Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.
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Isa Giallorenzo: Where are you originally from? Why did you get interested in fashion?Sasha Hodges: I grew up in the northeast close to Boston in a beach town with lots of houses from the 1600s. I can’t remember a time when I was not interested in fashion and clothing. My mother was superfrugal and only let us shop at Marshall’s and other discount stores, so I really never had anything “new.” She would take me to the consignment shop when they had “fill a bag day” and that would be my fall school clothes—I would steal my mother’s magazines and make giant collages from the editorials to decorate my room. I was superintrospective as a child and spent a lot of time alone creating fantasies built around items of clothing like my jelly shoes (which were magic) or a particular scarf that I would wear as a skirt or on my head as a turban. I was somehow always acutely aware of how clothing can change your persona and therefore affect relationships and power. I can’t imagine getting up and not considering what I will wear that day and choosing each piece carefully; it’s one of my favorite times of the day.
When did you open Kokorokoko? What concept did you have in mind?The original concept of Kokorokoko as an 80s and 90s vintage boutique came about very quickly in 2008, when my business partner, Ross Kelly, and I realized there were no shops specializing in our favorite time period. We started collecting things and opened a couple of months later with a mixture of men’s and women’s casual clothing that reflected our personal styles. Contemporary designers have been pulling inspiration from the 80s and 90s real hard the past five years, so the store’s stock has evolved with the trends.
Is Chicago really a great town for vintage shopping? How does it compare to NYC?Vintage shopping here gets better every year, with new shops sourcing every era opening up across the city. There are several solid shopping destinations in Wicker Park, Pilsen, and Andersonville. Chicago is great because it is a place where people are born and stay, taking what they have and reinventing it. On the coasts people arrive with expectations hoping to start fresh. In the midwest people are free to mine the past and reimagine it.
