21 Days of Street Style: Day 7, Alex, South St

 Alex knows a little about street style himself, writing street style features for Philadelphia Magazine along with Emily Goulet. I first met him on the way to a party for the local fashion label NINObrand last summer. We shot these images after I finished doing a shoot with Ps and Qs shop on South Street that he helped orchestrate. As for his own style, Alex has done a fair amount of thinking about it as well. This is what he had to say: "My sense of style is simple, to be honest. It's clean. My philosophy is that it's not so much about trends. It's really about finding what works for you and repeating it. Or just finding what makes you feel comfortable. I'm not saying, like, sweatpants. Just your kind of aesthetic. And then doing that." "Black skinny jeans," he explained, "will always be my go-to. And maybe that's not in this season. That's kind of classic in general. But I really just think that people need to figure out what works for them and do it. And have a really strong sense of self in that representation. Like, I love book bags, and I don't think book bags are necessarily always revered as the most stylish things. At times I have trouble dressing up. I wear a lot of casual. Like in summer, I wear shorts all the time, regardless of them being trendy. And that's just who I am."

In these images, Alex is wearing Velodyne headphones, a jacket by Publish, a chambray shirt by Naked and Famous, Mint scratch 'n sniff raw denim jeans also by Naked and Famous, shoes from Target, sunglasses "from a little vintage shop in LA," and, of course,  a book bag from United by Blue.

"I think the Philly style scene is one that gets a lot of slack from people on the inside and the outside," he told me. "I definitely think in general Philadelphia is a comfortable place. We're cheaper than New York. And that's what so great about this place, that we have this freeness and comfortableness to just be ourselves that I think at times kind of resonates in fashion with us being lazy. But I think that people that do fashion well in this city do it really well, and those people are heightening our city over all."

Philadelphia Street Style: Lyrical, Sydenham St

I've never seen anyone wear their lipstick divided into two halves in this way, and I don't know what I think of it in a kind of pure aesthetic sense. But then there's no such thing as pure aesthetic sense anyway. So why not take a risk and do something different?

Philadelphia Street Style: Camila, Walnut and Broad

Philadelphia Street Style: Joshua, 16th St

Nothing says Philly style quite like a slur against New York. NYC, after all, doesn't just eat its own young; it lures in kids from places like Philadelphia to feed its bottomless apetite. And then, of course, it forgets where its meal came from. Philly hands over its rock stars to New York. It offers up its artists and designers. It gave it graffiti too. 

It takes a profile shot to get the full effect of Joshua's hair. He was pleased with the way it puffs out in this picture. Me too.

Mickey Finn "Rock'n'Rolla" - Rittenhouse Square

Mickey Finn is a DJ, artist, tattoo artist, and god knows what else. Check him out at facebook.com/finn.mickey. He's wearing an Obey tank top, one of only two brands, he says, that he's willing to buy new. Otherwise, it's all about thrift stores and vintage. I like how the pattern on his tank blends seamlessly with the ink on his torso. 

Ol' Timey Mustache in an Ol' Timey American City

Johnny, Boylston St, Boston. We share the status of the California to East Coast transplant. Boston, apparently, is  importing its hipsters.