be argued before the Supreme Court later this month.
Straight couples simply copy numbers from one form to another. But that doesn't work for same-sex couples reporting combined incomes, deductions and exemptions on their federal tax returns. These couples must untangle their finances on their state returns, where they are still considered single.
"We're adults, we're contributing to the welfare of society and yet, here's this one thing that just reaches up every year and kind of slaps us in the face," said Brian Wilbert, an Episcopal priest who lives in Oberlin, a small college town in northern Ohio.
Wilbert married his husband, Yorki Encalada, in 2012, at a ceremony in upstate New York. He is filing a joint federal tax return for the second time this year. But Ohio, which doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, requires the couple to file their state tax returns as if they were single.
"It may not be the most burning thing," Wilbert said. "But as we think about equality and marriage equality, this is an important thing because it's part of what couples do."
The number of states that recognize same-sex marriages has grown to 37, plus the District of Columbia, since the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013.
After the ruling, the IRS announced that it would recognize same-sex marriages for federal tax purposes, even if couples lived in states that did not.
The Supreme Court is scheduled hear arguments in another same-sex marriage case April 28. Advocates hope the court will compel the remaining states to recognize gay and lesbian marriages.
Opponents of same-sex marriage want the court to send the issue back to the states. They note that recognition of same-sex marriage has spread largely through court orders, rather than the ballot box.
"It's not about the rights of a handful of people who want to change the institution of marriage," said Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values, an Ohio group. "It's about the will of the people."
The benefits of marriage are a mixed bag when it comes to taxes. Some couples, especially those with disparate incomes, can lower their combined tax bills by getting married. Others pay a marriage penalty.
The vast majority of married couples in the U.S. file joint federal tax returns in which they combine their incomes, exemptions, deductions and credits to calculate their tax liability. But same-sex couples are not allowed to file joint tax returns in most states that don't recognize their marriages. Instead, they have to unravel their finances and file separate state returns.
"So you have this one return that would normally give you the numbers to do your state tax return, but instead you have to split all your incomes again and pretend like you're not married," said Deb L. Kinney, a partner at the law firm of Johnston, Kinney & Zulaica in San Francisco.
"Your health care benefits will be taxed differently and your credits will be different. Your interest deduction could be different, and then you have to go through the allocation on each return," Kinney said. "It's much more expensive and cumbersome."
With the tax filing deadline approaching on Wednesday, states that don't recognize same-sex marriages are dealing with these issues in different ways. Five states require same-sex couples to fill out multiple federal tax returns, sometimes called dummy returns, so they can come up with the appropriate numbers for their state returns. This is how it works in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan and Nebraska.
First, a same-sex couple fills out a joint federal income tax return, just like any other married couple. This is the return they file with the IRS.
Next, each spouse fills out a separate federal return as if the filer was single. Information from these returns is used to fill out state income tax returns, which are filed as if each was single.
"You have to literally make out five returns and file three," said Scott Squillace, a tax lawyer who wrote a legal guide for gay and lesbian couples called, "Whether To Wed."
"It's dizzying."
There's more.
"If someone with a joint bank account writes a check for a charitable donation, the question is, do you split it 50-50? Or is it that person's deduction when they file a single return?" said Arianne Plasencia, a tax lawyer at the Carlton Fields law firm in Miami.
Kansas, North Dakota and Ohio take a different approach. These states provide worksheets that same-sex couples must complete to separate their finances. In Ohio, the form has 31 lines, though most couples don't need to fill out every line.
"There is no way that I, as a Joe Q. Public, who happens to be gay and in a same-gender marriage, would figure out how to fill this form out," said Wilbert, the Episcopal priest. "I mean, it's just impossible."
Wilbert said he had to hire an accountant to do his taxes for the first time in his life. "I also had to get an extension, which I never had to do."
The issue is moot in South Dakota because there is no state income tax. It's less of an issue in Arkansas and Mississippi because these states don't use information from federal returns on their state income tax forms.
Alabama has same-sex married couples divide the income and taxes they report on their federal returns, based on each spouses' share of their combined income.
Missouri doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, but Gov. Jay Nixon issued an executive order requiring gay and lesbian couples to file joint state tax returns if they file a joint federal return.
This is much simpler than in other states. But what if filing as a married couple causes your taxes to go up?
"For the people it hurts, how unfair," said Janis Cowhey, a law partner at the Marcum accounting firm in New York. "You won't recognize my marriage, but you're going to make me pay more in taxes because I got married somewhere else." Source: STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Hillary Clinton is moving toward announcing her candidacy for president of the United States likely on Sunday, according to Democrats familiar with her plans.
Her announcement will come via social media, including a video message, they say. In fact, Clinton has already filmed the video she’ll use to announce her candidacy. Early state visits could come as soon as next week with Iowa the most likely first stop.
Clinton’s all-but-certain 2016 presidential bid marks the second time she has tried to become the first female to win the White House.
After her defeat at the hands of Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton firmly said “no” when asked whether she would ever run for president again. But, since then, her position has evolved.
In recent months, Clinton has been gearing up for her campaign. Behind the scenes, she has hired a robust team, including many of President Obama’s former advisers and strategists.
Her team also recently signed a lease for a new office space in Brooklyn, New York, which will serve has her campaign headquarters.
She will enter the race as the clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, and is leading all her possible Republican opponents in early polls.
A recent ABC News-Washington Post poll showed Clinton ahead of potential Republican candidate,Jeb Bush, by a 54-to-40 percent margin in a prospective match-up, with even bigger leads against Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Marco Rubio. Source: JONATHAN KARL, LIZ KREUTZ and RICK KLEIN
PANAMA CITY (AP) — The White House pushed back Friday against declarations from Iran's leaders that any nuclear deal must include an immediate lifting of sanctions, indicating President Barack Obama will walk away from negotiations unless sanctions are removed over time.
"It's very clear and understood that sanctions relief will be phased," Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama in Panama for the Summit of the Americas. "The fact of the matter is, we have framework. The president has said if the details don't bear out, we won't have a deal."Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes portrayed the tough stance by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani as a reflection of internal political pressure and not as an impediment to a deal. But Rhodes pointed out the framework agreement that Iran and the six powers reached last week to curb Tehran's nuclear activities allows for sanctions to be removed over time, not at once.
In his first comments on the framework, Khamenei told a gathering of religious poets on Thursday that he "is neither for nor against" it. But he said the punitive "sanctions should be lifted completely, on the very day of the deal." He said because the agreement was only the framework and not the accord itself, "nothing has been done yet."
Rouhani, a relative moderate, sent the same message during a ceremony Thursday marking Iran's nuclear technology day, which celebrates the country's atomic achievements.
"We will not sign any agreement unless all economic sanctions are totally lifted on the first day of the implementation of the deal," Rouhani said.
Rhodes said Khamenei and Rouhani had to deal with internal politics, but that their statements should not be taken as a test of what the final deal will look like. The deadline for a final agreement is June 30.
"They have their own hardliners who are skeptical of this deal," Rhodes said. "The test of whether or not that framework can be memorialized is not a comment on any given day by an Iranian leader. The test will be if by the end of June we have a document."
But Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a statement Thursday that Khamenei's remarks "would appear to be a major setback" and said they suggest that that Iran and the Obama administration "are on very different pages."
"These differences need to be thoroughly explained by the administration if we are to give serious consideration to this agreement," he said.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest pointedly countered McCain in a Tweet Friday: "Naive and reckless for @SenJohnMcCain to believe every word of the Supreme Leader's political speech. He shouldn't."
The framework says sanctions put in place over Iran's nuclear program will be suspended once international monitors verify that Tehran is abiding by the limitations spelled out in the agreement. Rhodes said the International Atomic Energy Agency will have to inspect military sites.
An essential part of the deal, he said, is "having the IAEA ability to inspect suspicious sites, no matter where they are."
The West has long feared Iran's nuclear program could allow it to build an atomic bomb and that Tehran has used uranium enrichment — the key point of contention in the negotiations — to pursue nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, such as power generation and cancer treatment. Source: JIM KUHNHENN
At some point in their careers, almost every major star decides they want to step behind the camera. Sometimes it’s a brief flirtation with directing (Eddie Murphy and Nicolas Cage, for instance, have done it once, gotten terrible reviews and never braved it again). While others, like George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, have managed to carve out successful side careers as filmmakers.
It’s too early to say in which category Ryan Gosling — whose first effort as a director,Lost River, hits select theaters today and VOD Friday — will fit. The star’s first feature premiered tobrutal notices at the Cannes Film Festivallast year, and now stands at a painful 28 percent onRotten Tomatoes. The drama follows a mother (Christina Hendricks) going to desperate measures in an economically devastated town while her son (Iain de Caestecker) befriends a misfit girl (Saoirse Ronan) and comes into conflict with a local psychopath (Matt Smith). For all the bad reviews though, the movie has a fair number of redeeming features to it. Here are 5 things that might make it worth a screening this weekend.
1. It looks beautiful
Whatever the flaws of the story are — and there are plenty — there’s no denying that Gosling has a striking eye for an image. Benoît Debe, the French cinematographer behind Enter The Void and Spring Breakers shot the film, and brings over his neon-licked feel for an interior and some Terrence Malick-esque outdoor photography that gorgeously captures a ruined world.
2. It sounds great
The film is also a pleasure for the ears. Gosling hired Johnny Jewel, whose work under pseudonyms Chromatics and Desire proved crucial to the soundscape of Gosling vehicle Drive, to write the score. Jewel’s synth-heavy work is exemplary: haunting, surprising and, with the song “Yes (Love Theme From Lost River),” has come up with one of the most unforgettably ear-wormy melodies in recent film scoring.
3. The performances are all strong
Gosling might still be finding his feet as a storyteller, but it’s no surprise, given his talents in front of the camera, that he knows how to cast a movie. Mad Men’s Hendricks is steely and vulnerable, whileAgents Of S.H.I.E.L.D actor De Caestecker cunningly channels his director as her son. Ronan is reliable as ever as his love interest, and former Doctor Who Smith is a fascinatingly gangly, against-type choice as antagonist Bully. Source: Oliver Lyttelton
PANAMA CITY (AP) — With a cordial evening handshake, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved Friday toward a groundbreaking meeting on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in what would be a remarkable display of reconciliation between two nations.
The first visual clues of an improved relationship — at least among leaders — came Friday evening as Obama and Castro arrived at a Panama City convention center for the summit's opening ceremonies. A reporter for a Venezuelan TV network posted video online showing the two greeting each other comfortably with multiple handshakes and extended small talk, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez looked on.The powerful symbolism of a substantial exchange Saturday between the leaders with the leadership of the Western Hemisphere gathered around them could signal progress. Both sides are still working through nettlesome issues that would lead to the opening of embassies in Washington and Havana, the first stage in a new diplomatic relationship.
The White House said the interaction was informal and said they didn't engage in substantive conversation. The two men were expected to speak further Saturday — the first extended conversation between the leaders of the U.S. and Cuba in more than 50 years.
Obama, speaking to a meeting of civil society groups, cast the move to end hostile relations as a triumph for the Cuban people.
"As the United States begins a new chapter in our relationship with Cuba, we hope it will create an environment that improves the lives of the Cuban people," he told the gathering, which included Cuban dissidents. "Not because it is imposed by us, the United States, but through the talent and ingenuity and aspirations, and the conversations among Cubans from all walks of life so they can decide what the best course is for their prosperity."
The White House was coy over the status of the State Department's recommendation to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror. Removal is a top issue with Castro because it would not only eliminate Cuba's status as a pariah, but also ease Cuba's ability to conduct simple financial transactions.
Nevertheless, the pace of activity over the terror list suggested that even if Obama did not make an announcement Saturday, one would come soon.
The U.S.-Cuban outreach entered a new, accelerated stage in recent days, with Obama speaking with Castro by phone Wednesday and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holding a lengthy meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez late Thursday.
The Cuban foreign ministry issued a brief account of the Kerry-Rodriguez meeting, saying they met for nearly three hours in a "respectful and constructive atmosphere."
It was the highest-level, face-to-face contact between officials from the two countries since the Dec. 17 announcement that Washington and Havana would move to restore diplomatic relations that were severed in 1961.
Even as Washington talked up the historic shift toward Cuba, leftist leaders in Latin America took shots at the U.S. in solidarity with Venezuela.
Barely off the plane, President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela laid a wreath at a monument to victims of the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. To shouts of "Maduro, stick it to the Yankee," he vowed to personally ask Obama to apologize to Panama and compensate victims of what he called a "massacre" that left more than 500 people dead during the invasion.
"Never again a U.S. invasion in Latin America," Maduro said.
President Evo Morales of Bolivia said he backs Maduro's drive to end U.S. intervention in the region.
For Obama and Castro, their conversation Wednesday was the first since they spoke Dec. 17.
The flurry of diplomacy around the summit was recognition of the historic nature of the new relationship intended to end five decades of American presidents either isolating or working to overthrow Fidel Castro's government. Officials hoped to make the most of the exchange between the two men.
Still, Obama made a point of meeting with about 15 Latin American activists, including two Cubans who have challenged Castro's government. The White House identified the Cubans as Laritza Diversent, a human rights lawyer and independent journalist, and Manuel Cuesta Morua, a leader of a centrist opposition group. A large contingent of pro-Castro Cubans who were supposed to participate in a larger civil society forum left shortly before Obama spoke to protest the inclusion of Cuban dissidents.
Obama was already getting praise from allies in the Americas.
"President Obama is going to leave a legacy the way he is supporting Hispanics in the United States, and also his new policy for Cuba for us is very important," said Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela.
Removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terror would be a major milestone and likely generate controversy in the U.S., given the political repercussions of any Cuba opening. The sensitivities over Cuba are especially acute in Florida, a key presidential battleground, and they are likely to ignite vigorous debate among the presidential candidates.
Congress would have 45 days from the day Obama removes Cuba from the list to issue a resolution of disapproval, but the margin of passage would have to be veto-proof.
Rep. Jeff Duncan, the chairman of a House panel on the Western Hemisphere, criticized taking Cuba off the list. And Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is among Republicans considering a presidential bid, decried the expected Obama-Castro meeting and called the Cuban leader an "entrenched dictator." Source: Hot News
The cast of the Fast & Furious franchise continually refers to itself as a family and, even though Paul Walker has passed, his daughter is still part of that group. Meadow, 16, shared a picture of herself with Furious 7 stars Vin Diesel and Elsa Pataky. Though she posted the photo Thursday, it was taken at the movie's Los Angeles premiere last week.
The image shows Vin and Elsa throwing deuces while Pataky has her arm draped around Meadow. In the bottom of the photo, it looks like Vin Diesel's drinking a Corona, which is a nice synchronicity with his Fast & Furious character. The teen did not write a caption.
Meadow remains close with much of Fast & Furious' ensemble cast. Tyrese, who plays lovable fool Roman in the franchise, even referred to Meadow has his "niece" in a Facebook post from the film's wrap party last July.
Meadow was not the only one of her father Paul's relatives to attend the premiere. His brothers Cody and Caleb, who were used in Furious 7 as body doubles following Paul's death, were also at the premiere. Cody has said that the experience inspired him to seek a career in Hollywood.
"I'm going to continue to work to create as much awareness as I can for [Reach Out World Wide, Paul Walker's charity] and I'm also pursuing a career in Hollywood," Walker told Australia'sKIISFM.
Much of the promo for Furious 7 has focused on memorializing Paul Walker. This week, Vin Diesel sang Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" in tribute to Walker.
An eighth Fast & Furious film has not officially been announced, though it seems highly unlikely that the franchise won't continue. Furious 7 opened with a $143.6 million dollar weekend, the highest-grossing April release and the ninth largest opening for a movie, ever. It has, in just one week since it opened, made nearly $500 million worldwide. Source: hot news
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge has issued an arrest warrant for Justin Bieber on Friday, saying the singer failed to respond to summons related to allegations he ordered bodyguards to attack a photographer in 2013.
Judge Alberto Julio Banos ordered the "immediate detention" of Bieber and bodyguards Hugo Alcides Hesny and Terrence Reche Smalls.
An email sent to a Bieber representative was not immediately returned.
Bieber is accused of sending the bodyguards to attack photographer Diego Pesoa outside a Buenos Aires nightclub. Bieber never returned to Argentina to respond to questions about the incident.
Under Argentine law, Bieber would face from one month to six years in prison if convicted on a charge of causing injuries.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the warrant would extend beyond Argentina. Calls to the judge's office Friday afternoon were not answered.
In comments to local station Telefe Noticias, Pesoa's lawyer implied that the warrant would force Bieber to return to the South American country.
"Now we just need to wait for the police to find him and bring him" to Argentina, said lawyer Matias Morla. "For us, this is a triumph against all those who said this case was a bluff and that we didn't have anything."
Calls and emails to Morla were not immediately returned. Source: DEBORA REY
Jared Leto has been playing it somewhat coy when it comes to his physical transformation into the iconic villain the Joker for the upcoming big-screen adaptation of DC Comics’s Suicide Squad.
But Thursday night, comic-book fans got another peek at Leto's new look when director David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch) tweeted a photo of Leto peering through a still camera, displaying the Joker’s unmistakable green hair:
The new tweet was a follow-up to a photo Ayer tweeted on Wednesday of most of the movie's cast including Will Smith, Viola Davis, and Margot Robbie. Leto was conspicuously absent from that shot, which explains Ayer's joking hashtag “WhereIsJared."
The slightly fuzzy pic shows Leto's hair in two tones of green, though it's unclear whether that's due to lighting. The pose is a clear nod to the graphic novel The Killing Joke, which tells an origin story of the Joker.
Just four days ago, Leto posted a photo of himself on Instagram, with platinum blond hair, along with the message, “Transformation begins.” We presume he's got a lot more Joker transformation in store. Source: Meriah Doty
Taylor Alesana, a transgender teen in California who spoke out about being bullied, committed suicide last week. (Photo:xxtayloralesanaxx/Instagram)
A 16-year-old transgender teen who found popularity with her makeup tutorial videos on YouTube has committed suicide.
Taylor Alesana, a student at Fallbrook High School in California, hadspoken out on YouTube recentlyabout loneliness and the bullying she was experiencing at school. In a video posted in December, she revealed she was going to live publicly as a boy for a while. “I’ve had a very hard last couple of weeks,” she said. “I had to go back in the closet and dress like a boy and cut my nails off and cut my hair off. I did this for my own protection. I was being bullied a lot at school.”
STORY: Transgender Parents: Coming Soon To Your Living Room
In the video, titled “Update! *Sad*,” Alesana described incidents of harassment by other students, and said she did not feel safe at school. “When you’re a kid, parents always tell you sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you,” she said. “To me that’s not true. Words hurt, and words turn up to threats and threats turn up to physical violence.”
Alesana encouraged transgender teens in similar situations to go to their school administrators or to the police if necessary. “Do whatever you can to protect yourself,” she said. And while she said she would never let the bullies win, she felt she had to dress like a boy for the foreseeable future. “When … the bullies get better and they quit, and when the world changes – which it is changing everyday – when everything gets safer and people learn to accept trans people for who they are, then definitely, I will come back out. I will come back out with my heels a’blazin. My huge dresses on, some nice hair, I will, I promise I will.”
Fallbrook High School released a statement on their website, acknowledging a student’s death but not naming Alesana. “One of Fallbrook High School’s students tragically passed away during the spring break, on Thursday, April 2. We are attempting to honor the family’s request for privacy while also helping our students and staff who have been impacted by this sad event. The district has had counselors on site to support our school community. Fallbrook High has a continuum of appropriate services (social, emotional, academic) to ensure every student is supported and successful at Fallbrook High School. It is never easy when something like this happens, but we are working to move forward together and stronger than before. Thank you for helping us support the student’s family during this difficult time.” Source: Rachel Bertsche
First presented in 1992, the MTV Movie Awards (airing this Sunday) may never match the spontaneity and irreverence of those early years. Thankfully, the Best Kiss award continues to be a wild card: fun, unpredictable, and totally unique among major awards shows.
Let’s take a look back at the MTV Movie Award category that has always been our favorite (except in 1996, when they gave out that award forBest Sandwich in a Movie).
1992: The first-ever Best Kiss Award is accepted by Anna Chlumsky for the smooch she gave Macauley Culkin in the coming-of-age tearjerker My Girl. “Gee, this is my first kiss, and I get an award!” says 11-year-old Chlumsky, in a speech almost as adorable as the kiss itself.
2000: This is when Best Kiss starts to get interesting. After years of flirty-awkward acceptance speeches from pairs like Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei (1993 winners for Untamed Heart) and Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly (1995 winners for Dumb and Dumber), Cruel Intentions co-stars Selma Blair and Sarah Michelle Gellar become the first winners to kiss during their acceptance speech. It’s just a chaste peck, but the crowd eats it up.
2005: The finest moment in the Best Kiss category (and possibly all of MTV Movie Awards history) occurs when Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams re-create their big kiss from The Notebook, eventaking a running start to warm up the crowd. The moment gives Notebooklovers plenty of fan-fiction material until Gosling and McAdams go public with their real-life romance a few months later. (They split in 2007.)
2009-2012:Twilight takes over the Best Kiss category and adds a whole new will-they-or-won’t-they-element: Will Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson give fans a peek at their secretive off-screen romance by locking lips onstage? The answer, for four years running, is “no.” But they do invent some creative evasions. In 2009, they tease the audience with a fake-out. Source: Gwynne Watkins
About three years ago, I had one of those typical Monday mornings that many women have experienced.
With a fairly important meeting on the horizon, I started to try on different outfits, lacking any real direction or plan. As anart directorat one of the leading creative advertising agencies in New York, I’m given complete freedom over what I wear to the office, but that still left me questioning each piece that I added or subtracted from my outfit. “Is this too formal? Is that too out there? Is this dress too short?” I finally chose something I regretted as soon as I hit the subway platform.
Related: 21 Chic Beauty Looks For The Office
As I arrived at work, my stress level only increased as I saw my male creative partner and other male co-workers having a “brodown” with the new boss as they entered the meeting room—a room I was suppose to already be inside. I just stood there—paralyzed by the fact that I was not only late, but unprepared. And my sweater was inside out. I had completely stressed myself out, and for what? This was not the first morning I’d felt this unnecessary panic, but that day I decided it would be the last.
The frustration I felt walking into that meeting late remained with me. Should it really be this hard? I knew my male colleagues were taken seriously no matter what they wore—and I highly doubt they put in as much sartorial time and effort as I had. But gender issues aside, I needed to come up with a solution to simplify this morning struggle.
I have no clue how the idea of a work uniform came to me, but soon, the solution to my woes came in the form of 15 silk white shirts and a few black trousers. For a little personal detail, I remembered my mother loved to put bows in my hair as kid, so I chose to add a custom-made black leather rosette around my neck. Done. During the colder months, I’ll also top my look off with a black blazer. I shopped all the pieces in one day. It burned a hole in my wallet to say the least, but in the long run, it has saved me—and will continue to save me—more money than I could imagine.
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To state the obvious, a work uniform is not an original idea. There’s a group of people that have embraced this way of dressing for years—they call it a suit. For men, it’s a very common approach, even mandatory in most professions. Nevertheless, I received a lot of mixed reactions for usurping this idea for myself. Immediately, people started asking for a motive behind my new look: “Why do you do this? Is it a bet?” When I get those questions I can’t help but retort, “Have you ever set up a bill for online auto-pay? Did it feel good to have one less thing to deal with every month?”
More distant co-workers have even asked if I was in some sort of sect—religious or otherwise. However, those types of comments ended abruptly when Mashable published the widely read, “Why Successful Men Wear the Same Thing Every Day.” It came out almost two years after I had started wearing my uniform, and to some extent, it was a relief. My work ensemble didn’t come off as a mystery anymore. On the downside, I couldn’t help but notice that it appeared as if I needed a male authority to legitimatize my choice of clothing in order for others to truly accept it. Source: Harper's Bazaar
