Shop Feature: My Basement Corner

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you based? How do you spend your days?

Hello! I’m Maggie. I wear a lot of hats in my life, and it can get a bit overwhelming TBH. To start, I’m Emily’s mom – she’s an amazing and talented 15-year-old who’s embarrassed of me (parenting win) and, at the same time, oddly fascinated by my ability to scout fashion deals and thrift store scores (her words, not mine – also a parenting win). I recently took her with me to Italy on a work trip and we had a blast which is hard to do with a teenager. She’s got a great style of her own.

I’m also an active duty US Army officer based at the Pentagon as a policy wonk and tech nerd. I cut my teeth in the Army after dropping out of college by repairing radios and communications equipment – I enlisted in 2004 and almost immediately found myself deployed to Iraq.

I’ve served in Germany and Iraq but have spent the past decade stateside in school, working at Fort Meade in my now-home-state of Maryland, and teaching at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. I didn’t intend to make a career out of the Army, but Uncle Sam kept throwing opportunities at me and, here I am, nearly 20 years later and still digging it.

My real passion though, is teaching – I moonlight as an academic and teach courses on strategic competition, politics, and information at the University of Maryland in College Park – the Army funded me all the way to a PhD in political science and so, in my free time, I research and write on foreign influence operations and the geopolitics of cyberspace and technology. My normal hobbies are needlepointing and refinishing old furniture – something I rekindled recently.

Lastly, I’m a runner – it’s my way to reconnect to the world around me and to really push my limits physically. As I’ve aged, I find myself going longer and slower and love spending hours in the woods without an agenda. All the hats – to include the occasional hard hat – I wear are enabled by my partner, Patrick, who’s a solid dude and excellent parent.

How did you hear about Noihsaf Bazaar?

A while back, two of my favorite creatives (and I got to meet them IRL back in 2015!), Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo did a podcast on Noihsaf Bazaar. I’ve been following Claire and Erica since the early days of their first venture, “Of a Kind” (Oh, how I miss that shop!) and continue to do so at their newest venture, “A Thing or Two” so, any rec from them is one I take seriously.

I joined immediately after and, realized that I’d found a place with kindred spirits that shared my sustainability goals and fondness for vintage/thrift. I like to buy nice used clothes but a lot of the things I like don’t really sell well on more commercialized resale sites and are hard to find – you can sell and buy popular, mass market brands on most sites pretty well but, not a piece of jewelry by Takara, for example. NB is really a fantastic community that is focused on quality, beautiful clothing and I love that – my “shop” is My Basement Corner (literally).

What's your favorite NB score?

This is a tough one because I’ve purchased some amazing items! But, after my mom passed, I’ve gotten super into estate and vintage jewelry – she used to run an antique business up in New England and there is still a stockpile of stuff stored in the cellar of my parent’s home that I’ve slowly been going through. On NB, I fell in love with an amazing Sagittarius pendant – it’s stone and held in a gold coin bezel – and I think that’s my favorite purchase. It’s unique, personal, and looks awesome on a small gold paperclip chain.

How would you describe your style? Do you have any style inspirations you return to?

In many ways, I’ve had the same style since I first started to pay attention to how I dress – it really started at boarding school in the mid-90s and has always been rooted in the J. Crew prep of that era. However, lately, style has become more important as I inch closer to retiring from the military and think about what dressing for a civilian job means. I love Diane Keaton or Jane Birkin’s amazing ability to turn men’s separates into a style. And, if I had to pick a style era, I’d pick the 1930s San Francisco, when women started wearing wide leg tailored pants and camp-style tops – like Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca. But my real style inspo has always been my aunt – she passed away in 2001 and I still miss her a ton, we were buddies. She had effortless grace and elegance paired with a classic New England-horse-country look that I adore – I try to recreate it with minimal success. I mean, that apple skirt paired with that sweater is amazing.

I do subscribe to, and follow, Becky Malinsky’s “5 Things You Should Buy” and Emilia Petrarca’s “Shop Rat” on Substack – I love Becky’s style advice and find inspiration in her suggestions. I’ve started hunting for polo sweaters based on one of her recommendations – they are truly the bees’ knees IMO and, my aunt would approve. Emilia is more of a fashion muse for me – I loved her discussion with jewelry designer Jean Prounis and holiday parties. As someone who has worn a uniform for nearly 20 years, fashion and thinking about my own personal style is a guilty pleasure that I relish.

What trend are you currently loving, or what trend would you like to see?

I love the tailored wide-ish leg trouser trend and will ride it into the sunset – it just feels so refined and classic. I also like the charm bracelet trend – I’m currently collecting charms to add to a bracelet from the countries I’ve traveled to and recently found a “rock of Gibraltar” charm and I think is amazing and an “España” fan that is incredible. I’ve also been collecting charms related to my military service – I love the acrostic disc that means “departed” to honor the friends I’ve lost and the vintage army officer cap. Right now, I wear them on a charm holder but think I will add them to a bracelet in the future too.

Do you have any brands that you’re especially into these days?

I adore Freda Salvador shoes – the Jada Woven Ballet Flat in red is what I’m currently fancying. That color! I dare you to find me a better holiday season shoe!

I’ve also recently found, and fallen in love with, CLOSED – my luggage was recently lost traveling in Europe and I had to find some clothes to sub for my uniform for a few meetings. Luckily it was sale season, and I wandered into CLOSED and found an amazing outfit – slacks, button down, and blazer – heavily discounted that I absolutely love. I’ve also found their Milo Jean (the cropped version) are what I’ve been searching for in denim – I’ve got some junk in my trunk making a straight leg jean that fits me well hard to find but, these are amazing and I’m wearing them all the time now with a pair of black Chelsea boots from ba&sh that I also found for a steal.

Favorite song while getting dressed?

I am currently listening to “The Bear” seasons 1 & 2 soundtrack on Spotify – it’s such a great collection!