Qualifying the Ins-and-Outs of the July Fashion Scene in New York City
It's officially summer, and I'm out, about, and writing about what the most stylish people are wearing more of and what they're starting to move away from.
Hi friends!
I love summer! I love the sun! I love the beach! I love showering four times a day and hiding from the 100+ degree weather that’s settling into the heat sink of NYC. Who doesn’t love sleeping on top of the covers?
It’s been nice to settle back into my rhythm. I work like a crazy person Monday-Thursday (the job market is horrible, folks!) and take Friday to explore the city. June was a great time, but it flew by: I had a surgery midway through the month, which meant I spent the entire month stone-cold sober. For anybody worried, I’m almost completely recovered now!
Going out sober is a great time, honestly. You’re much more aware of yourself (yay for being present!) and much more aware of what other people are doing, saying, and wearing. It’s certainly interesting to reckon with what to do when you don’t have the easy-out of grabbing another drink — I’m very much into having a question of the day (Do Robots have souls? What’s the trivia category you’d win against a room of 15 other teams? What’s your favorite thing about me?), giving compliments, and talking about what people are seeing more of and what they’re seeing less of!
As always, thank you to my culture critics and consultants: Alexandra Hildreth, Kyler Thompson, Alex’s friend Audrey, Fifi Hodgkinson, Ali Royals, Bailey Goldberg, and Ella Emhoff.
I work hard on One Size Fits All! Share the publication (if you so please), subscribe, send me what you’re noticing, and, as always, read on!
Without further preamble, here’s the July list!
On the Way Ins:
Slutty Little Tops (for men)
“It’s not going anywhere” style (holding leather bags from the middle really hard and not using the handle)
Cargo shorts (for women)
One-shoulder bags (the “Sol Thompson”)
Havianas/Low profile flip flops
Halter necks
DOUBLET! DOUBLET FISH BAG!
Abercrombie & Fitch styling cues
Fishing vests… unfortunately
Gaultier diffusion brands
Boat necks
Severe front darting for suits
Zoot suits
Throuples you’re not aware you’re in
Wearing a tie but real style and not douchebag style
Sinus surgery (nose jobs)
Outdoor dinner parties
Being a stranger at a wedding
Vintage military cargos
Addison Rae
Dior AND Valentino intimates
Create mode
‘80s Armani
Yuppies
Moccasins
Sandy Liang
Rotisserie chicken
Set-ups/meeting through friends
Bullying
Gold arm cuffs
Ski goggles worn on the side of your head
On the Way Outs:
Showing the knees (for men)
Pop-up shows/secret shows
Long structured jorts a-la men’s pinterest boards
Micro bags
Nylon pants (“SWSSH SWSSH SWSSH”)
Doughy finance guys in boat shoes
Vintage basketball jerseys
Low top hiking boots but worn with dress clothes
Tennis hats
Botox
Craig Green
New Balance 550s
Mohair
Noah
Bode
Palace
Stick & Poke Tattoos
Already skinny people taking ozempic
Fuck ass creatures on your bag I’m not saying the name
“Huzz”
Horsebit Loafer + Nike Sock combo
Having the latest phone
Brooklyn Mirage
Camo/Camo hats
Athleisure
Look alike contests
This is New York’s only style report that follows real people in real life. Influencers aren’t real and online trends don’t count. Further, if you disagree with me, you’re wrong, and if you find issues with anything on the list, please call me and scream until I change my opinion. If you find something you enjoy on the way out, it means I'm personally rooting for you to be struck down by a falling StarLink satellite, get dropped by paramedics on the way to the hospital, and laughed at by a medical team (they anoticed your New Balance footwear/stick & poke tattoos/mohair sweater/etc. and decided you’re old news).
Also keep in mind that the previous sentences are a joke. I just like writing. Big kiss.
New York is abuzz… kind of. Many of my good friends (Michael Smith, Fiona Luo, most of the Komune team, etc.) are out of town at the moment for buying trips, fashion weeks, and general travel. I love when fashion people travel! They pick up styling cues, bring back fun ideas, and spice up the New York scene with the new and novel from abroad!
There are still a huge number of people in the city, and it’s that time of year where people get funky with their outfits. I committed to never showing my knees below 125th street. Flip flops are back in a huge way: people realized that engineer boots in 95F weather aren’t a practical option. July is the time for “subway girl redux,” in that it’s too hot to wear anything serious, so people start experimenting with anything and everything.
My big comment for this month is my own burning out on the “brand wrapping” culture of men’s fashion circles. Fashion people — guys especially — love to let a brand subsume their life. Alongside brand-aligned fitpics, Instagram feeds display interior design choices, books, and hangout spots, scored to creative-director-aligned songs/soundtracks. Enjoying the clothing of a brand isn’t enough anymore. Fashion people need to signal that their love of the brand runs deeper and more authentically than everyone else’s passion.
To me, brand wrapping is inauthentic and icky. There’s no telling where the aesthetic of the brand ends and the person begins. If your interests, reading lists, music choices, and living space are all externally dictated, is there any space for you? I don’t think so. More on this in a later Substack, hopefully.
Wear your clothes, people! Don’t let them wear you.
A final quick note: mustaches are grounds for war this month. I bumped them back and forth from the on-the-way-in and on-the-way-out list and listened as my friends got angry with it one way or the other. “I think in general the male manipulator look is shifting away from [curly mullet and mustache,” explained Janik (who lives in Europe). "Nuh uh,” countered a friend who will remain anonymous (as they think it’s still a good look but consider it “telling on themself”). Let me know what you think.
Time for some item-and-brand specific writeups.
On-the-Way-Ins
Slutty Little Tops (for men)
It’s a slutty top summer (particularly for men)! 2023 saw the normalization of the “perfectly cropped hoodie,” 2024 saw the explosion of the “perfect t-shirt,” and 2025 is all about the sorta-kinda baby tee for guys. How do you know it’s the perfect slutty little top? Put your hands up! If you can see the navel, happy trail, or a stupid tattoo on the hip, it’s the right length!
There’s a reason I’ve stuck this at the top of the list. I’m not only seeing these shirts everywhere in the city (the East Village and Lower East Side especially), but they popped up on a few Paris Runways. I’m a firm believer of only reporting on what I see going on in real life — there are a million and one runway “trends” that went nowhere — but the explosion of these tops came at the same time as the appearances on the runway, doubling the potential of the style cue to catch on.
Expect a new uniform for the Washington Square Park, East Village, and Bushwick/Bed Stuy queerbaiters (if it wasn’t part of the uniform already).
“It’s not going anywhere” handbag style (holding leather bags from the middle really hard and not using the handle)
I have zero idea how to talk about handbags. Seriously. They make as much sense to me as watches. That being said, I’m seeing a lot of people with mid-size bags (leather clutches, softer/non-structured wristlets, and hobo bags) simply grab them by any leather available and hold on for dear life, foregoing a strap.
If I were to intellectualize (twist my arm!), crushing a luxe handbag is the ultimate in look-how-effortless-this-is fashion. If the move is to look good, the leather of the bag has to be supple, buttery, and not bear the marks of an aggressive grab once set down again. Patent leather crinkles in an unattractive way. Certain structured leathers don’t crumple well. It’s hard to do this to a bigger, gaudy bag.
The Row makes fantastic bags for this: I saw a woman crush the life out of an Edith as she got up from dinner the other day, and it looked really good. It’s cool to see people not being precious about their handbags: this is another style cue that’s popping up on the runway: there were a few bags on the LV runway (which were ugly bags, for the record) crushed to hell by the models.
Havianas/Low profile flip flops
Remember when I noticed people wearing toe rings again? Victory lap time!
There is no better way to show off the dogs (that’s toes, not members of the canis familiaris species) than with a pair of Havianas. I’m not joking when I say that these sandals are everywhere. That means I’m seeing everything from the plastic drugstore thong sandals to $900 Leather Prada sandals.
I did think about doing a gallery of flip-flop photos, but the horrifying realization of potentially being the guy taking photos (subtly) of random people’s feet on the subway struck me like a runaway train. You’re just going to have to take my word on this one.
One-shoulder bags (the “Sol Thompson”)
Another bag I notice around the city is the one-shoulder sling bag. I carry a 20L Rock Cloud dry bag with me everywhere. I got the bag for free at a Doc Martens event back in 2023. I gave the boots to a friend and kept the bag they came in, go figure.
That being said, the sling bag is fantastic. I live on the North side of Harlem, currently. When I go downtown, I’ve got to be down there all day, and there’s no “popping back to my apartment” if I need a break. Stuffed in the bag is a book, my journal, a portable charger, my iPod, a change of shirt, spare deodorant, spare cologne, tissues, playing cards, and a rotating cast of snacks, drinks, and dog-related items should Leo be with me. Could I fit all of that into a bigger handbag? Probably. I don’t want to have to carry something in my hand all day, and I don’t want to have to worry about the bag itself getting ruined (the Rock Cloud bag is literally a few pieces of plastic with watertight tape).
I went on a dog walk with Ella the other day, and she sang the praises of the bag. I see other dog owners rocking them (or a smaller, cross-body bag). The bags are rarely a “fashion” pick, but the pure utility and convenience of outfitting yourself for almost any issue that could appear in the summer heat is too amazing to forego.
Abercrombie & Fitch styling cues
Varsity shirts, slouchy cargo shorts, flip flops… need I say more? The A&F styling is coming back, even if the aggressively hetero-erotic energy of some of the campaigns isn’t (the Bruce Weber-energized shoots certainly are). The women of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in particular are loving the long, baggy short + flip-flop look as guys turn towards ringer or varsity tees. The Northeast summer camp douchebag look is back!
Fishing vests… unfortunately
Drives me up the wall to say, but the overwhelming utility of the fishing vest (and dogged adherence of every menswear brand to making some form of duck-canvas, not-actually-practical-for-fishing fishing vest as some modern-era rite of passage) finally caught on. I’m seeing 5’8” guys in Happier Grocery (New York City’s Erewhon (I was in there for coffee, I can’t afford to grocery shop there but need to acknowledge this)) wearing fishing vests.
The recently-published “How Fashion Got Obsessed with Fly Fishing” article didn’t help to quell the rising tide (pun intended) of fishing vests, either.
“Lately, when Hamano [a buyer for Blue in Green] has stocked fishing vests at Blue in Green (many of them from South2 West8), the store sells out. (South2 West8 offers both clothing inspired by fishing pursuits and gear that’s technically functional for them. A spokesperson said in a statement that the brand has seen its name recognition increase exponentially in the United States in recent years.)”
Do I care to gatekeep? Absolutely not. Gatekeepers are dorks. I just hope all the dudes buying vests make time to go and appreciate the great outdoors.
Wearing a tie but real style and not douchebag style
“Douchebag style” (adjective) 1. to wear something intentionally wrong as to look like a douchebag.
See: popped collars, unbuttoned button-downs, sunglasses in the middle of a club, etc.
I’m seeing (see the inclusion of ‘80s Armani) more and more people trending towards — and breaking the conventions of — “classic menswear.” Last year, we saw a huge explosion of “douchebag style”: suits being worn by unabashed womanizers, sleazebags, and scumbags. However, the guys of New York are (shockingly!) wearing ties all the way up, properly tailoring wider-fitting suiting, and generally experimenting with ties, tied properly!
Bullying
I’m never really a proponent of bullying. Let people do what they want. Live and let live. With that being said, there’s a pretty good argument for pushing people in the right direction with some tough love.
There is, objectively, a lot of hilarious behavior undertaken by the fashion community. Mewing, “looksmaxxing”, wearing 5’ inseam shorts with tiny stick legs and gigantic shirts… the hobby that we all adore is inherently ridiculous.
If you’re going to say something, say it to the person’s face. Don’t be a sneak disser.
Sinus surgery (nose jobs)
I got sinus surgery! It was amazing! I struggled to breathe through my nose for the past 5-6 years of my life. It disrupted my sleep, affected my teeth and gums (seriously), and generally hindered my day-to-day. I finally got my surgery approved by my insurance, and made the very difficult decision to (gasp!) ask my friends to take care of me for a few days.
A massive thank-you to Marco, Tiff, Ben, and Lindsay, as well as everyone that reached out. It means the world to me. Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Ski goggles worn on the side of your head
I saw Christ Dillinger at the Market Hotel in June. What I saw out of the crowd was amazing. Most of the FIT/NYU/Parsons crowd was out of the city (yay!) and while the audience wasn’t wall-to-wall, they were clearly huge fans of Based Negative Squad.
I didn’t know of BNS outside of Acidsoulja (who was also at the Market Hotel), and only ever listened to one of his songs (which features Tim Allen’s Home Improvement Grunt as an adlib), but attending the concert made me a fan of both Christ and Acidsoulja. They performed with an incredible amount of joy, energy, and passion to a crowd that returned the intensity in kind.
I’m not sure if it was the crowd in particular (in some sort of fashion selection bias), but there were at least three kids all wearing ski goggles on the side of their heads. I was legitimately excited to see it: the look was a mainstay of the Soundcloud rap phase of 2015-2018. Is it fully back? Probably not. Is it on the way in? I sure hope so.
On-the-Way-Outs
Showing the knees (for men)
I think that short shorts are fantastic on a very small selection of men with nice legs. Everyone else looks repulsive. Unmoisturized, pale knock-knees are not meant to be displayed, guys. I’m so serious. I was once a 5’ inseam truther until I realized that it’s just doesn’t look good on me. I can make capris work. I can make a 9’ inseam work. Fuck it: I’ve worn jeans every day of the summer.
The fashion-inclined took note as well. There are so many options to consider in the summer that the Big Short Inseam is slowly losing its grip on the men of New York City. Linen pants, cargos, even the wide-cut shorts (like those in the Dior show) appeared more and more as the temperature climbed, much to my pleasure. Break out of the “I can only wear a baggy vintage t-shirt and/or a button-down and my 5’ inseam shorts” trap, everyone! There’s so much else to explore.
Pop-up shows/secret shows
Fred Again received legitimate death threats after announcing a secret show to promote a new single (tickets, released less than an hour before the event’s start, shot up to ~$10k on Ticketmaster). The All-American Rejects announced a secret show in the Lower East Side last week, disappointed fans (including me) who learned that the band performing was instead a cover band charging a $15 cover. I didn’t send a death threat, but I was pretty pissed off.
The novelty of a pop-up show is such an alluring thing for artists and fans alike. I dapped up Pusha T and Malice at a surprise Clipse performance last summer. I danced to an Alice Glass DJ set at 3 AM with four other people (that isn’t a joke) last winter. Lorde attracted literally thousands of fans for a shock performance of “What Was That” earlier this year (I missed this one, but needed a rule of three for writing’s sake and I’m also salty I missed it).
However, the risk of failing to do a show and wasting people’s time is high. I think fans are souring on the idea of potentially being disappointed and artists are learning that while the highs are high for a secret show, the lows are really low.
Long structured jorts à-la men’s pinterest boards
I’ll keep it brief. I think self-cut jean shorts are more popular than the hard-pleated structured jorts of past years. Nothing crazy, I just don’t see the latter very much at the moment.
Micro bags
See the rise of the medium-size bag being crushed for the justification here. Micro bags just aren’t practical! They were cute, a fun gag, and honestly, entertaining, but I think that the modern person wants more from something they’re choosing to tote around for an entire day.
Doughy finance guys in boat shoes
I detest boat shoes. They don’t look good and I don’t really understand how or why or when cool people that I love and respect decided to start wearing them. Those people weren’t able to change my mind, but I’m inclined to like the shoes more when they aren’t being worn by the kids I went to Yale with who summer in Majorca or Ibiza on their families’ boats (and are, coincidentally, assholes).
Here’s where I’ll leave it: cooler, non-finance bros are wearing boat shoes more. Finance bros are wearing loafers or ON shoes or some other tech-bro-of-the-week shoe (Lemaire, unsurprisingly, is in that rotation) and wearing boat shoes less. I just don’t like promoting the idea of people (any people) wearing boat shoes.
Vintage basketball jerseys
There’s a pretty distinct frat guy summer uniform. Play along at home.
Vintage basketball jersey (bonus points for a non-Lakers/Celtics/Raptors/Knicks/Heat Jersey)
Khaki shorts
Ray-Bans
Nike socks
Cooked White AF1s/Stan Smiths/low-profile white “leather” sneaker
Algorithmic-promoted fashion content permanently changed the way everyone, frat dudes in particular, dress. It’s getting harder and harder to make a single generalization about how every guy dresses, but it is easier to identify how everyone who’s a fan of something looks. Fashion guys love a soccer jersey, a cycling jersey, or even some sort of baseball (Kapital, usually) jersey. Frat dudes are rocking vintage tees or camp collars right now. Basketball jerseys outside of basketball season (now that the NBA playoffs ended) went into dormancy for the summer.
Low top hiking boots but worn with dress clothes
I don’t think everyone suddenly got rid of their Salomon Trail Runners; those shoes are built to last and I don’t think someone wearing them once a week in the city (into an office, nonetheless) is going to wear through them. The popularity of the loafer, mule, casual sneaker (shudder), or hundreds of other options chipped away at one of the last spots where the last remnants of gorpcore remain (that is, the 9-to-5). I still see a lot of low top hiking shoes — they didn’t simply vaporize — but they’re not showing up on the post-work wine bar crowd as much as they did in past months.
Craig Green
I’m convinced that nobody actually wears Craig Green save for three or four items (two of which are Instagram-like-bait-only items). You can usually spot a few of the laced crewnecks, but as the weather’s heated up, there’s not a single Craig Green item to be found. I personally am not a fan of the brand, but I do think that the styling on the latest runway show was strong and I thought the sparkly glasses were an interesting and memorable touch. Credit to Robbie Spencer, the stylist (I assume) who made the choice.
Horsebit Loafer + Nike Sock combo
This is the flip side of the Armani Suit/properly tied tie coming back into vogue. The shorts + horsebit loafer + high white sock is still everywhere (it looks great, it’s just not for me), but the fashion crowd learned that the Nike check looks like fucking shit with the combo and that nice socks aren’t hard to find. A personal recommendation: Fugazi makes really great basic socks. I stole a pair after the runway last year and still wear them weekly.
What are our takeaways for this month?
Try something new! Don’t be afraid to be Subway Girl (but be willing to have everyone mock you for a while if you swing and miss)! Don’t let the heat stop you from getting out and about! Preoccupy yourself with getting to the event/hangout/dinner and having a blast rather than your outfit — the fashion sphere needs more spur-of-the-moment flashes of inspiration rather than the same cookie-cutter outfits.
Oh, and if you’re a man with ashy, ugly, or otherwise unsightly legs, please cover them up. I don’t want to have to wipe your thigh sweat off of a plastic seat before I eat.
I love this time of the year for fashion. Fashion Mercury is in retrograde (is it actually? I don’t know) and people are acting weird: bags are fish, everyone’s in a throuple, and fashion people are wearing ties the right way (call the doctors! Call a psychiatrist!). It’s certainly not a bad thing: I’ve got a ton to write about.
Great writeup! The city gets really freaky fashion-wise in the summertime, love the subway pics. Flip-flops on NYC sidewalks ... no, not even on my sweatiest day.