There are places in the world where girls have more confidence to wear outrageous but fashionable clothes, where boys don’t wear Sperry’s and brightly colored shorts every day, and where young kids know more about clothes than they do about their favorite TV shows.
These places are known as the fashion capitals of the world: London, Milan, New York City and Paris.
Having been to two of the four capitals, New York City and Paris, I’ve been trying to decide which city is the most “fashionable fashion capital.”
Paris has a more elegant feel to it. While walking down the streets of the Champs L’Élysées, I couldn’t help but feeling like I was in an Audrey Hepburn movie. The old buildings made me want to put on a Chanel dress or an Yves Saint Laurent blouse.
New York City, on the other hand, has a more rustic and cultural feel to it. Yes, the Upper East Side and 5th Avenue do have almost the same feel to it as Paris does, but the rest of Manhattan is completely different.
SoHo gets the most fashion recognition for its little boutiques and original ensembles seen on the streets. Utilitarian boots and dark wash jeans combine with layered shirts and sweaters to make a well-planned outfit look effortless.
Even though it’s infamously known for fakes, cheating and bargaining, China Town is actually one of my favorite places to go when I visit New York City.
Yes, I’ll admit I used to buy the fake Juicy Couture and Prada purses when I was 11, but I’m past that stage now. The bad quality of the purses just weren’t worth the cheap prices.
Now, I go for the jewelry. When I went to the city last April with my friend for our 16th birthdays, we decided to walk to China Town despite the prediction for bad weather. It started pouring rain right when we got there, but that didn’t stop us.
We found some cute earrings—the ones I liked were little gold starfish with gold rhinestones—and just had to have them.
The price of the earrings was $10, and I thought that was way too much considering the vendors probably bought them for $3. I pulled $5 out of my wallet, put it in my pocket, and walked up to the lady selling the earrings.
I told her my dad only gave me $5 for earrings, and that I really liked the starfish. Not surprisingly, because everyone bargains like that in China Town, she let me buy them with my $5.
With the wide variety of expensive Marc Jacobs earrings to ones that can be bought for $5 in China Town, I think New York City is the best place for good quality items and cheap, but cute accessories.
And maybe it’s just because I’ve been to New York City coutnless times or because it has more “American” style, but I personally think New York City should be the true fashion capital of the world. It just has a wider variety of personal style.
