Dahl Shawn - Brooklyn street style: the no-rules guide to fashion

Yara Flinn of Nomia in Williamsburg

Jessica Richards, owner of Shen beauty boutique, ties an Herms belt over her Marni skirt in Red Hooks Louis Valentino, Jr., Park and Pier. The mural, Some Walls Are Invisible, is by Groundswell, a youth-based organization dedicated to public art for social change.

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I n 1990 there were rumblings about Brooklyns ascension to global style capital. The media were buzzing about the nascent art and music scenes in Williamsburg. Dank warehouse parties and dark makeshift bars warranted frequent visits to the neighborhood.

Still, if anyone had said, In the twenty-first century, women will pay one hundred dollars for yoga pants with lemon in the name, and a store dedicated to such yoga pants will sell them on Brooklyns Smith Street, it would have seemed absurd. Back then, Smith Street was to be avoided for its dodgy storefronts and illicit activities happening on corners and in back rooms on behalf of drug lords or the mob.

By 2000, Smith Street was coined Brooklyns Restaurant Row, and youd happily go there for a good French meal at the pioneer restaurant Patois. Even devoted Manhattanites started to brave the F or L subway lines to the outer borough for dinner out in Brooklynsomething that was still all a new adventure, with maybe the exception of a historic visit to Williamsburgs Peter Luger Steakhouse or Lundys seafood restaurant in Sheepshead Bay.

A Dtacher designer Mona Kowalska and her daughter, Claire Linn, share a moment on their Clinton Hill block. Kowalska, a master of the layered look, wears a vintage fur coat over an A Dtacher front-tie cotton dress, RRL jeans, and Isabel Marant suede heels. Linn, a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, wears her own vintage finds with A Dtacher leggings.

Who knew that so many of us reside, in our minds eye, in some hipper-than-hip outpost of Brooklyn?

Anna Wintour,Vogue

Brooklyns food revolution had yet to catch fire. Once it did, the boroughs gastronomic fanaticism captured the attention of trendsetters who hadnt already converted to the church/synagogue of Brooklyn via Spike Lee, Erykah Badu, Paul Auster, or the Beastie Boys. Ultimately, some combination of art, music, food, and cheap rent (the siren song for artists, musicians, and chefs) propelled Brooklyn to the center of the fashionable world, at least in the minds eye, as Anna Wintour declared.

Based on the astronomical coffee and real estate prices, new boutiques and boutique hotels, the sound of jackhammers ricocheting across the borough, and the three-Michelin-starred Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare, we can say that the boroughs star is still rising. People the world over look to Brooklyn as a beacon of design, art, pop culture, and fashion. This is not your grandmothers Brooklyn, however, or even the dustier, more economical Brooklyn of a decade ago.

We say this as lifelong New Yorkers. Our writer, Anya, a third-generation Brooklynite and cultural reporter, has watched the Brooklyn phenomenon happen from Brooklyn itself. During the 1980s, her mother owned two vintage clothing stores on Park Slopes Seventh Avenue. Our designer and project editor, Shawn, has been working on photography, fashion, and style books for almost as long as the twenty-five years she has lived in New York. An excellent seamstress, she often makes her own clothes. Fashion, beauty, and portrait photographer Sioux Nesi lives on Brooklyns Smith Street and has photographed many iconic women, including Oprah Winfrey, Marianne Faithfull, and Tracee Ellis Ross. Siouxs work appears in magazines and advertising campaigns worldwide.

In creating Brooklyn Street Style, we wanted to explore how Brooklyn came to be so influential to fashion and style and portray it with authenticity. The center of alternative-youth culture is no longer Williamsburg, which instead is now Brooklyns version of a luxury district with swanky shops, restaurants, and the boutique Wythe Hotel. That energy and edgy fashion have pushed their nexus south and east to Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Crown Heights. At the same time, the adjacent neighborhoods of Brownsville and East New York are still among the poorest areas of the city, despite the influx of capital just a few miles away. Brooklyn is a complex living place.

A sense of confidence grows on a person when theyre living in Brooklyn. It just happens, because you see other people wearing what they want to wear boldly, just blatantly expressing themselves. And you think to yourself, Why not? Why cant I dress in my own version of that boldness?

Eniola Dawodu,designer

Fearless dressing is a sign of Brooklyn pride. Everyday People events organizer Saada Ahmed perfects a vivid yellow Zara suit that she had tailored. Ahmed was photographed at the South African restaurant Madiba, which has been a Fort Greene mainstay for nearly twenty years.

Brooklyn is a great canvas for self-expression.

April Hughes,stylist

The layered, eclectic, and cultural nature of Brooklyn is what makes it interesting and nurtures innovation. We chose the women in these pagesamong them a boxer, butcher, DJ, designer, florist, and boutique ownerfor how they embody Brooklyn. We looked to them to explain what Brooklyn style is about. And guess what? These chicest, hippest, coolest of women say that anyone can create their own Brooklyn style from any zip code. Brooklyn style is an acceptance of yourself and the daring to be and wear whatever that may be, independent of what is currently considered fashionable. The most stylish women of Brooklyn are from different countries and neighborhoods. They dont wear the same thing or look the same way. Their most common trait is that they are individualistic, comfortable in their own shoes (or sneakers, or boots, or wedges...). With that in mind, who doesnt want to be very Brooklyn, regardless of where youre at?

Dossier Journalcreative director and photographer Skye Parrott wears mid-waist flared Marc Jacobs jeans. The low-rise skinny cut was fashions favorite for several years, but in true Brooklyn spirit Parrott mixes it up.