Frock Fridays: City Style

Okay, true confession: I'm not actually sure what "city style" means.  I've lived in four of the world's most important cities, and not one of them has one definable style.  In London, the hipsters of Shoreditch would die before being confused with a Sloane Ranger and, according to the Sunday supplements, yummy mummy fashion is its own unique minefield.  New York's the same: the brands on 125th and Malcolm X are completely different to what you'll see 100 blocks south in Chelsea.  The only place I remember a slightly more homogenous style is Paris, but it's been a few years since I was last there and, just like with the other cities, what you wear depends heavily on your identity and location.

I think that DC is almost as diverse, fashion-wise, as any other major city though it's perhaps less experimental on a daily basis.  You'll find accessible high fashion - just check the dozens of local style blogs if you need to get your fix of open-toed booties, floral or camo skinny jeans, statement necklaces, and plaid worn with polka dots - but, for the most part, I don't see a lot adherence to trends.  Overall, the city is a bit more sartorially conservative, but a wide range of stylistic choices falls within that awareness of what's appropriate.

Most of my friends would agree that weekend city style in Washington means wearing what makes you feel confident and low-key at the same time; it means being comfortable in flattering shapes and low-maintenance fabrics in which you could either head out for coffee or a beer depending on the time of day.  For me (and Charlie), it might look like this:

blazer / dress / belt / bag / boots / leash

All that being said, I always thought that haute couture was a universal thing.  I don't really follow fashion week news but from street style snaps, paparazzi photos of the front row, and the runway shows themselves, everything at that trend and price point seems like it transcends location.  New Look recently sent me this infographic about the world's four biggest Fashion Weeks, though, and it seems I was wrong.  (I was compensated for including it in today's post, but it's definitely relevant to av's link-up theme for the week!)  There are differences in terms of the clothes, which I guess I should have expected, but one of the things that jumped out to me is that London has the fewest number of shows but the biggest media presence!  It's the newest of these four but it's catching up pretty quickly... maybe I should pay more attention to this sort of thing if I truly want to be transatlantic!