The first thing I thought when I saw Jen coming out of Forever 21 was, “I need a massive leather handbag like that!” Even the large handbags I’ve purchased never seem to be large enough. I like to carry everything I might possibly need with me at all times, in addition to my ever-present Olympus PEN camera, so a large handbag is a necessity for the roaming, nomadic lifestyle of a streetstyle photographer.
Another style element that drew me to Jen was how she styled her blue-and-white pinstripe shirt underneath a short-sleeved navy boucle jacket with an upturned collar. It’s small, stylistic details like these that reveal an innate sense of fashion.
This past autumn I photographed Tony and Tayben out front of Sprinkles, the Gold Coast cupcake boutique. This time I caught them on their way into luxury flagship Burberry. Tony, a beauty stylist, gave me excellent manicure advice when I complimented him on his checkerboard nail design (see photo insert below). Tayben is a fashion design student here in Chicago. Both Tayben and Tony highly recommended I try celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann’s eponymous nail polishes for their high quality, staying power, and novel materials like real diamond dust and 24k gold flakes.
