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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

We sent our roving photographer Jaro Vacek out into the night to find out what Jacksonians are wearing these days. Here are some of snapshots of fun, funky, sweet and elegant fashions he spied at the Harlem Dance Theater performance at Thalia Mara Hall and at the Jackson Free Press Best of Jackson 2003 party at the Ironworks Building on South Street. If you want to see more, see our new fashion gallery, coming soon at http://www.jacksonfreepress.com Enjoy.

“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”
— Mae West

“Where there is great love there are always miracles.”
— Willa Cather

“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.”
— Ingrid Bergman

“The biggest myth about Southern women is that they wear too much makeup.”
— Peyton Manning

“If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.”
— Edith Wharton

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.