City Dressing 🏙️
Musings on How Cities Shape How We Dress
I know what you’re thinking, we get it, Kerry - you’re going to New York!
It’s true, as we edge ever closer to the trip, I’ll admit I’ve become a bit of a broken record. But for as long as I can recall, anticipation has held a particular magic for me. Even as a kid, I was always more excited at the sight of wrapped presents glistening colourfully under the Christmas tree, pristine and full of promise, to opening the actual presents themselves.
A big part of my personal hype-building for any holiday - aside from planning where to visit, eat, shop etc is thinking about my capsule wardrobe (in fact, you’ll have to forgive my absenteeism recently as I’ve been sewing up a storm any chance I get!) and towing the line between the fun I want to have playing dress up, whilst also maintaining some semblance of practicality 😬
And perhaps it’s the fact that we also have a trip to Paris lined up now in June (for my actual birthday - I know, what a lucky ducky!) that I’ve realised how differently these cities influence the way I want to dress.
Not necessarily in the practical sense, but more in line with the deeper style-codes of the cities themselves. New York, Paris, London - these cities seem to carry their own sartorial identities, shaped as much by their residents as by the enduring imagery of film, television shows, music, art, and popular culture.
In Paris, I always find myself leaning into something softer and more romantic; silhouettes that feel almost cinematic, with obvious nods to the 1950s and 1960s. It’s the kind of city that makes me want to embrace my femininity with a swipe of lipstick or a pair of velvet-bow ballet flats.
Sure the ‘cool Paris gal’ trope is appealing, but rather than cos-playing as a Parisian, I’m much more interested in the version of myself that becomes apparent when I’m staying in the 10th arrondissement. She’s definitely more classic than the Brighton version of me, that’s for sure!
New York however, seems to stir up something entirely different in me.
The energy of it all feels louder, punkier and even heterogeneous. I find I’m pulling together bolder, more experimental looks, with more interesting colours, textures and contrast (no spoilers - I’ll be showing you all once I’m back home in a few weeks time!)
Perhaps it’s a cliche, but there’s a sense of boldness, or even eclecticism that New York City invites - the scale and grandeur of this archipelago has been reflected in countless cinematic moments of note, and more interestingly, by its famed residents through the decades. New York seems to embrace the dreamer, the creative, the wacky oddball - or at least that’s the version we’ve always been sold on the silver screen.
My chosen book for this trip is ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith, one of my all-time favourites. This seminal memoir traces Smith’s arrival to New York in 1967 and her meeting with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, an enduring love and creative partnership that would shape both of their lives forever. It’s a love letter not only to Robert, but to the sprawling urban jungle that was NYC in the 1970s.
Perhaps it’s exactly these pilgrimages to the so-called ‘Land of Opportunity’ that define the hodgepodge vibrancy of the Big Apple.
New York is what it is because of generations of people arriving there - immigrants carrying languages, recipes, rituals and memories from elsewhere. Children born into hyphenated identities, Americans from every corner of the country reinventing themselves in the city’s churn.
Everyone brings something with them, culture and history, memory and cloth, and somehow the city stitches it all together into something unmistakably its own.
So, with all of that in mind, I thought I’d pull that thread of thought and consider who my NYC style influences have been for this upcoming stateside getaway.
Carrie Bradshaw
It’s obvious for a reason - you can’t talk about New York style without mentioning everyone’s favourite sex columnist, Carrie Bradshaw, immortalised by Sarah Jessica Parker in the ’90s cultural behemoth ‘Sex and the City’.
Whilst Carrie might be pretty intolerable as a friend (slamming a break up post it note on her best friends new engagement ring, and declaring paper beats rock anyone?!) her style choices and quirks, created of course by the singular visionary Patricia Field were a perfectly curated medley of high fashion and scrappy thrift store bargains.
I think this is part of why SATC has so much more allure than its spin-off ‘And Just Like That’ (that and the fact that Miranda lost all sense of her intellect - but that’s another conversation…) The accessibility of the clothing in SATC makes the characters feel real, rather than just clothes horses for high-end brands.
It’s also often been said that New York is the fifth main character in SATC, with the four leads navigating heartbreaks and triumphs across the six seasons and five boroughs.
Edie Sedgwick
The original ‘poor little rich girl’, Warhol muse, and ‘youthquaker’ style icon, Edie Sedgwick emerged from the rarefied world of Santa Barbara society. At 18, with her $80k trust fund in tow, she decamped to New York to pursue modelling, unaware of the legacy she was set to build.
Sedgwick was certainly ahead of her time - with her daring ensembles, oversized chandelier earrings, cropped silver hair, bold eye makeup, and striking disregard for conventional dressing, often favouring tights in place of trousers. Her looks carry a kind of natural anarchy, seeming to capture both the chaos of New York and the whirlwind life she was living within it.
Ultimately, she used up and spat out by Warhol’s factory, and largely fell from grace before her premature death at just 28, but her style legacy continues, showing that she far surpassed the ‘ten minutes of fame’ Warhol assumed.
Iris Apfel
There surely can’t be many centenarian style icons, and certainly none quite as memorable as the late, great Iris Apfel. This rare bird of fashion was born in Queens in 1921 and spent most of her 102 years in the city that never sleeps.
Travelling the world with her husband, Carl Apfel, as they built their interior textiles company, Old World Weavers, which specialised in recreating prints from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Apfel amassed an extraordinary collection of costume jewellery, alongside a wardrobe bursting with bold shapes, vivid colours and rich textures.
Her famous quote ‘more is more and less is a bore’ is a mantra for every maximalist!
I love looking through the Christies Auction catalogue of her estate - surprisingly not morbid, it’s incredible to see her collections amassed in such a clear way.
Chloë Sevigny
Oh, Chloë Sevigny - how I adore thee! ❤️
Much like Alexa Chung (who also called New York City home for several years), there’s something impossible to define about Sevigny’s style. Which perhaps, only proves that she herself is the magic ingredient.
Her wardrobe feels like a living collage of downtown New York cool and high-fashion irreverence. One day it’s a voluminous Simone Rocha dress, the next a folksy embroidered Gucci coat. Mannish penny loafers with white socks, patchwork denim with a wool pea coat.
Sevigny is as equally at home in archival runway pieces as she is in vintage psychobilly band tees, and frankly hers is a wardrobe I would give my first born to raid (lucky for us all - I don’t have a first born 😉)
Patti Smith
Dishevelled, romantic, singular - Patti Smith has long stood apart, carving out her uncompromising art, style, and voice in a largely male-dominated world.
Arriving in New York in 1967, and staying in the infamous Chelsea Hotel, Smith’s beatnik, punky romanticism proved that necessity is indeed the mother of invention as her thrift shop shawls and antique pieces, time worn and ripped, were assembled to make her striking tough-bohemian look.
Leandra Medine Cohen
The city is the backdrop for her larger-than-life, ‘that shouldn’t work but somehow really does?!’ eclectic style. Leandra Medine Cohen, formerly known as the founder of Man Repeller (ie. wearing clothes that are categorically not for the male gaze - my favourite!) and now the author of the brilliant Substack, The Cereal Aisle.
As I write this I struggle to think of a style or garment I haven’t seen Leandra play with, as she bounds through the streets of the Upper East Side.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Sure, everyone may have lost their minds this year over the minimalist NYC cool-girl aesthetic of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, as the TV series Love Story had us reminiscing over an era that now feels long gone. But if there’s anyone in the Kennedy dynasty truly deserving of the spotlight, surely it has to be Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?
Perhaps Lee Radziwill comes in as a close second, although technically, she wasn’t a Kennedy, so we’re still safe there…
The former first lady moved to New York for a fresh start in 1964, and stayed for thirty years, where she cultivated a classic, clean and sophisticated wardrobe, with a more bohemian edge than her White House wardrobe.
Every time I wear a huge pair of sunglasses, I always feel like I’m channelling her vibe!
Fran Lebowitz
Sharp tailoring and an even sharper wit, Fran Lebowitz is an unapologetically sardonic writer and cultural commentator who moved to New York City in the 1970s after being expelled from her New Jersey prep school.
Her inimitable, menswear-infused style has remained her signature for decades, carrying her from partying at Studio 54 to her own Netflix series, ‘Pretend It’s a City’ directed by longtime friend Martin Scorsese.
Debbie Harry
I couldn’t not include Debbie Harry, more commonly known as the frontwoman of Blondie. She was one of the cornerstones of my teenage style inspirations, and someone I still have an immense soft spot for.
She’s just too fucking cool. Ray-Ban Wayfarers, asymmetric floaty chiffon dresses, denim and leather, battered sneakers, slogan tees, somehow balancing punk nonchalance with old Hollywood glamour in a way that still feels impossibly modern.
I don’t know if any of these influences will appear directly in the looks I pack into my suitcase this afternoon (for those reading on publication day), but their spirit - freedom, creativity, individuality, will no doubt echo through them all.
I’ll send you a postcard! ❤️
love this! that pic of edie in the black dress lives rent free in my mind