New York by Alexander Hildreth
New York is a city that is easy to romanticize; its street style, even more so. Few cities in the world have been heralded as fashion capitals, and even fewer can do so while still expressing an infinite multitude of identities. The beautiful thing about New York fashion is that no matter where you look, a trend never goes out of style. Specifically, all fashion timelines exist simultaneously allowing a chaotic merger of style and cultural identities that keep the aesthetic pace as brisk as a commuter’s step. It’s a city filled with contradictions, it’s filled with fashion amongst anti-fashion. There’s Margiela Runway in the bodega and Allbirds in the office; Aritzia uniforms out to dinner and $800 sweatpants at NYFW’s front row. In a metropolitan center filled with 8 million people, not every individual wakes up with an aesthetic goal in mind. Many realistically aim for function over fashion, but what makes New York special, is that the city’s fast pace and vibrant life inspire self expression through any avenue in our free time; this is why so many seem to associate the city streets with the idea of a runway despite day-to-day remaining pretty normcore.
By simply walking 30 minutes, not only have you probably saved an hour's worth of time in traffic, you have also traversed a multitude of worlds as the transitions between neighborhoods melt underneath your feet. The city and its neighborhoods are bursting with style icons and “it-girls” at every turn. In Harlem, business and design icons such as Dapper Dan drew from the streets around him to redefine the pretenses of European luxury on New York terms. In The Village, the Ballroom and Drag scenes exploded from nightclub basements into the daylight of our living rooms and primetime television. Bushwick is saturated by the new-age techno shes, theys, and gays, while the East Village is a playground to NYU freshman finding their way in a fashionable city for the first time. The Lower East Side, set against the backdrop of Chinatown and former Tenements has transformed into the Balenciaga-eqsue hub-dujour with icons such as Chloe Sevigny and Lotta Volkova around every corner (and if it’s not them, it’s probably someone who dresses exactly like them). And then in midtown, you have the suits– but that tends to be less exciting.
Some things however, have stayed tried and true in a New Yorker’s uniform such as a black puffer (are you from New York even?), a pair of Timberlands, casual sneakers, canvas tote bag, and Chelsea boots to name a few. As trends have shifted over the years through Y2K, to indie-sleaze, to logomania, popular silhouettes have adapted as street style expression has individualized. A News Yorker is more likely to be susceptible to a trend, whether it be peplum tops, logo hoodies, or statement denim, due to pure exposure and proximity to the locus of the industry, however what really defines a New Yorker’s style is the way in which they interpret these fashion ideas into the ever evolving story of their style identity.
As America’s metropolitan hub for fashion and design commerce, New York has been afforded a unique opportunity–every piece of media, from newspaper to independent zine to rom-com to the wheatpasting on every corner, has created a decades-long wardrobe documentary for the world to observe. First TV shows such as Sex and The City and Girls provided almost yearbook like documentation of NYC from the 90s-mid 2010s capturing the urban-sophistication of the city’s women in first their kitten heels, camisoles, and pencil skirts to then in their wrap blouses, high-waisted jeans and ballet flats. In the last 8 or so years, we no longer need to turn to traditional media to explore New York City’s style–where there once was a movie called After Hours about a corporate midtown man lost amongst creatives in a Soho loft, there’s now a Tik Tok “Day in my life video” following a creator from the upper east side to their “vintage-shopping” excursion in Greenpoint.
Some could argue that New York style has become too homogenous due to the internet’s aesthetic infiltration, but a true New Yorker understands their wardrobe first and the trends second. Through all the internet-driven trend phases of the last few years such as Logomania, VSCO-girlies, Skater Boy, McBling, Avant-Basic, Blokeuette, Biker-core, and more, if anything, the average consumer has become more conscious of their external presentation to the world. As a result, more and more consumers have been attracted to the romanticized notion that New York is the place in which the freedom to express exists – and that is why no matter the medium of news or outlet, New York will forever remain its citizen’s runway.
