What's Your Favorite Style?

One of the really fun things about living in New York City is people-watching. I was walking behind a gorgeous woman (above) in elegant clothes when I suddenly thought about all the different ways people dress in this city. We dress up and dress down, but usually we want to look good. There are so many different versions of chic. It's really what makes people watching so much fun. What do you think is great style? Serious chic? Fun chic? Quirky or cool? Upload a picture or just describe in comments.

Braids always look so cool, though I have to confess when my girlfriend, who is of Irish ancestry and has fine red hair, got cornrow braids, it did not look so cool. It looked kinda scalped! She loved it though, so as any good friend would do, I managed to express my opinion only to friends who were not mutual.

This woman was wearing a very swank sweater-coat but you can't really see it properly because, as any proper New Yorker will do, she walked too fast. I could have run around in front of her to try again, but that would not have been NYC chic.

You could only be more chic than this lady if you had a complete forehead. (Step hop hop and she was gone!) In analyzing her chic, I think it's the combination of the anorexia, big sunglasses, earplugs that match the shirt, and the grim look. Très NYC.

Everyone in this picture is totally chic.

That is because they are eating in a Starbucks window.

Personally, I have a bit of nostalgia for the early 20th Century era. What man about town in today's world would bother to dress to the nines unless he were about to appear at his daughter's wedding?

This is why I do appreciate a swank doorman.

Hats, too, seem to make a statement lost to a bygone era. Baseball caps are so boring. A handsome man in a dapper hat is always eye-catching. Unfortunately, this man had already

taken off his cowboy boots (which really completed his outfit) and replaced them with sneakers. I guess women in heels are not the only ones who suffer for fashion.

OK, these two young women, I would say, sport what is probably the trending NYC youth style -- fun prints, long sweaters, leggings. However, they also unselfconsciously display a truly anachronistic faux-pas: They are talking to each other without texting! Where are their earplugs?

Best of all are the styles that arises naturally from the street itself. As famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright would have it, "Form follows function."