As you know I am the type who makes extensive preparations before leaving for any destination. Even for New York, I intended to take a whole battery of great outfits, but still found myself staring at an empty suitcase the night before departure. The idea that I had to look good in a city where Anna Wintour walks on the left and Miroslava Duma on the right made me completely freeze up and I had no idea where to start. Luckily, there was May-Britt who managed to reassure me completely by saying, “oh, you’re never going to win against those types, so just wear something you feel good in,” and she was absolutely right. No one is better dressed than Chiara Ferragni, who is sponsored from earring to sock by the most expensive brands. No one gets more attention than Leandra Medine, who is dropped off right in front of the door with a driver and spends most of the day in a heated car. But now here comes the thing. On Saturday, all the editors and I walk onto the square in front of Lincoln Center to go to the Lacoste show, armed with cameras to capture some nice trends for you. I am looking around unsuspectingly in a pretty nice but certainly not very special outfit when someone asks, “excuse me, can I take your picture?” Hesitantly, I say yes, and before I know it, there is a modest hedge of photographers around me. This scene goes on for quite a while, whether I want to walk a bit, look left, look right, laugh, not laugh, leg back, leg forward – I didn’t know what hit me. No idea where all those photos ended up, but at least I found this myself again and I secretly think that’s pretty cool.

Also funny: all those completely hysterically DRESSED PARADISE BIRDS that you see in all the street style photos often don’t even have invites for a show

You know what’s also funny, all those completely hysterically dressed paradise birds that you see in all the street style photos, they don’t get in 9 out of 10 times at a show. They come all decked out walking up that square in front of Lincoln Center, spinning around, looking very bored and blasé when someone takes a picture of them and act as if they are super busy with being super busy. But when push comes to shove, they turn around and leave again because they don’t have invites for a show. I spoke to a girl who was standing there with bare legs, chattering her teeth, wandering around Lincoln Center for hours and really came there to do nothing else than get photographed. I don’t quite understand why that is your goal in life but whatever makes you happy.

To make this explorer a bit more explorer-ish, here are some tips to get as many photographers around you as possible. I have looked around me well, viewed a hundred thousand street style blogs, and can thus conclude the following:

• Who doesn’t want to be missed should pull as much as possible over each other. Don’t think in pants + sweater + jacket but think in pants + skirt + shirt + blouse + sweater + cardigan + jacket + scarf + hat. Lots of layers are more interesting to be photographed because then more happens in the picture.
• Do like the true paradise bird and don’t think in gray + black but think in fuchsia pink on lime green. Throw a lot of colors together, wear big sunglasses and shoes with a platform sole of 38 centimeters. Glitter, glimmer, feathers, and sequins – nothing is too crazy and just throw the whole thing over yourself with this as a result. You can bet you’ll be photographed (and laughed at by me, but oh well, nitpicker).
• Taking weather conditions into account is something trivial for people who don’t want to be photographed. At the beginning of this trip, I was frantically looking for the secret of bare legs in the snow but have since figured it out. There is no secret. It’s total pretentiousness and that whole ‘dedication to your outfit’ sounds nice but is of course pure nonsense. Because it’s really not justifiable that it’s freezing 8 degrees, there’s half a meter of snow, and you go out in a mini skirt and open shoes. But, you will be photographed so you know what you have to do.