who's biggie and who's tupac?

now i'm going back to what may become a recurring theme on this blog...

la style vs nyc style

i just ran across some gorgeous photos from the lookbook of la designer racquel allegra, and they are gorgeous, as you will see below...

 

 

i love it. and i think that looking at these images makes me realize what is exciting to me about fashion & style in la.

(whispering) here it is:

most style and fashion in "mainstream" los angeles is pretty... (am i going too far by saying) terrible?

it's either super trashy, super blingy, super slutty, super casual or super.... a bathing suit

la style is not generally known for being subtle. for good or ill.

so, when you see someone on the street there whose look has some intelligence, some subtlety, and (dare i hope for it?) some humor injected into it, they just stand out like a light bulb.

whereas here in nyc.... it is the age of the hipster. every last girl on the street is very busy looking "eclectic" or "moody" or (omg, the worst of all) very "m.o.d."

so, what i think i love about the images & looks above is that they combine some of what i like most about fashion in nyc right now, with a freshness and a simplicity, and a real feeling of actual individuality.... simply because of the setting in which they were made. these are california pictures.

this girl was clearly not styled by a stylist from new york, but she would turn as many heads in manhattan as she would in manhattan beach.

she doesn't fit in here, and she doesn't fit in there.

simply being a designer in la sets you apart in a huge way that it just doesn't, here in nyc. fashion designers are a dime a dozen here. it's a more exotic trade in the west. they don't have a schmatta history. they are much more trail-blazing than we are here....

i like la a lot. i'm not sure that i could live there, but i really really like going to visit. it's been almost a year since my last trip, and i'm starting to really get antsy. so, hopefully i can get out there for a long weekend this summer, and maybe take some photos & do more thinking on this subject.

fashion for the semi-outsider. it's really what i like most.