A few weeks ago, I asked: What are your signatures? By this I meant: what are the slender details that serve as synecdoches for you? I’m thinking at this moment of one of my best guy friends, who only writes in green ink. I see a green pen, and I think of him. (Our lives become mosaics of the people we love.)
Below, I’m sharing 11 evocative sets of signatures that Magpie readers shared with me via comments, email, and Instagram. I abridged some of your longer lists to just 3-4 descriptors, but of course a woman contains multitudes and it was difficult to append them. (Read the expanded format of several of the portraits below here.)
As I read these, I was touched by the way these women are obvious experts in themselves and their ways of being — and impressively capable of capturing themselves in haiku form. These feel like the written equivalent of those Victorian-era cameo miniatures: tiny, elegant, hand-carved, portable versions of yourselves.
***
Overalls // a hidden love note // “I think we’re in great shape!”
Two books going at once // extreme extrovert who hates being the center of attention // Mitsouko // can make anyone laugh
Red nails // book as accessory // made bed
Foraging // vintage art // oversized button downs
Water from a 500ml bottle/glass // red passport-sized Moleskine // Ranking obsessive // Being the dog in the relationship i.e. here to be next to you
Well-crafted emails // detailed trip plans // extreme Virgo energy // fresh flowers
Well-done fries // mismatched earrings // outdoor showers
Having a ‘daytime book’ and ‘nighttime book’ // Breton Shirts // metrocards as bookmarks
Big kisser // dinner parties with psychotic precision // “I’ll just make it from scratch”
No earrings or eye makeup ever // remembers everyone’s name // 150 books a year // wordy AF
Striped sweaters // Sancerre // knocking on wood
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(Share yours, too! Can you keep it to three or four signatures? A poet’s challenge.)
Post-Scripts.
+Another kind of self-portrait: listing the things you love.
+One thing that jumped out at me — probably a quarter or maybe even a third of the portraits you shared included the phrase “has multiple books going at once.” Please tell me more! How do you decide what to read, when? Are they different genres? (Also, what we’re all reading right now here. Loads of fantastic book recs.)
+Are you a book repeater?
+The bad book girl continues her unlearning.
+A winnowing inward. (A love note to Landon.)
+Weird things we love about our significant others.
Shopping Break.
+PSA! This VERY popular Magpie reader top is in stock in all sizes here. (We sold it out on Nordstrom.). I just ordered!
+All my Shopbop hearts (just updated).
+Who else bought the The Row-inspired cage jelly flats? I got them in the pink!
+Another common Magpie reader signature: oversized button-downs. I’m firmly in that camp, too. Have you tried the Frank and Eileen Shirley? I’ve heard this is an excellent oversized style. I own a few F&E button-downs but don’t have this one. (I really love the one that comes in this set — wear it a lot.) By the way, I just got a F&E catalog in the mail with a code: LOVE for 15% off. Not as much of a discount as we’d like, but I’ll take it! (And which are your other favorite oversized button-downs?)
+LOVE this head-to-toe linen look. With a brown leather sandal and tortoise sunnies?! So good.
+Pretty skirt from Target, and I love this high-necked ribbed tank top to pair with it. I actually want it in several colors! The latter reminds me of this striped Sezane tank I wore all last summer. I found the cut very flattering — shows the perfect amount of shoulder. Great to pair with a white or denim skirt.
+Pretty Easter tablecloths here, here, here, here.
+Forever on a quest to replicate salon-quality blowouts at home…I just had a Glamsquad gal come by this morning (this is my new thing, I think: blow out at the top of the week and try to make it stretch as long as possible) and she was raving about this Drybar “curl conditioning styler.” In her words: “They really did the science on that one. I bought several so I wouldn’t run out.” It helps define/maintain curl. I don’t actually curl my hair but I love a bent-under end, and this really helped the bend stay put longer. (Also, little reminder about my Glamsquad codes in case you want to book: $20 off for new users with code JenniferS and $15 off for repeat users with code JenniferS15.
+Hoka running shoes on sale in a great pink color for spring. (More spring fitness finds here.)
+Just added a navy-and-white stripe Kule tee to my closet. I have these in lots of colors. A fun, boxy fit; great everyday tee to add to your collection.
+Reminder that these excellent, high-stretch barrel jeans from Ruti are temporarily $55 off with code SS25. An ideal choice for petites. These are great jeans to live in / work in / write in / sit in. Super comfortable.
+Tortoise shell headband – a forever chic piece.
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Pearl earrings/ Bare Nails/Cherry Chapstick/Unsweet Iced Tea/Wordle
Have you eaten? / Sent you something in the mail / A carefully wrapped present / Blue and white
finding the perfect gift // “I just need to swing by the library really quick// obsessed with my students //a pot of beans simmering on the stove
Love! “I just need to swing by the library” — !! xx
Honored to be included!
My multiple books are usually a fiction/a nonfiction/an audiobook, and I keep them on different devices. I tend to read nonfiction on my phone in small doses, fiction on my kindle in dedicated gulps, and audiobook on my Bose earbuds while I roam the apartment phoneless. I also have a physical purse book since that’s what French folks tend towards (Dark Days by James Baldwin, I choose from the penguin classics and modern classics box sets, they look lovely on the shelf and they’re the perfect size). Choice is based on my library holds and preorders. If I have a new Celia Lake, Alexis Hall, TJ Alexander, Courtney Milan, or Olivia Dade I’m reading it immediately!! Library loans be damned.
I have found a really high reward book helps me
do chores I’m putting off. Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes was really dishy! Next up are A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander, Fan Service by Rosie Danan, and Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite. My nonfictions right now are Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (incredible perspective on aging), A Little Less Broken by Marian Schembari, and Autonomy-Supportive Parenting by Emily Edlynn.
Love this little glimpse into your TBR / reading stack! The “purse book” concept is so charming to me…
xx
So touched to be in the company of so many gifted poets. I feel like this would be a really sweet icebreaker at a dinner party or trip away with friends? Especially the latter because of how you get to know friends in a new way when you spend that sort of time together. Like a few year ago, we spent 10 days in Italy with another couple and I learned how my best friend’s husband needs to have cold still water in the fridge. Knowing this about him and us being able to fill up water each night for him was such a sweet thing to know. I guess what I’m saying is: I love that getting older means knowing ourselves and knowing these signatures, as well as knowing the people we love and being able to observe, appreciate, and love on them accordingly. What a gift xx
I completely agree! I also love the idea of going away with friends and then writing one another’s signatures afterward…that would be so interesting! Like, how would we as a group described Aoife in three telling details?
xx
You know, I remember when I was a 17-year-old senior in my final year of Catholic high school, we were on our Year 12 Senior Retreat (Australian year levels) and did a version of this exact exercise in small groups of random students. Though there were times where we were all not so nice to one another, it was a really beautiful and affirming space for people to recognise you with a single word and offer positive, sincere acknowledgements. Not only might it have been the first time we were having these conversations with one another, in many cases you were hearing this from people you might not know that well or had certain preconceptions about. As teenagers on the cusp of going out into the world it was a really powerful lesson that how we see each other and appreciate one another can be tender and unspoken and apt. I think maybe we have these ideas about ourselves and then other people might see things in us that we’re not even aware of. All of this makes me yearn for a Magpie retreat where we could connect spiritually across our creeds and spiritualities, have creative space over a few days, and are able to nurture one another offline xx
Wow! That would be such an incredible experience. My friend Inslee and I have daydreamed about doing something like that…maybe one day!!
I love this senior retreat idea! I can imagine how powerful that must have been — to be seen, and to see yourself in new ways, too. Wow!
xx
My most powerful retreat experience was only two hours! There was a Taizé service organized in the midst of finals week, and we sang Nada Te Turbe and chanted, seated on the floor by candlelight. It was such a small group and it felt really powerful and immersive and I felt transformed for months after.
Stripes // An audiobook and a physical book // weekend baking
Love! I’m always running an audiobook and a Kindle book!
xx
Remembers your cousin’s wife’s name//home made salad dressing //can’t find her phone//loves a tradition!
On a practical note—does the Sezane tank require a strapless bra because I just can’t. (If not, can you link the one you use?)
These are such great details! It does require a strapless bra :/. I think you could probably find a racerback that would work with the neckline but I haven’t investigated! I just torture myself. lol.
xx
Thank you for including my signature! I am one of your readers who always has a couple of books going at the same time. There is no method to my choices other than what interests me, what one of my book clubs is reading and what has become available in the DC or MD library queue. Sometimes the combinations are really interesting. The two books I just finished were A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ni Ghriofa and Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. Each examines feminism and spirituality through completely different prisms. I think several Magpies (especially the Head Magpie!) would really enjoy A Ghost in the Throat. Part poetry, part memoir, it examines motherhood, spirituality and the “need” to write.
The Amazon description is enticing and apt:
Moving fluidly between past and present, quest and elegy, poetry and those who make it, A Ghost in the Throat is a shapeshifting book: a record of literary obsession; a narrative about the erasure of a people, of a language, of women; a meditation on motherhood and on translation; and an unforgettable story about finding your voice by freeing another’s.
Those descriptions (yours, and the publisher’s) sent a good shiver down my spine! Adding to my list! Thanks, Sara!
xx
Themed dinner parties / Rattan everything / Pearls always / Never forgets a birthday
Anne! What a charming detail — “never forgets a birthday” — !!
Coffee with creamer // sensitive // “Tell me more”
Gorgeous haiku. I feel like these details tell so much! xx