About Kathleen
Hello, there. Welcome to What Would Wu Wear, my answer to why I couldn’t find anything on the internet that spoke to me: a professional woman, in her 50s, interested in art, fashion, sports and travel, but also interested in how to be a better me.
My 50s have been far more liberating than I could have imagined, and that’s what I’m hearing from my friends as well. We’re always looking to be better, and we’re eager to try new things, but we’ve stopped holding ourselves to unrealistic standards of perfection.
If you’d like to know who I am, here’s the highlight reel:
· I spent the first several years of my life in foster care. This was before interracial adoption was a thing, and finding an Asian family looking to adopt took a while. I remember very little about those years in foster care, but I have always been grateful to my family for making me part of their family, and I’ve never taken for granted how different my life could have been if they hadn’t. I'm reminded often of how lucky I am for the foster family that cared for and nurtured me at such a fragile point in my journey. To this family, who I have searched for and may never know, I think of you often and "pay it forward" in various ways, with you in my thoughts. I am well aware that things could have gone very wrong for me, but instead I have been so very lucky.
· I grew up in New York and had a relatively postcard childhood. I graduated from Barnard College (which at the time was where undergraduate women went if they were attending Columbia University, Columbia College subsequently started admitting undergraduate women) and went on to law school. After law school, I moved to Texas just in time to see oil prices crash and spent my first few years as a lawyer desperately hustling for business.
· Things started looking up within a few years and I eventually joined a big firm, where I’ve developed a deep real estate finance practice. (You can click here to see my lawyer bio, if you’re curious.)
· Along the way, I got married, gave birth to and raised an amazing son who makes me proud every single day, got divorced and now, well, we’ll see what comes next, won’t we?
· When I’m not lawyering, I love fashion, tennis, golf, fly fishing, adventure travel, art, architecture, and great food and wine – and I plan to use this site to share what I love with anybody who will listen. I’ll be curating some of the things I love, asking friends to weigh in with what they love, sharing great finds, and just generally speaking to the women who, like me, haven’t found someone on the internet who speaks to them.
One thing you might be asking is what’s with the name, What Would Wu Wear? That’s actually our origin story. As I mentioned, I’ve always loved fashion and I love adventurous pairings. No offense to Hillary, but honor student, good-girl pantsuits have never been my thing.
Consequently, I’ve been fashion consigliere to many of my girlfriends, helping them put together the perfect outfit for whatever outing they have, whether it’s a cocktail party, a company picnic, or an event with a frustratingly vague dress code on the invite.
At one such event, I saw a friend who looked fantastic and I commented on her spectacular ensemble. She just looked at me and said “You’ve trained me well. As I was trying to figure out what to wear, I just asked myself ‘What would Wu wear?’ and I used that to put this together.”
I admit I got a little weepy. My little bird had learned to fly.
That planted the seed for this site. I hope it helps you put together your next great outfit – or cook your next delicious meal or find your next piece of edgy art, or whatever adventure awaits you.
xo Kathleen
PS - Our spirit animal here at What Would Wu Wear is a tiny gold bird.
A bird because it symbolizes freedom and peace, and some cultures believe they’re messengers of the gods who provide a bridge between the mundane and the transcendent.
And gold because we love sparkly things.
I guess you could say that’s our goal, to bring you a little bit of spirit, and a little bit of sparkle.
For inquiries and collaboration please contact Info@whatwouldwuwear.com
