Before I was a Model-Pants Parties
Before I Was a Model — The Pants Parties Before I ever stepped in front of a camera, before the modeling agencies and photo shoots, our living room in the San Fernando Valley had already turned into a fashion showroom. We used to have what I called “pants parties.” That’s what we named them, and everyone at school knew exactly what that meant. It meant racks and racks of jeans — real jeans, the kind the cool girls wore — filling up our living room like a boutique that had suddenly appeared overnight. The clothes came straight from a warehouse downtown Los Angeles, from the manufacturing district where brands like Rag City Blues, Jordache, and Dittos were being produced. Back then, those names meant everything. If you had the right jeans, you felt like you belonged. My mother had a way of making things happen.She believed in relationships, in trading favors, in finding creative solutions when money was tight. She understood something I didn’t fully grasp at the time — that survival sometimes meant thinking differently. So the trucks would arrive, and suddenly our quiet living room transformed. Metal racks rolled in, heavy with denim in every shade of blue. The smell of new fabric filled the house. Tags dangled from every waistband. It felt exciting, almost magical. Then I would invite everyone from school. Girls would pile into our house, laughing, trying on jeans, holding them up to the mirror, asking each other,“Do these make my butt look good?”It was chaos and fun and teenage energy all at once. And the best part? The jeans were half price. To us, that felt like winning the lottery. Somehow, I always ended up with mine for free. I didn’t question it. I just knew my mother had figured something out again. She had a gift for bartering, for trading value in ways that didn’t always involve money. Sometimes it was connections. Sometimes it was favors. Sometimes it was simply trust. She even bartered clothes on Melrose back when Melrose Avenue was becoming the heartbeat of fashion in Los Angeles.