Who is carla rockmore married to

Carrie Bradshaw is a fashion icon – but she’s a make-believe fashion icon. Carla Rockmore, however, is the real deal. Excuse us while we sit here and fangirl over this lovely woman who is doing fashion her way – which is the only way, in our opinion. She’s a TikTok star who is not like other TikTok stars, and we love her for it. If you aren’t following along as she rocks the world with her bold fashion, her daring personality, and her lovely sense of humor, you are missing out. She’s everything and more, and you can thank us for bringing this to your attention later.

1. She Has the Best Nickname

It seems the world has given her a nickname, and it’s a good one. She’s called the Real-Life Carrie Bradshaw. For those living under a rock for the past 20 or 30s years, that would be the character that Sarah Jessica Parker made famous on her hit show Sex and the City. She’s the real-life version, though she denies that she and Carrie are anything alike.

2. She is Bold

Her style choices are often bold and eclectic. The point we are making, however, is that she is a woman unafraid to be herself, to dress like herself, and to do what she feels good in while other people might not always feel the same. She’s bold, and it works.

3. She is a Texan

She might be a fashion icon, but did you know that she’s not a New Yorker? She’s not living in Paris, either. She is a fashion icon living in the heart of good-ole Dallas, Texas. You might not feel as if there are too many fashion icons there, but we think she proves that incorrect.

4. She is in Her 50s

Stop it right now. She is not in her 50s, yet she is in her 50s. She’s actually 54, according to this article. She is a woman who looks amazing, she is lovely, and she is killing it. We should all aspire to be this lovely at this age.

5. She Likes to Challenge Herself

As a woman, it’s a good thing to feel the need to constantly challenge yourself when the world is right behind you. If you are not challenged, if you are not making time to see what you can do and how you can do it, are you even doing it right? There’s so much going on that is just too good to pass up, and she likes to make sure she’s challenging herself in everything she does so she can be part of all that good.

6. She Was a Designer

She’s always been a designer. She began designing fashion when she was in her 20s. By the time she reached her 40s, however, she gravitated more toward creating jewelry, and that’s where she focuses her time now.

7. She Requires Inspiration

When she’s putting together a shoot or an outfit, she’s not thinking about it months in advance or planning it out. She’s simple. She needs to be inspired. However, her inspiration can come to her in the midst of anything. Seeing someone walking down the street, seeing a bracelet she forgot about, or even seeing a color she likes. Once she sees that inspiration, the rest comes quickly to her.

8. She Just Knows What She Likes

When people ask her what she likes, she cannot always tell you. She’s not withholding information, however. She simply likes what she likes in the moment. If it speaks to her, it speaks to her. If it does not, it does not. She just doesn’t know until she knows.

9. She Always Goes Vintage

When she sees something she likes at a show or in the magazines and falls for it, she doesn’t buy it. She may eventually buy it, but she will always look for something vintage instead. Why? Because fashion is a circle. If there is something she sees in a runway show that she likes, she knows someone else has already been there, done that, and probably created it better, more timeless, and with more finesse a few decades back. She’s not wrong.

10. She Knows Trends Should be Less Expensive

She and I have a very similar vision regarding our trendy items. Trendy items will come and go quickly – and the price should reflect that. Nothing trendy should cost a ton of money because it’ll be useless after a season or two. However, a good staple is an investment piece every single time.

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Tiffany Raiford is a lifelong Floridian, wife to my high school sweetheart and mother of four littles (two girls and boy/girl twins...no, they are not identical and yes, I'm sure). My kids love to whine, so I love to wine. My loves include nap time, bed time, date night, travel and evenings and weekends when my husband is home because he handles all diaper changes.

“Age is a cruel joke, but what am I going to do? Become invisible and hide in the shadows?” says 55-year-old TikTok star Carla Rockmore. “Anyway, I wouldn’t trade my insights and my experience for my 20-year-old posterior.”

There is a reason Rockmore has more than a million followers on TikTok, the most Gen Z of social media platforms (she’s also on YouTube and Instagram). A straight-talk cheerleader for all of us wrestling our insecurities in the closet every morning, the purveyor of colourful fashion advice pitches at the 50+ crowd, but manages to capture fans of every age. “My largest demo is 24 to 45,” she says, adding excitedly, “I’m a family share.” That means she hears from mothers and daughters that they both relate to her point of view. “I get these 25-year-olds saying, ‘Thank you for showing me there is life after 25.’”

I get these 25-year-olds saying, ‘Thank you for showing me there is life after 25.’

Rockmore hails from Montreal, and has spent time in Toronto, but lives just outside Dallas. In the suburbs of the Lone Star state, she says, she is the ultimate fish out of water. “I’m a north-east garmento!” she says. Still, the perks of her Texas lifestyle include a two-storey walk-in closet with a spiral staircase, from which she films videos that channel her daily fashion inspirations, mixing and matching high-low treasures from her vast collection, including an entire wall of accessories. She’s now a full-time content creator but still makes time to design: her fine jewellery collection is coming out soon, as well as a costume jewellery collection on the horizon; and her elegant capsule clothing collection for Amazon The Drop sold out in a flash when it launched in early May.

Rockmore studied fashion design at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in the late ’80s before taking off for Europe. “I fell in love with a Dutch boy,” she says, adding she found a job at Holland’s top couture boutique. When she returned, she worked as a designer in the legendary Montreal garment district Chabanel. “I did wedding dresses, I did jeans, I did licensed children’s sleepwear,” she says. She eventually moved to Toronto to work in fashion, married a co-worker, had two babies. She parlayed her expertise into jewellery design in her late 30s. Then one day her husband got the call to move to Texas for work, so they relocated with their sons.

Cut to Jaipur in the spring of 2020, where Rockmore was developing her upcoming fine jewellery collection as the world was shutting down. She got home in the nick of time, and her Toronto girlfriends got her onto making her first YouTube videos, which took off suddenly. “I’m very lucky that this happened to me at the age of 55 and not 25,” she says of her social media surge, when she bared her closet for all to see. “I consider my stuff my paintbrush. I always have. For me, dressing is a form of self-expression without words.”

For me, dressing is a form of self-expression without words.

It helps that Rockmore has a huge closet, with everything displayed beautifully; accessories sit on floating Lucite shelves. But it feels alive, unlike the sterile closets of the Kardashians, et al. “I’m a very high-low dresser,” she says. “I do a lot of very accessible [pieces].” She notes that as she ages, she tends to choose cotton items from fast-fashion brands. “But other fabrics, the polyesters? They are not working for us anymore. They were for back in the day, when we didn’t need some sort of scaffolding.”

Vogue has compared Rockmore to a modern-day Carrie Bradshaw, citing her eclectic and exuberant fashion sense. (“I also get Mrs. Frizzle,” she says, from Magic School Bus. “And Frankie from Grace and Frankie.” I point out they are actually the same person, as Mrs. Frizzle was voiced by Lily Tomlin, who plays Frankie; in another full-circle moment, Rockmore remembers that she used to design kids pyjamas with Mrs. Frizzle on them.) But Rockmore says she doesn’t follow any style doctrine. “There is no ‘I am a maximalist’ or ‘ I am a minimalist.’” This allows for individualism, which is what she thinks appeals to her 20-something fans who are afraid of making mistakes. “I push them to experiment with their own style and realize that nobody is dying from this,” she says.

She’s on a roll. “I mean, how many times have I made a mistake? You can see it in my videos when I’m getting dressed! I pull out a piece I think is going to work, and I look like a Christmas tree. Does it bother me? I can’t stand it. It’s like a hive I can’t scratch.” That is what getting dressed is, she says, playing, until you figure out the proportion and the colour and the mood.      

@carlarockmore As soon as I turned this blouse around and saw those luscious colors against my skin tone I knew I couldn’t go back. If I had a peaches and cream complexion with green eyes it would be a different story (basically if I were Nicole Kidman). But alas, I am not. I have dark eyes with a very light (and somewhat green if I’m not wearing blush) skin tone. This little tale is more about the poke to remind yourself that you’re the boss! Make your clothes work for you! #fashion #fashiontiktok #fashiontip ♬ original sound – Carla Rockmore

That mood can shift from day to day. “Take a chunky pearl choker. There is so much history in that gumball-sized-pearl choker that has nothing to do with you. It evokes Audrey Hepburn, Coco Chanel. Am I a traditionalist, so I’m going to wear it with a beautiful midi skirt with my waist showing and a little T-shirt and a ballet slipper and do an Audrey Hepburn feel? Or am I going to do drop-crotch denim, a pair of army boots and a leather jacket? I’ve worn both, and I have no problem defining myself as Audrey one day, Vivienne Westwood the next. It’s not that deep.”

Jewellery is a cornerstone of Rockmore’s wardrobe. “I see my life through my jewellery,” Rockmore says. “I’m a believer that these are tiny little sculptures and extensions of your personality, and they don’t wear or stain for the most part. That is a reason to spend on them a little bit more. And they change up an outfit in three seconds flat.” 

Getting dressed with such exuberance takes confidence, which Rockmore believes is something you can cultivate. “You’ve got to make mistakes to become confident in what you do,” she says. “Follow your gut and choose pieces that speak to you, and you will find your personal style.” She makes that seem within reach. Because the real secret to Rockmore’s success is that you feel she could be your friend, there with you when you are rooting around your closet in a panic, reassuring you that if you just try on one more necklace, the whole outfit might start to sing.

Carla Rockmore’s advice for getting dressed

Buy what you love

For Rockmore, that’s jewellery. “With new jewellery, you can take a plain black dress and have a completely different look four days in a row.” And: “I never met an army pant I didn’t like,” she says. Find your essentials and focus on them.

Get rid of what doesn’t fit

Anything that doesn’t fit perfectly earns an eviction notice in Rockmore’s closet. “Alter it, or get rid of it,” she advises. Her tailor is her best friend. And shush, you didn’t hear it here, but sometimes she has big-ticket designer items she loves copied in different colours.

Embrace colour

Rockmore revels in colour and pattern and encourages artful, deliberate clashing. She says wearing bright hues perks up the skin, which naturally sallows over time; bright lipstick is her trademark. As for black, “It is sensational for part of your life. Then it absorbs [light]. Navy is the new black after 45.”

Balance your silhouette

Balance and proportion are the key to a great Rockmore outfit, and that takes practice. So does working out the amount of skin to show: “I pick my battles. If I’m showing off my décolleté and shoulder, I will pair it with a palazzo pant.”

Forget styles you don’t feel good in

Even though Rockmore likes her legs, she won’t wear a mini skirt. It’s not an age thing, it’s because “my legs are blue like glow sticks on the beach, and I don’t have patience for tanning stuff. Plus, every time I wear a mini skirt I feel bad. So I don’t.”