Myth New York: City of fashion freaks - trip

If you want to know what the fashion city of New York is all about, ask a real New Yorker. Iris Apfel once said in an interview: “I’m not a pastel guy! Pastel colors make me nervous.” Apple would be called a fashionista if the term didn’t sound like 16-year-old bloggers with designer bags decorated with labels. Apple is 95 years old, born in Queens, and a style icon – obviously not the Twinset-bearing variety. A few years ago the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated its own exhibition to her and in 2014 “Iris” appeared, a documentary about the woman with the gray pixie cut and the oversized, colorful glasses.

Apple symbolizes that fashion style that is associated with New York and is in principle self-explanatory. If Berlin is the city of alternative coolness, Milan and Paris stand for the basic fashion virtues (glamor, elegance, exclusivity), New York is: in your face. At least at first Look.

Iris apple — Iris Apfel, style icon, formative.

(Photo: AP)

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Here the nice barista wears her long hair dyed acid green in her favorite café and a young man with red lipstick and black glitter nail polish is sitting in the subway. But what the astonished tourist might overlook: He is probably the only one who tries hard to watch without being caught staring. (Apart from other holidaymakers.) Because New York is actually primarily a city that is fashionably open-minded – not just for extremes.

A friend said at lunch the other day: In New York, he feels fashionable for the first time.

He often wears jeans and checked flannel shirts, however the combination doesn’t scream “Williamsburg hipster!” but simply says: “Cincinnati, Ohio” When he wasn’t living in New York, he often had the feeling that he wasn’t dressing cool enough, the friend said. It’s perfectly okay to be a nerd here.

Despite all the diversity, there is something that every New Yorker has in their closet, often multiple: sneakers. These are essential in a city where the subway is about as reliable as the weather in April. Who with the Sex-and-the-City– The cliché in my head comes to New York that the women here generally stumble through the city in Manolo Blahnik sandals and wave to the taxi with a rhinestone clutch, is disappointed. If the New Yorker has to walk more than two blocks, she slips into the flat shoes that she always has to hand in her spacious handbag.

So is New York a city where everything can, but nothing has to be?

“The city that never sleeps”, “metropolis of singles”, “priceless” – travelers have many images in mind when they visit New York City. But what is it about the clichés? In the “Mythos New York” series, our newly arrived correspondent does the – quite subjective – reality check.

Pssst, New York is sleeping

New York ist angeblich die Stadt, die niemals ruht. Warum tanzen hier dann nachts keine Menschen unter Straßenlaternen?
Wohnen in New York: Verbrühungsgefahr und Lustbelästigung

Die hochmoderne Skyline vermittelt das falsche Bild. Wenn es ums Wohnen geht, ist in New York vieles (schlecht) improvisiert.
“Hast du geguckt, ob Geldbeutel und Handy noch da sind?”

Wer nach New York reist, wird vor Gangstern in düsteren Vierteln oder zumindest vor dreisten Taschendieben gewarnt. Doch die Stadt ist sicherer als gedacht – und charmanter.
In New York ist es okay, ein modischer Nerd zu sein

Als Sonderlinge outen sich nur Besucher, denen beim Anblick grüner Haare und roter Männerlippen der Mund offen stehen bleibt.
“Mal schauen” ist eine Antwort, die in New York nicht gilt

Job, Privatleben, Fitness – der New Yorker Workaholic arbeitet vor allem an einem: sich selbst. Das kann für Besucher inspirierend sein. Oder schmerzhaft. Aus der Serie “Mythos New York”.
Da kann ich mir ja gleich mit einer Flasche Wein die Haare waschen

Das mag sich der New-York-Besucher beim Anblick der hiesigen Shampoo-Preise denken. Er liegt allerdings falsch, wie diese Folge der Serie “Mythos New York” zeigt – auch Alkohol ist zum Abstinentwerden teuer.
New York, du kannst so spießig sein

New York ist die Stadt der Singles und des freien Sex. Heißt es zumindest. Das erste Big-Apple-Klischee im Realitätscheck unserer neuen Serie.