Suffer for Fashion

21.

Thank god this project has no deadline! I almost forgot about it entirely. Then I rediscovered and remembered that it was great fun. So I took my camera with me to Bryant Park and discovered Steven. 

Steve was incredibly dapper on the steps of the library, and being photographed by a friend. Turns out, he’s a fashion blogger. Well, he’s an art student from Nigeria who has an eye for details and impeccable style. The photos he’ll have up on his blog will probably be better than mine, but he was a refreshing and fitting subject in front of the elegant library otherwise frequented by tourists and unremarkably dressed academics. Follow him on tumblr here and find more of his style on his blog!

(Source: sufferforfashion)

20.

Sometimes I forget that I hate the fashion industry. I mean, aside from all the politics, there is the fact that many of the people who work in it (it is not a stereotype) have quite an attitude. This makes something as simple and lovely as giving a compliment somewhat of a terrifying experience, as the girls will happily sneer and move their Jill Sanders bag closer to their size 00 bony bodies.

Incidentally, the one person who caught my eye more than any of the cliche industry people (+the Olsen twins and related celebrities) at the Isaac Mizhrai for QVC preview was miss Jennifer here. Whose classic movie starlet looks and darling accessories (those shoes!) were hard not to want to remember. Turns out Jennifer is a blogger (yay!), over at entertainment/fashion/gossip/lifestyle blog Scenestirz. So called “recession socialites” who I much prefer over the “real” socialites.

19.

I was leaving South Street Seaport from the photographers photographing photographers photographing photographers thing (pictures to come and oh my god it was so much fun) when I saw Andrea and her family lounging by the harbor and had to take her picture. Turns out they’re all visiting from Sweden (!!), of course. And Andrea just recently graduated from photo school, but denies that it makes her a photographer.

It’s too bad my camera ran out of batteries before I could get more better shots, but here’s to hoping I’ll see miss Andrea again to play tour guide. :)

18.

(for some reason the exposure on this photo, or any of the others I shot of him was impossible to get right, so this is the best I can do for now).

Ricardo’s cardboard sign read: will trade my brain for info. I asked him what it was about, and he said he’d give me a piece of information in exchange for a piece of information. He asked me a good place to eat around the neighborhood, and I recommended a favorite tea house. I asked him more than just one question and took his picture, so it was a fair trade off.

Ricardo’s from Mexico City, and will trade my brain for info is an internet project of his (http://will.trademybrainfor.info) where strangers trade knowledge. Ricardo’s a mechanical engineer, and an artist and photographer as well. I saw a few of his geometric art sketches in his little notebook and they were quite nice.

ps: can you find the photographer? :)

I caught Devohn (with an h) on St. Mark’s with his adorable tiny puppy. Turns out Devohn is a stylist for the likes of Beyonce, and his puppy’s name is Chanel. But of course. (That’s a Chanel logo on Devohn’s hat and bag that you might not be able to see.) Also, Devhon lives in Bushwick. Brooklyn we go hard.

16.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed at the East River park this perfect New York Sunday, with the Dirty Projectors playing for free as part of the pool parties series. Overwhelming because at every turn, there were beautiful hipsters wearing the same UO tank top/high waisted shorts/gladiator sandals uniform, so that it became utterly unexceptional, and although people watching and snapping photos was fun, it wasn’t until I headed for the water bottles that I spotted Taylor, impeccably sitting at the side of the grass, in the simplest of American Apparel dresses (I have the same one in black!), that perfect hat and her smile, that I even had the desire to do a 100strangers picture.

So, Taylor works for Domino records, a music critic as well. And as for the hat, she found it at Coney Island, and when the woman who owned it saw her wearing it, said that she could keep it. It is, after all, simply perfect.

15.

Luis is a stranger who turned out to be not so much a stranger after all. I saw him reading in the middle of this rolling green hill in Riverside park, and approached him, sure that he was reading something for class and that he was a student at Columbia.

Instead, Luis is a film student at NYU who’s currently living in Harlem. In fact, he knows several of my good friends. The book he’s reading, The Doors of Perception by Huxley was not for class at all but one of his personal favorites. He told me it was a wonderful book. One more to add on my already long list of recommendations.

But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my trip uptown would happen upon a stranger who ended up being a friend of friends. That’s nyc for ya, and it was it was marvelous to meet him and make a new friend of my own.

14.

Sebastian was holding a giant packed Urban Outfitters bag in Central Park when I first saw him, but his host relieved him of it when I asked to take his picture. Sebastian is visiting from Paris, but had lived in New York before, starting his first year studying history in London, and spent some time living in Africa? I’m not quite sure how that all works out. (I could not, for the life of me, figure out his accent, either.) Sebastian also has an uncanny resemblance to my friend Adrian.

Also that is one of my favorite names for boys of all time, and I’m really quite glad I finally met someone in real life who has the name and, well, it suits him.

I’m sorry I forgot to ask your name (feel free to let me know if you see this). But, spotted at Washington Square Park, a playwright at NYU, she asked if I was taking photos for street spotted (which is, okay, I’m just going to say, not that great of an attempt at NYU street fashion), not quite. But her jacket was meant to keep her adorable Topshop dress from bellowing everywhere, how perfect that the wind started to blow just as I started shooting her standing up.

12.

Olga was waiting for a friend outside of the Virgin store. She said she looks terrible in pictures when I asked (I beg to differ, Miss Amelie!). She goes to Hunter for philosophy and japanese. I can’t quite remember what else we talked about, but she was quite sweet and lovely.