Mix it Up Like a New Yorker

Spring Floral Outfit Coat Cacheral Lei Lady Lei

During my time living in New York, I learnt that when it comes to style New Yorkers love to mix it up. Pairing high with low cost pieces, casual with super fancy. The result? An eclectic, cool outfit. A cocktail dress with flat ankle boots, or statement earrings with a t-shirt. Dungarees with embellished block heels; anything goes in that city.

I admire their daringness and style creativity. I love how even stepping out to the corner store they're styled. They wear heels, a studded leather jacket over a vintage band tee and denim jeans. Think Carrie Brawshaw. While others save their best pieces for special occasions, New Yorkers don't. Instead they wear them during the day, styling them with unlikely partners.

This way of dressing is economical when you think about it. Often the best pieces in your wardrobe are also the most expensive. So if those pieces are getting air-time as much as your skinny jeans, the cost-per-wear drops.

Note: Cost-per-wear is a real mathematical formula, read about it here in GQ.

When it comes to mixing it up in New York, no matter how outrageous you look, there will always be someone more so. In Melbourne, not so much. While we’re a fashionable city, we do rein it in. We prefer to colour within the lines rather than outside them. But perhaps Melburians are missing the one crucial element New Yorkers embody.

I believe the element that pulls a New Yorker’s look together is confidence.... Or their ‘I don’t give a damn what people think’ mentality. But I believe confidence is what it's all about.

The first time I wear an outfit I deem as daring, I'm self-conscious. Yet that feeling never lasts. The next time I wear it, I don’t feel as fazed.

Try this for yourself. Mix casual and evening pieces. Push the style boundaries. Don’t care what others think and embrace your confidence.

Lei xx