Philadelphia Street Style: Harry, Sansom St

I have no idea how to describe Harry's look, and I'm not even going to try. But I like its brash simplicity, and I like its failure to coalesce into any one singular style.  

I haven't been asking people what they're wearing lately. Mainly because it has just never felt natural for me to do so. I don't particularly care about brands and don't really want to be implicated in anyone's online guerrilla marketing strategy. I always felt kinda cheap and dirty listing the brands people were wearing, even when the express purpose was research-driven. Plus, I want these pictures to be about the people wearing clothes, rather than the clothes themselves. But I'm beginning to think it's time to start paying attention to it again, in part because a number of my readers have told me they appreciate it when I do, and in part for what it can tell me about the relationship between what people wear and who they are. It's time for me to start paying attention to the specifics of what people wear, the subtle distinctions and differences.  After all, it's not enough to say that Harry is wearing a baseball cap. He's wearing a baseball cap that says "Rub it easy, make it hard." 

Oppression is not Stylish. Occupy Fashion.

New York is a giant insecurity-generating machine. People from all over the world—feeling like big fish in a small sea—go to New York to be put back in their place. There is always someone better than you at what you do in New York. And there is always someone better-looking. Lots of someones, in fact. Seas of someones. No matter what you wear, you will feel self-conscious. That’s why New York is such a vibrant laboratory of fashion. Fashion feeds on insecurity.

Yesterday I was part of a panel on Fashioning DIY and Craft Revivalism at Parsons The New School for Design. Good times. Good talks. Sharp students sharply dressed. Nonetheless, I admit to feeling a bit of relief walking through the gates of Union Square, where the anarchists and labor activists were assembled to hoist their signs and shout down capitalism. I needed a bit of grizzly, low-brow activism to round me off. And I found it, particularly in this awesomely DIY, anti-fashion runway show. My favorite sign at the event: “Capitalism doesn’t go with my outfit.”

An anti-fashion runway show.

 A more conventional display of Occupy sentiment. 

These ladies are rad. Enough said.

Hoisting the anarchist flag.

The anarchist messenger bag.

The anarchist backpack.

Anarchist chic.