Chopped [chopt]: -slang

Local slang, used to mean the intentional matching or coordination in color or pattern of articles of clothing and accessories.

To a woman of a certain age just getting into fashion as a teenager in the 1980s (that would be me, I’m 42), along with the big hair and big shoulders there came the ideal of having a coordinated outfit. It wasn’t necessarily the idea of matching your shoes to your bag our mothers and grandmothers strived for. Instead, maybe your earrings matched your belt, or even the socks you wore with your high top sneakers matched the trim on your shirt. (That was NOT me, simply an example I imagine Tori Spelling sported at some time.)

ultimate choppiness

ad from Gianni Versace

In the last 10 years or so, however, I dare say the opposite ideal was to be achieved. Women were never, under any circumstances, to be too matchy-matchy. It aged you, you looked like you were trying too hard, or were venturing into costume land. No dice, not cool.

But last year a youngster introduced a term I’d never heard - chopped. What does it mean, I asked the boy of sixteen? He told me that at his high school, at least, it meant REALLY matchy-matchy, and it was a good thing. I spoke with his mom and some other friends and we were incredulous. This was the not something we would ever do. Again, venturing into costume land.

But I have a confession to make. Though I try to mix things up - throw in an alternate color here or there, mix prints with plaids - there would always still be a tiny part of me that couldn’t stray from coordination IF the look called for it. If a dress was very pretty, you basically kept things pretty. There was a limit to how much “funking up” a look could take. Still, if I could throw something quirky into the mix, I would.

chopped can be pretty!

Heidi Klum in Victoria Beckham. Image from glamour.com

This morning I saw someone whose look invite conversation. This woman was younger than I am, maybe 30, but older than the baristas I was speaking to in the coffeeshop. On our warmest day of the year so far, she had a vintage 70s sundress. Super cute - but it was red, white, and blue. Always a daring look, I say; it’s so easy to come off as “patriot of the neighborhood” if worn too close to July 4th. With it she wore a necklace of what looked like a red leather strap with silver roses threaded on it, and matching earrings, all from the 80s, I suspect); red shoes with a large buckle strap from the 60s; a royal blue bag, big and modern (or maybe it was from the 80s). Intriguing, no? (Sorry, couldn’t get a pic.)

I mentioned to another girl that I thought the customer was over-the-top in her look but somehow still managed to work it. The barista disagreed. Another girl commented to her co-worker on the customer’s cute dress - and it was. So I opened the discussion and asked her about the matchiness of it all. She, the person who’d thought the dress was so darling, thought twice about it all once she saw so much red, white and blue.

But the thing was...I think it worked because she OWNED it. This girl had the confidence and swagger to pull it off. She was, to quote my friend Nash, chopped. Maybe it was that she was still youthful. Maybe the edginess of pulling together fashion from so many eras was edgy enough to make it cohesive.

What do you think? Does really matching pieces ever work? If you’ve got the nerve and good pieces, can you can make anything look good?