Remedial dressing at Valerie Joseph, free
By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photo
Valerie Ragaza-Miao put her design skills to good use in creating the interior of her second Valerie Joseph boutique at Ward Entertainment Center. Yasmin Dar models clothing and accessories from the boutique. Many more photos are taken than we have space to run in the newspaper.
Valerie Ragaza-Miao celebrated the opening of her second Valerie Joseph boutique Saturday night, but photographer Jamm Aquino and I were in the store on Tuesday taking photos that ran in the paper on Thursday.
Valerie is noted for service and getting to know her customers, so after the story ran, a friend emailed one of her recollections of working with Valerie. Apparently, my friend had been trying on clothes and she stepped out of the dressing room, hoping for approval as everyone does.
“So Valerie was staring at me, and … nothing,” my friend said.
Now, Valerie is fairly talkative, so that was hard to believe. And finally, she spoke.
Nadine Kam photo
Friendly and outgoing, Valerie Ragaza-Miao welcomes all to her Valerie Joseph boutique including Coco, who’d just had an appointment with a groomer, and Coco’s owner Tracey Au.
“Um… umm… well … you’re wearing the dress backwards!” she said.
Perhaps not wanting to make her feel bad, Valerie told her it looked like the back of the dress (with a keyhole near the neckline) could be the front … “sort of a sixties feel.”
“So much for me and fashion,” my friend said, while admitting that it wasn’t the first time she’s worn things backward, and the other times purposefully.
I admitted I wear some things backward too, like when the back is prettier than the front, and particularly when dresses are too low cut. Somehow they look fine in the mirror when you’re buying them, but in the dressing room you’re seeing the dress. At home you see nothing but boobs. I have this one timeless Vivienne Tam dress that I wore backward all the time. Maybe I’ll dig it up again and wear it in her honor.
Nadine Kam photo
A dressing room serves as a studio for Star-Bulletin photographer Jamm Aquino and models Yasmin Dar and Sean Jones.
