Claudia Kishi, Fashionistasian
by Guest Contributor Jen, originally published on Disgrasian
We were recently turned on to What Claudia Wore, a paean to the smart, sartorial stylings of fictional character Claudia Kishi, from the children’s book series The Baby-Sitters Club. Wikipedia describes the Japanese-American teen as someone who comes from a “scholarly, conservative family” (sounds about right) and is “particularly bad at spelling” (hmmm…). WCW’s author Alex points out time after time how very “now” Claud’s fashion choices are–from leggings to vests to rakish hats to oversized tops–and we couldn’t agree more:
PHANTOM CALLER: (breathy) What are you wearing?
CLAUDIA: I’m wearing an oversized chambray button-down, a Navajo-striped vest, and a bitchin’ side pony. I’m also armed with pepper-spray, asshole.
CLAUDIA: Black tights and knee-high boots for spring? Sure. Mochi ice cream, anyone, before we get this blowjob party started?
NEW GIRL: Claudia, please, tell me what you think of my outfit.
CLAUDIA: Keep the Timberlands. Burn everything else.
MEAN JANINE: What are you doing with your life, Claudia? All you think about is clothes, clothes, clothes. What about your grades? How are you going to get into an Ivy League school when you’ve failed the seventh grade? Don’t you want to be successful like me?
CLAUDIA: Dude. Four-eyes. Chillax. Don’t you know how much that bob haircut ages you? You look like Mom after she squeezed us out, stopped having sex with Dad, and started hording the Rocky Road ice cream all to herself. Your outfit’s halfway to Sexy Secretary, but you might consider throwing on a big Alaia corset belt if you wanna get past second base.
(beat)
Can I borrow that high-waisted skirt when you’re done with it?
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Mary wrote:
Oh man. Back when I was reading those books, I totally wanted to BE Claudia. Except for her spelling and handwriting.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 7:30 am ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
LMAO! I fell in love with Disgrasian after your “Don’t Hinder Mohinder” post. Hopefully, thanks to your inspiration, Racialicious (with Disgrasian?) will hold a “When Mohinder/Hiro Get Some Watch.” It may be a while–a looooooooong while–but I’m hopeful.
As always, fantastic and funny insight and keep up the great writing.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 7:54 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Man, I almost snorted out my breakfast when I first read this on DISGRASIAN. Really looking forward to meeting the ladies in person this Saturday at the NYU conference!
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 7:58 am ¶
tasha wrote:
Uh-oh Jen, bringing it back to fifth grade!
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 8:02 am ¶
Anonymiss wrote:
Oh yes, Claudia was most def the fashionista of the group. I wanted Janine’s smarts though
Janine was so smart she was attending a community college while in high school.
My fave character was Jessi Ramsey.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 9:21 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Ah, Jessi Ramsey –
Yes, she could be a whole piece in herself, couldn’t she…
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 9:26 am ¶
Jennifer Gandin Le wrote:
AMAZING! I saw the name in my RSS feed and my heart actually skipped a beat. Claudia was So Cool. Thanks for the link.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 11:48 am ¶
Lauren wrote:
Sigh. Claudia was so fly. And she always had the best snacks in her room.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 12:28 pm ¶
deesha wrote:
Um, looking at these select covers, I must ask: Did Claudia never babysit any kids of color, LOL????
I was 14 when the series begin (thanks, Wiki!) and never encountered them until years later when I was an elementary school teacher. My daughter has never read any but maybe I’ll point her towards them, and Claudia in particular.
The analysis from Disgrasian had me rolling.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 1:15 pm ¶
deesha wrote:
Actually, I was 15. So I guess the shaving years off my age thing starts now, lol.
Went and checked out some titles at Amazon. Think I’ll let my daughter discover these on her own. Or not.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 1:31 pm ¶
Nadra wrote:
I totally remember Claudia Kishi. This was very funny. I was a mini fashionista back then, so I liked this character a lot. Ah, Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, the Girls of Canby Hall and the Sweet Dreams series all bring back memories.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 2:43 pm ¶
Angela wrote:
Oh I LOVED these books when I was a kid. And yeah, Claudia and Stacey? Their clothes were fire for a poor black girl who has never caught a break when it comes to being able to buy clothes.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 3:25 pm ¶
Nomindle wrote:
Ahh…. I will never forgive this series for giving me such unrealistic expectations of middle school…..
On another note, did anyone ever watch the show?? I always found it kind of disturbing that Claudia was played by a white girl in yellowface…
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 4:22 pm ¶
Claudia wrote:
WTF, yellowface? I never saw the show. Or read the series for that matter. Nevertheless, when you’re Asian American growing up in California in the nineties, and named Claudia, the references are plentiful.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 5:45 pm ¶
lunanoire wrote:
Mohinder not getting any!?
He is super good looking! Clearly Heroes is a work of fiction.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 6:05 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
BWAAAAAAAAHAHA!
I ADORED CLAUDIA. She was my favorite character, my fashion inspiration, and my inadvertent life coach.
WAY better than those boring old Boxcar Children.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 9:32 pm ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
@ lunanoire–agreed.:-D Check out Disgrasian’s critique:
disgrasian.blogspot.com/2007/04/let-mohinder-bone.html
In the immortal words of Hard Kaur: “Gimme gimme a desi guy/who look so fly…”
We are so off-topic, lunanoire…but Sendhil Ramamurthy is distracting that way.;-)
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 10:56 pm ¶
miss girl wrote:
“WAY better than those boring old Boxcar Children.”
Back off biatch!
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 11:15 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Miss girl –
I am assuming that was a playful “back off biatch”, correct?
And, I cosign with Fatemeh. I must have read over 50 books starring the four children standing outside of the bakery on a warm night…but all I can really remember is how the girls were trying to make stew while the guys did cool shit.
Me personally, I’m saving my nostalgia for those rare Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Tom Swift Super/Ultra Mysteries/Thrillers. That and 18 Pine Street Novels.
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 11:28 pm ¶
Orville wrote:
I remember reading the Babysitters Club back in the 80s when I was a kid. I guess I should of known I was gay back then. I recall being the only nine or ten year old boy reading this book in my class. I also read Sweet Valley High too.
Posted 12 Apr 2008 at 12:23 am ¶
miss girl wrote:
Oh, I was kidding of course! I wasn’t passionate about either BCC or BSC – I was more of an RL Stine gal.
Posted 12 Apr 2008 at 4:36 am ¶
Padraigin wrote:
The thing I remember about Claudia was that she was really close with her grandmother and it was a big deal when she, being the super artsy one, made a collage for her sister.
That’s about it I remember about her.
Posted 22 Jul 2008 at 6:35 pm ¶