STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

Compliments

brazilian · Dooney & Bourke

I have a slighty weird one. I was in Seattle with my mom and for some reason we went to get our palms read. I dont believe in stuff like that, but it was fun. Well when the lady told me to relax my hand, I did. My fingers naturally curl up a bit. She said "oh your hands are like flowers". haha I've just always remembered that (and it was a long time ago), and it always makes me feel a little special.

So whats yours??

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

Aww, brazilian, that's adorable!

I don't know what mine is, actually. I have to keep thinking about it!

halleybird · Hermes

What a nice thread. And yeah, esquiress! Answer your own poll! wink

I have two favorites. The first one was from my husband when we were sophomores in high school & had just met. He gave me a birthday card that said I had a "majestic sense of humor." It was terrible word usage, but I love that he used a thesaurus (probably looked up "great") to try to impress me.

My 2nd one: Last summer, I needed a letter of rec. from a student, and one of my former students (now a jr. in college), wrote this (I saved it on my email because it's good to read on days when I am frustrated with my job):

"... She not only teaches ethics, conventions and style but she teaches you to use your heart and head in a way that no teacher I have ever had has done. Today, I am a journalism major at --- where I am the news editor of my campus paper, a Scripps news editorial scholar and I am working at an online magazine as a summer intern. I know none of this would be possible if it was not for Mrs. ---'s knowledge and love for teaching and journalism. She introduced me to the amazing world of journalism and let me make my own decisions and learn in a hands on way. I could not be more thankful to any teacher ever."

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

halleybird that email made me misty! Your students are very very very lucky to have you.

Ok, the last compliment I received that really really touched me was an email my old boss sent to a friend of his about me. Some background: For the past year and a half, I've been clerking for federal district court judges. This judge in particular I was only with for about 4 months, while his permanent clerk was on maternity leave. So I know that they were nervous having me fill in and I was super nervous too, I really wanted to do a good job. Toward the end of my time with him, my judge asked me about what I wanted to do after my last clerkship (the one I'm at right now, with another judge, I know it's confusing, I feel like the bouncing law clerk!). I said I wanted to explore working at a big firm. So without telling me, he emailed his friend who was a managing partner at a big firm here and told the partner that I was a great writer, a pleasure to have in chambers and had a brilliant career ahead of me. And then he printed out the email and gave me a copy of it. Ok, now I'm getting teary just thinking about it! It was just so nice to hear, especially because I really had been feeling insecure about my career right before that time (and I'm still nervous, to tell you the truth). It just helped give me faith in myself again, you know?

brazilian · Dooney & Bourke

Those are both so sweet Halleybird and Esquiress.

Suasoria · Chanel

This isn't the greatest ever, but it popped into my head a little while ago and made me smile.

I was about 12 or 13 and the new kid in school. Two girls in my class who were really nice to me invited me to a YMCA "winter camp" one weekend. Even though it was more than my parents could afford, somehow I got to go. But all the other kids seemed rich and snooty and I felt miserably out of place.

On Saturday night there was a dance (ah, teenage dances). People were too shy to actually dance, the music was stupid, etc. Except then someone put on Grandmaster Flash, and I forced my two friends to go dance with me. In a few minutes, the two coolest guys at camp started dancing with us. (!!!)

One of them said to me later, "You're the only person in this whole place who actually knows how to dance," and the other one said, "All the girls here are so lame except for you."

It was the ideal self-esteem boost for my teen outcast angst!

brazilian · Dooney & Bourke

hahaha thats awesome, Suasoria! I'm sure it still applies to you today. wink

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

Halleybird and Esquiress, those are both great stories! What impressive ladies you are. Mine is a lot less heart-warming and inspiring, but was very much appreciated nonetheless. When I was at my five year college reunion a couple of years ago, I overheard a guy who'd been in my freshman dorm saying to one of my friends, "wow, sephorablue looks awesome! She went to the Foxatorium!" It still makes me grin every time I remember it.

boobaby · Kate Spade

I had a job once where I was underpaid, overworked, and not appreciated in any way, shape or form. The head of the company did not like me. I got the impression that I wasn't pretty and bubbly enough for his taste, and no matter how hard I worked or how capable I was, it all came down to my looks being sub-par in his mind. I once got reprimanded for having dark circles under my eyes if that tells you anything. Anyway, the job really fucked with my self-esteem.

My boss, however, loved me and went to bat for me all the time. He was the only reason for sticking around. Anyway, they let him go a year before he would have been eligible for retirement. It was absolutely heartless. The minute he told me he was leaving, I started networking like crazy and asked him if I could use him as a reference. Within a week I had a new job, one that I know more qualified people interviewed for, so I know his reference helped a lot. He was thrilled I was leaving. I think he knew the minute he left I would probably get the ax and he did everything he could to make sure I had something lined up.

My last day and his next to last day happened to be the day of the building's holiday party. We had a few drinks and laughs together and as I was leaving, he handed me a card. I opened it up on the train and it touched me so much that there I was, drunk and crying on an El car like a fool. I can't even remember specifics, but it basically said that I was a funny, smart and beautiful girl. It wasn't creepy, it was sweet like something your grandpa would say. It was just nice to know that not everyone there thought I was some God-awful troll!

erin · Chanel

some favorites

1. when my husband and i were dating he told me one of the reasons he liked me so much was that i am empathetic. ie, if someone were to fall off their bike i would feel awful for them (and help them, of course).

2. i don't know if this is a compliment really, but one of my good friends was saying there were three people who have made life-changing impacts on them and i was one of them. (though it was for a sort of silly reason)

3. when i was in new york at a hair show, after getting a seriously sh*tty cut "do" (a purple and black faux hawk) on stage, i went to my favorite photo store (b&h) and i joked to the guy in the used camera section about my awful hair and he said that since i am beautiful, i can get away with anything.

Suasoria · Chanel

brazilian wrote:

hahaha thats awesome, Suasoria! I'm sure it still applies to you today.

Well, not to toot my own horn, but I am a good little dancer...

Kelly · Hermes

These sound silly, but I guess it's because of the people they came from....

1. My friend D is very critical of other people, but somehow it's in a way that I can relate to and sympathize with, which sounds horrible I know but it's true. Anyway, one time he told me that he liked me because I am "smart and not stupid like everyone else in the world." And being as he is a) super critical of personal qualities b) doesn't ever give out compliments and c) is one of the most brilliant people I know, I was thrilled to know I was not considered one of the stupid people.

2. My ex BF would always just sit and listen to me talking to my (huge) family on the phone or look at all the pictures I had of everyone around my apartment. One day I was saying how I was trying to just eat Ramen that week so I could afford gas to go home for my grandpa's birthday or something like that. And he just smiled and said how he was so impressed and jealous of me for having such a close relationship and such a wonderful family, and he knew I was going to raise a wonderful family of my own. This was especially touching because he is someone who is freakishly afraid of close relationships (he hides from weddings on TV the same way he hides from gorey scenes...yes, I know he was a stupid choice for a boyfriend) and he still admired my own. Also, from the same ex BF: I have my home page when I open up my browser set to Google in Latin, because I love the language

He got on my computer once and saw that, he said I was the "coolest person ever" - which is superb news becauase most people just give me weird looks when they see it!

3. My friends aren't often fans of my music preferences. I always let them pick the CDs in my car, and between all of the Meat Loaf and Stevie Wonder that I have in there, a lot of them just throw up their hands and say I can pick because they don't like anything. One time I was driving my friend K to some party, and I told him he could pick. He just pressed "play" on the CD player, not knowing what as in there, and Prince's Greatest Hits came on. He just turned to me, smiled, and said "Ttara123, you have the best musical taste of anyone I know"

-- Edited by ttara123 at 10:07, 2007-08-31

NCshopper · Hermes

1) This one is going to sound extremely cornball, but both of my parents always tell me how proud they are of me. The fact that they say that and really mean it means the world to me.

2) I was stuck in a really, really crappy situation with my last job and one day my assistant, who was leaving the job to go to grad school told me that the only reason he stuck around at all instead of bailing a lot earlier was because of me. I just thought it was a huge compliment, and it was especially nice to hear at that point in time.

3) A homeless guy told me once I had really pretty feet. Actually I've had a few people tell me I have pretty feet. Random, but I'll take what I can get!

Collette · Chanel

Ok this may not even be a compliment but I took it as one
When my niece was really little she used to give these head lock hugs and she was doing this to me one day and wouldn't let go and my grandfather looked over at me and said "she sure knows who loves her" and for some reason it meant the world to me.

Kitty · Hermes

A few that come to mind:

1. When my friend told me I was the most passionate person she knew. It just caught me off guard because I don't really think of myself like that, and it was neat to hear someone point something out like that.

2. This woman in the movie theater once stopped me tell me that my outfit was amazing and that it looked like I had "just stepped off a runway in new york city"

3. Once I was walking down the street and I bumped into this guy and I said, "oh, I'm sorry" and he said, "Don't be sorry, I don't mind getting bumped into by a girl with such a beautiful face." I smiled and said thanks and walked away..and then he kind of yelled through the crowd, "bye girl with the beautiful face!"

4. An english teacher in HS that I really looked up to once told me that I wrote better than any of the writers he had ever worked with (He was a journalist before he became a teacher).

Teresa · Kate Spade

this one is easy for me...a family friend who has been a great mentor to me over the years, is unable to have children and told me "If God ever blessed me with a daughter I would want her to be just like you"

My dad also told me once, when I was going through a hard time in high school, that he would crawl to california and back on his knees if he knew it would make me better.