CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Gilt City DC and Rogue 24 held a truly fun cocktail party to kick off Rogue Sessions and the Insider series. With the lovely Jayne Sandman, Diane Gross and Barbara Martin; in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, with David Culver of the Distilled Spirits Council and Peter Nonis of AAA, at a pre-SOTU reception hosted by The Atlantic—so very Washington; with Leo Schmid, editor of Thrillist DC, at the two-year anniversary party for One Lounge; chatting up one of my all-time favorite fashion icons, Simon Doonan, at his book party at the W Hotel, with Capitol File publisher Sarah Schaffer

My grandmother had lots of rules about style. Don’t be afraid of color. Never pleats on trousers. Fabrics are everything. (“Cashmere. When you can, always cashmere.”) Trends are temporary. Mix high-end with low. She had other rules, too, of course—cocktail hour starts promptly at five is one I recall.

But it was she who taught me everything tactile I know about fashion in Washington, and from a young age. We would go on regular shopping excursions all over town: Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Garfinckel’s, Banana Republic, even Gap—she had a way of wearing their striped boat-neck T-shirts. (“Accentuates the long neck, dear.”) I copy as best I can. We would spend afternoons cruising old Peoples drug stores in her powder-blue Cadillac, blaring the Annie sound track on the eight-track cassette player, buying up tubes and tubes of her signature lipstick, Revlon Orange Flip. She was one of those women who looked as chic at a function in a perfectly tailored designer pantsuit as in a Lacoste polo and colorful Bermuda shorts on the golf course at Woodmont. For me, Granny (a moniker which never really seemed to match who she was, and most certainly not what she looked like), was my own personal Auntie Mame. Every evening she would throw open her closet doors and ponder what to wear. I was entranced; I absorbed everything. She was the epitome of what I love about a Washington woman with style.

Whenever we work on our twice-yearly fashion issues here at Capitol File, I always refer back to my grandmother and her innate grasp of everything vogue, the way she tripped the light all over the city—and I am inspired. I can still see her combing the racks, picking the best looks, foreseeing trends, eyeing her peers for ideas, and hunting for the next big thing to stimulate creativity. Come to think of it, what I learned from her all those years isn’t too far off from what we hope we impart to our readers with issues such as this one. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

KATE BENNETT

Follow me on Twitter at @katebennett_cf

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY POWELL (CULVER); DAVE PHILLIPICH (SCHMID); PAUL MORIGI (DOONAN); ALFREDO FLORES PHOTOGRAPHY (SANDMAN)