Meet Phyllis Tropp

I am wearing my latest Alembika fashion to my 86th Birthday Luncheon. I am a NOT RETIRED, still actively working psychotherapist in Florida, working with the Woman’s Resource Center. Staffed primarily by volunteers, Women’s Resource Center in Southwest Florida (Bradenton, Sarasota and Venice) offers mental health services, vocational services, free clothing closets, and so much more to the women in our community, at fees that are laughable if they are charged at all.

My purchase before the Urban Eph Mesh Top in Antique as pictured was the Lynx Cozy Pullover in Leopard, and I am eyeing one of the two “Bloom” tops. I can safely say Alembika is my favorite and for me most flattering style.

How would you describe your style as a teenager? 

I am not sure you could categorize my style as an early teenager because there was very little money in my childhood home to be able to support a style. You could say my style was whatever I liked in my much older sister’s closet or whatever an older( and richer) cousin discarded. I was married at 19 – and still am to the same man, thank God, and I asked him how he would describe my style when we met at age 17, and his answer was” cute, big skirts, lots of sweaters, a lot like the movie Grease”. What stands out in my mind was the dress I purchased for my engagement party at age 18. It cost me more than my weeks’ salary – at that time $65.00( 1958), it was Electric blue, strapless, with a mink trimmed bodice and a harem style hem – $90. of heaven.

How would you describe your style now? 

I have lived in Florida for the past 14 years ( my joke is that it was the one nice thing I did for my husband by agreeing to move here).

What famous person would you love to have dinner with? 

It would be disingenuous of me to name just one famous someone that I’ve always admired and would like to have dinner with because there are so many in history that incite awe in me. For example the feminists from Susan B. Anthony to Gloria Steinham, or the political heads like Golda Meir and Queen Elizabeth II, or the movie stars like Hedy Lamarr who was also an inventor to Rita Moreno who in my eyes is the most beautiful woman that I want to be like at 94. But if I could bring someone back from the dead and have dinner with them and ask them about their lives it would be the father I lost at age 13, and the sister I lost at age 25. Now that I’ve been fortunate enough to reach my age I feel confident that I could ask them the questions that would let me know who they really were. 

What would you do if you had the whole day for yourself?

My perfect day, that’s easy. Good sleep the night before, great theatre experience, fabulous restaurant meal with the most scrumptious dessert, mind free of all those nagging thoughts most of us try to ignore, and able to sleep late the next morning. 

Who offered the most valuable piece of advice and what was it? 

Again, I’ve lived long enough and had enough exposure to some terrific people who gave terrific advice but this question immediately brought to mind a doctor who I worked for as his receptionist from age 18 until my daughter was born when I was 22. I loved him, he was a terrific ophthalmic surgeon and had some very famous patients. And one day, we were eating lunch and he said “Tsatskie” ( his nickname for me) “remember the job of old age is to stay ahead of one’s own obsolescence.” I always try to do that. 

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