formerly @sunbathe

dinah washington with her shoe collection photographed by isaac sutton

‘it was no secret that dinah liked to shop, and … she wasn’t shy about giving the inventory of her own wardrobe: three hundred pairs of shoes—the newest, at $150, were silver mesh with long pointed toes, 150 gowns, and ten fur coats, among them a black diamond full-length mink, a stole, a breath-of-spring mink jacket, a silver blue mink jacket, and a white mink scarf. she also had two persian lamb coats and one vicuña sports jacket. her jewelry was custom-designed. … during one outing for new shirts the clerk rang up the bill as $69. dinah pointed out that the total should be $73.

“if you’d kept your mouth shut, you would have saved yourself some money,” the woman snapped. 

“honey,” dinah retorted, “a few dollars doesn’t mean anything to me. I handle thousands regularly.” seeing the sneer of disbelief on the clerk’s face, dinah opened up her purse, pulled out a wad of cash, and let her see $100 and $50 bills riffling through her fingers. point made, dinah, shirts in hand, put the money away, closed her purse, and walked out.’