BOYS Boys here are really hairy lately. A good rule of thumb is shave on Monday and let it grow until Saturday, when it will be perfect. We’re also beginning to see long, chin-length locks a lot more often. Also still hanging on, but probably on the way out soon, are old men’s hats like fedoras, trilbies, and bee-bops. Jeans are mostly dark, raw denim and skinny. Some guys like them so skinny that they’ve started buying girls’ denim. For tops, all-over prints are huge. You’ll see it on everything from hoodies to shoes, jackets, and hats. Guys also tend to wear shirts that fit them now as opposed to the XXXL tees of yore. Converse are as eternal and inevitable as the tides. You still pretty much only see Chucks and Dunks on the Lower East Side. In terms of New York boy accessories, those Palestinian shemaghs, or just any obnoxiously large scarf, are still hanging on by a thread (har har har).

GIRLS If you’re a girl in New York and you don’t have bangs, you’re kind of in trouble. Hair is either really long and tousled like you just got out of bed, à la Jane Birkin, or cut in a short, 1920s flapper style. But these cuts are almost always paired with straight-across blunt-cut bangs. The typical party dress has gone out of style here. Now you’ve got t-shirts and peasant dresses. They’re long, flowy, and somewhat shapeless. It was recently decided that workout gear can and shall be worn at all times of the day. Girls wear leggings with everything: Shorts, dresses, skirts—even alone as pants. Ankle boots are in and, surprisingly, so are platforms. Big bags are excellent for carrying an extra pair of shoes and your sweater. When it comes to jewelry, people pretty much pile as much on as they can. Matching is no longer an issue. Long chains are huge now.

BOYS The new-rave day-glo thing that the Klaxons invented is kind of dying out because everybody else in the world is copying it. Instead, guys have started to wear dark browns and blacks and grays but they’re gaying it up with daring things like shorts and pink socks and scarves. Cardigans, both vintage 50s-style and big, knitted-by-your-mom-style, are really in. So are slip-on shoes from Merc and Trickers brogues. People are starting to embrace the Aquascutum label as a kind of thinking thug’s Burberry, while grime kids are all over black Stone Island jackets. Skinny white or black jeans are pretty much essential for everybody and even rap fans here are starting to curb the wideness of their trousers. Guys in bands are wearing these crazily colored shoes with gold trimming that you buy in the African gentlemen’s boutiques. Jamie Reynolds from Klaxons (them again) just ordered a pair with tiny mirrors all over them.

GIRLS Ecstasy and ketamine are really big again because London coke is so bad and expensive. This means girls are starting to wear white oversize Katherine Hamnett shirts that say “Love” in big bold black print, accessorised with eight-hole Dr. Martens and leggings. You can mix this with a black printed hoodie as well. Dungarees, short shorts, baby-doll dresses, oversize bags, and tailored pants “north of the ankle” are also coming in thick and fast. Other big looks include the Horrors-influenced neo-goth vibe that makes girls dress like Wednesday Addams and Lily Allen’s vintage “chav” look, which consists of Nike Air Max 90s teamed with nice coats. Hair-wise, girls are going for the just-got-out-of-bed-after-falling-asleep-with-a-load-of-hair-mousse-dissolving-into-my-scalp look or that regular straight hair that all the girls in American Apparel ads have. The new goths dye it black.

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