Who are you reading?

WHO ARE YOU READING?

a curated list of what I'm reading and am inspired by.

by Julian Mack

"Dude, who are you reading?" "I trust your style," I was recently asked.  I was taken aback by the question because I have never curated a list of things that I read and am inspired by.  I am often asked about my personal style.  My aesthetic, like most Fashion enthusiasts, is a combination of my youth and the things that I read and also my understanding of Fashion, both from a business and creative perspective.

As a child, I always had a magazine under my arm and was primarily raised by my lovely grandmothers, who both had an affinity for Fashion and loved to shop.  My maternal grandmother, Sylvia, loved vintage and ornate things and often shopped at garage sales, thrift stores and markets.  From her, I fell in love with vintage and thrift pieces and developed an eye for quality and value.  She also knew how to recreate things and make them in to what you want them to be.  My paternal grandmother, Lovilas, loved high-end and designer things and often shopped at boutiques and we'd often take trips just to go shopping!  From her, I fell in love with designer pieces and developed an understanding of trends, runway and history of designers that I still love some twenty years later, without telling my age.  Grandmother Lovilas visited New York City (where I reside) recently, on one of her aforementioned shopping trips, when one of her nieces directed her towards a sales rack Lovilas replied, " I need a dressy shoe, I don't need to be in the sales section," (HA!) As if sales sections didn't have "dressy shoes."  It was laughable, but not only did she want to see what was new in the store, as oppose to things that are from last season, i.e. the sales rack, she wanted to stay abreast with what trends are emerging and what designers are thinking about doing for seasons to come.  This fall is clearly a plum, dark green, navy, royal blue season in womenswear.

Having such a rich Fashion-filled childhood, it is only natural that I would read an eclectic collection of things. GQ dot com and Style dot com are my go to sites for research and runway reviews (the former for menswear, the latter for womenswear).  The Sartorialist dot com, Hypebeast dot com, Mr Porter dot com are menswear dot coms that I read daily, mostly for pleasure but I always leave more inspired than before I visited. I read Street Etiquette dot com,  High Snobiety dot com, Fashion Toast dot com; for Fashion-heavy news, I frequent Fashionista dot com. I get my inspiration by staying abreast with what's on the market, so I shop frequently, explore new stores, thrift shops, etc, What goes around comes around, 351 West Broadway, Screaming MiMis, 382 LaFayette Street, both in Soho, NYC and Beacon's Closet, 88 North 11th Street, Brooklny, NY.  I also scour the net, often as a hobby, aimlessly searching the online market, one site leading to another, of established and emerging designers, like Givenchy, (my favorite designer) Rag and Bone, A.P.C., and others, just to see what they are designing.

The key is to having good style is to not be trendy but find a look that you're both comfortable with and also feel confident in.  Style is not just clothes, it is an attitude and lifestyle.  I encourage all to find things that they are inspired by and cultivate their own personal stamp on it.  "Good artists copy, great artists steal," said famed artist, Pablo Picasso.  Ultimately, that is what Fashion is all about, a reinvention from a different perspective.