No Apologies

Three years old, Joanie Del Santo stole her parents’ friends’ shoes at a dinner party and organized a runway show in the living room. Everything else followed naturally—modeling at seventeen, styling when people asked for help, then Saint Liberate, the vintage shop she opened because she needed something entirely her own. Her grandfather even models on the site, which says something about how she thinks.

She’s from Pasadena, has that California thing where clothes just work without trying. Photographers like James Drew shoot her. It’s straightforward on the surface: good eye, good taste, clear sense of what works.

What got me was the anime side. She’s a serious nerd about it, loves Japanese culture, dresses as anime characters whenever she wants. Her friends apparently hate it. That’s the whole point—she’s not editing herself into something acceptable or marketable. Fashion and anime are equally real to her, both equally important, both part of how she exists.

You meet people who actually know what they like and don’t apologize for it, and something about that is just attractive. Not in a calculated way. Just in the way real things are attractive.