New York Memento

Sezane top
Zara jeans (similar)
Le Chateau sandals (c/o) (similar)
Poppy Barley handbag (c/o) (similar)
& Other Stories sunglasses
Mejuri earrings (similar)
Location: The Manitoba Legislature – Winnipeg, Manitoba

Fashion Week isn’t really my scene. I love fashion as an art and as a concept, but I find the mad and maddening way in which all collections are presented in four major cities over four weeks exhausting to even contemplate. I know this from personal experience; we went to New York Fashion Week in 2016. Before that, I’d experienced the chaos of Fashion Week in Paris, although more by virtue of my proximity to it than anything.

We went to New York in 2016 for Fashion Week. Before that, I would never have dreamed that anyone might think I was important enough to be included in the events. Sure, I’d been snapped by the occasional street style photographer when I lived in Paris, but I saw that as purely coincidental. I was in the right place at the right time, looking reasonably put together, nothing more.

NYFW was an experience I’ll never forget and one I wouldn’t trade. By my favourite moments of that trip weren’t shows or presentations. (Okay, CHANEL was pretty good. But still, truly, not the highlight for me, and that’s saying something.) I loved visiting museums, taking in the sights and shooting outfit photos against an iconic background. There is one outfit I remember in particular from that trip – just jeans and a top, nothing Fashion Week-worthy but perfectly effortless. I wore it for a trip to DryBar, followed by brunch at Jack’s Wife Freda. The sandals were too tall to be practical but I wore them all day, anyway. When your feet hurt no matter what, you might as well wear cute shoes.

When I think back on that trip, it’s not the outfits I wore to shows I remember – it’s those jeans and sandals. Somewhere, there is a picture of me sitting on the steps of a brownstone from that day. In that context, it just made perfect sense.

I loved the vibe of that look, and it’s one I come back to over and over. A little seventies, a lot simple and easy to repeat in different iterations as styles change. This is my 2021 version, albeit it not photographed against an iconic New York backdrop. If nothing else, the sandals are the exact same pair from all those years ago. The appeal of this type of look remains unchanged for me, even if the scenery is less exciting this year. And since this is still the closest to New York I’m going to get for a while, I’ll take it.

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