New York City styles the world. As home to the most notable fashion design academies, an extraordinary talent base, and Seventh "Fashion" Avenue, its style is unparalleled.
The city offers a wide range of retail options, from upscale boutiques to vintage flea markets, that make clothing and accessories from your wildest dreams accessible, and often unexpectedly affordable.
The streets overflow with creative energy from store fronts, posters, graffiti, street vendors and people. New York is a city that takes risks and puts on a show.
It is where pedestrians are not just j-walkers, they are inspirations.
Here, trends are fabricated, tapered with and then sent strutting around the world for others to get wrapped up in.
In New York, the style-savvy are giving trends a slight kick in the face. In the city that never sleeps, "trendless" is the new trend. It is nearly impossible to label one trend.
If I tried, it would be something like "grunge meets flapper, meets bohemian, with some girly meets gothic, which then meets preppy with a touch of glam, all with the modern flair from 2009."
Overwhelming, I know, but in this city anything goes. If runways were an iPod and that iPod were on shuffle, we would end up with something a lot like the streets of New York City. Each person that steps into view represents a different genre of fashion.
A model-esque woman walks down the street wearing a white, flowing maxi dress, a flower in her hair, and sunglasses straight out of Woodstock.
A minute later, another woman walks past wearing a mini dress with an 80s inspired pattern, blazer, and high tops.
The element of surprise is what keeps the streets alive with creativity. Everything is vintage, and if it's not then it's made to look like it is.
The ensembles are composed of a conglomerate of trends from all eras cultures. The street vendors prove this, with their tables, filled with trinkets and accessories that display copies of the season's popular trends.
These tables symbolize the beauty of fashion; the freedom to piece together anything, with no limitations.
New York teaches us about individual expression in style. Regardless of your lcoation, exercise your freedom of dress by mixing and matching your favorite pieces, regarless of how well they might actually match.
