New York Style: Winter

I'm interested in what people around the world are wearing, so I'll post what the typical NYC person wears (in the winter, for now) with the hope that maybe you'll share what people wear in your city. All these pictures are from WWD street scene pictures.

NYC is the fashion capital of the USA, and all of our major brands are here. With stores like Century 21, Beacon's closet, and numerous sample sales, you could get runway clothing ($500-$1000+)for fast-fashion prices ($10-$100). Also, no-name designers who knock-off runway clothing also work in NYC, so our typical dollar store and ghetto fashion store will have some trendy stuff (I've got a post on knock-off fashion scheduled for next week) Bottom line is you could look great for not a lot of money.

The most NYC outfit ever. black-on-black, classic shapes, timeless pieces

That's about the only thing NYC has going for it though. There's a housing crisis here, and most people spend an entire paycheck for rent while living in a teeny tiny apartment. This affects the way we wear clothes--we don't have a lot of space and can't afford the space or money to buy clothes every season. So New Yorkers have a few quality timeless pieces. Unfortunately, this means that people who don't care about fashion wear the same "classic" pieces again and again. Chic and timeless. (and a bit boring, in my mind).

You tired of those black wool coats yet? Everyone's got one. I've been on rush hour trains when every single person is wearing a black wool coat. Even me. Even I bought one when I moved here:

"Are you posting only black clothes because you've got a 'dark fashion' blog?" you're wondering. NO. No I'm not. Everyone wears black in NYC. Every day. For reasons I mentioned (you don't have a lot of space, so you need timeless clothes that go with everything...that means black) plus this city is REALLY dirty. You're basically wearing designer clothes while walking past waist-high piles of dripping garbage like it's NBD

You'll notice that everyone wears boots and their pants NEVER touch the ground. It isn't just because of the garbage slime. The city has terrible drainage and it rains (or in the recent past, rain and snow). and WHO KNOWS what's in those puddles. I've seen lime green puddles.

see how pretty much EVERYONE's wearing black?

Want to go out for a night on the town? Get ready for teeny tiny bathrooms and yet another reason why your pants must NEVER touch the ground.

not enlarging this photo.

See, boots:

Shoes are the most important item in a NYer's wardrobe. No one drives and almost none of train stations are accessible, so you're walking and using stairs all the time. Most people wear flat shoes or low heels.

NYC men are some of the best-dressed men I've seen. My husband described it as such: "It's hard to look bad. You'd have to take a train and a bus an hour away to buy crappy men's clothes."

"Soho guy"

"foreign guy who doesn't care what he's wearing" (and still looks awesome, btw. there's a tumblr dedicated to "accidental asian hipsters" and half of those pictures are from NYC)

"Brooklyn dude"--all my single lady friends are in love with the bearded urban-farmer, home-brewing brooklyn dude. Here, he's thrown out last year's plaid shirt for something more old-man. 

So that's NYC (in the winter). Everyone's wearing black-on-black, is stylish, but a little boring.