10 Essentials: Susan

Female, Los Angeles, 28

All my life, I’ve had the pleasure of enchanting men who are eternally in casual clothing: engineers, graphic designers, grad students, and once – a wannabe rapper. Clearly, my charm doesn’t work on William Morris agents, investment bankers, or anyone with considerable assets. I suppose I’m okay with this. But what I’m not okay with — is men who think that dressing casually means dressing carelessly in whatever is most worn-in and within reach of his bed in the morning. So, in order to aid those hard working handsome boys in dressing well enough to get a girl like me – I’d like to provide my list of 10 casual essentials:

Editors’ Picks: Sneaks

We love ourselves a good pair of Chuck Taylors, but sometimes they can be just a little too safe, to say nothing of everyone and their mother having a pair.  To break away from the herd, here are some options to consider that are not only stylish and rooted in the [...]

Street Style: Blue Suede Shoes

Cobalt blue shoes aren’t easy for anyone to pull off. Hamish Bowles (Vogue Editor) manages to tie the look together with his matching sweater and shirt, but it’s actually not necessary to be all matchy-matchy. One way to spunk up a look and show off some sartorial style is to throw in a random element. In this case it was the shoes, but it could be anything from a brightly colored sweater to patterned plaid pants. Just make sure to keep the other elements of your outfit simple so that there’s not too much going on.

Editors’ Picks: Fall Footwear

Gettin’ a little bit colder. Everywhere except L.A., of course, where fall means hot, dry Santa Ana winds and three more months of everyone in awful flip-flops. For the rest of the country, it’s time to dust off the light jackets, flannel, and corduroy, and that means we need more season-appropriate footwear. Below are four solid options for tailgating, raking leaves, and trick-or-treating.

Easy Style Points: Casual Shoes

The problem with 99% of running shoes is that they are so blinged out with technology and space foam and glo-sticks and nano-fibers that they might as well be from the future. As timeless looks tend to be a little more stylish, shoes from 2016 don’t quite fit the bill. A good rule of thumb, I think, is that if you could actually use a shoe for some kind of athletic training or competition, it is probably best left to the track or gym. Instead, try one of the following upgrades: