Red lips and a striped bateau top – could Katie look any more Parisian chic? People often ask me where I first fell in love with street-style. Although I discovered street-style photography through a chance encounter with Shoichi Aoki’s anthology FRUITS, it was on my first trip to Paris that I fell madly in love with the romance of street-style.

 

I was 15 years old, and was allowed to wander the city alone while my mom attended her business conference. Granted, my family traveled often so I knew how to find my way around new places – it isn’t like she dumped me at the hotel and was like ‘figure it out, bye!’ Although given it was Paris, I’m not sure that would have been a bad thing…

One afternoon, I stopped into a crêperie after a day spent wandering through the Left Bank. The woman behind the counter wore a crisp white shirt, red lipstick, and was a strikingly beautiful brunette. While I waited for my crêpe, she stepped out from behind the counter with a broom to sweep the storefront. Like magic, her second half appeared wearing a voluminous black skirt and four-inch stilettos. My mind couldn’t get over how elegant she was, and she was just working behind the counter at a little café. I’d never seen anyone like her before. It was unbelievable. This idea of being so chic, and not for a big event or for a fancy dinner, but for everyday life – this was the moment when I fell in love with street-style.

 

Katie immediately reminded me of the woman I saw in Paris when I saw her waiting under the Damen El platform. The elegance, and simplicity of her look felt so French to me. After all, great style can be as simple allowing the perfect shade of red lipstick to take center stage…