My Sister's Closet, St. Paul

You know how some cool girls make the transition to cool woman, and you're still kind of awestruck by the way looking good comes so easily to them? Example A, above. The rolled jeans, rockabilly boots, mixed plaids on top. I commented on her D&G bag and she said it was a gift from her 20-year-old daughter. Did I mention, I was feeling a little schlubby? She also carried off the perfect mix of gamine/rocker with her layered 'do. Cool cool Steve McQueen cool.

Trader Joe's St. Paul

Only 1% to 2% of the world's population has red hair, so when I find one wearing dreds and a swaggery military coat, I out with the camera. She's been working the dreds for about a year. I'm a sucker for extremes, and her coat went there -- very black, very long and exaggeratedly martial, the point made by white stitching. Her Hmong bag is nice and graphic, and the evil eye/keychain ornament/piece of flare looks like something Genghis Khan's mother would have given him as a baby.

Tina's new glasses, Denver, CO

Madge, daaaarling.



The shape, the color, so modern and fun. Oh yeah, and her glasses are nice too.

blue on blue, Grand Ave.

Blue pinstriped jacket, shades of blue polo, blue bag, blue jeans. He's a student at the U and said he just rolled out and put this on.

Microcenter, St. Louis Park

This proves a street style blogger should always be prepared. Actually a street style blogger should be a tad more computer savvy and be able to do more than press the On button and be dumbfounded when nothing happens. But I digress. Following aforementioned incident, I schlepped in to the help desk at the Microcenter which is very like the emergency room at a hospital -- you get in line and wait your turn with lots of other sad and desperate people in various states of brokenness. You want to exude sympathy for fellow sufferers but you don't want to stare for heaven's sake. But it's a small room with zero privacy. What would you do? Her funky granny boots had a wooden sole + heel and oversized grommets, and the green knee-highs and brown tights just sung with the William Morris-inspired print of her skirt. Naturally I broke six kinds of privacy codes by speaking and then outing with the camera -- beyond the pale. I did have the delicacy to focus on her boots which she got "next door" which I think is Burlington Coat Factory. P.S. The Microcenter IT person turned my computer on and it worked flawlessly. I'm pretty sure I'm not welcome at the Microcenter help desk ever again.

Casket Arts Building, NE Minneapolis

Apparently anarchists go to open studios on pleasant Saturday afternoons and try to score free cheese and wine whilst appearing to ponder the simple honest beauty of hand-thrown pottery. Refill the can o' whoop-ass, as it were. Anyhoo, this dangerous-looking dude was nice as could be and gave me a guided tour of his DIY pimped out jean vest and biker jacket. One caveat -- he's from New York so flare like this may not be available in our fair Cities. The strip o' lying leopard on the storm flap of the jacket and shoring up the pocket of the vest is kind of his trademark -- he glued 'em on. He cut off the sleeves of the black denim jacket to make a vest, revealing greater leather real estate. He safety pinned a Guinness spoon on the sleeve to facilitate a black and tan whenever the mood struck. The 1984 pin on the lapel is a nod to George Orwell. The Old Style patch that I took as nostalgia was a novelty to his East Coast sensibilities. I have no idea what LAMF stands for and didn't ask, and the pinned on shirt tail is both a seat cover and a mud flap. My mug shot photo styling reminded him of something but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Casket Arts Building, NE Minneapolis

How many children would you sell for this coat? A trick question of course, because there's no telling if the coat would fit. I will tell you this, it's a genuine Custo and I highly recommend clicking on the photo to fully appreciate the Byzantine level of detail, from faux fur piping to awesome metal buttons on the Napoleon-esque lapels. And while you're up close and personal, drink in her amazing lariat necklace-of-curiosities. The reason accoutrements of this intensity are not owning her is that she is a person of considerable interest, Custo or no. She's Spanish, she recently moved here from Singapore and she's a painter with a studio in the Casket Arts Building. Through her painting, via her sunny disposition and amazing sartorial expression, the world is a more beautiful place.

Parkway Theatre, Minneapolis

True, she chopped off this 80s peplum dress to make a more updated look (get it, up-dated?) which is fun, but what attracted me is her undeniably 1920s screen star looks. Clara Bow anyone? Interesting how a person can just exude an era without trying.

Maplewood Cub, the dairy case

There is no expiration date on style, and that's imminently clear. She thought I was a fool but played along graciously -- I feel like in her younger days, she would have told me what to do with my camera. Top to bottom perfection -- a friend made the hat, her scarf she "barely got on," the marvelous graphic houndstooth coat she loves so much she's going to have relined, pop of red skirt and she finishes up with alligator print driving mocs. Maybe it was the jaunty hat or the bold mix of paisley, houndstooth and red, but it was especially apparent in the sweatshirt-and-jean (swean) crowd at Cub, here is a person who has never stopped caring about what she put on in the morning. And that's what I noticed.

Lake Street Savers

I think she's mid-blink but still, with that ottoman in the background, doesn't she just look like Laura Petrie (ok young friends, that's Mary Tyler Moore in the old Dick VanDyke Show)? She punched up her New Rochelle perkiness with that ethnic bag.



Super sharp even for Savers, the textures of the plaid scarf, cable sweater and tweed jacket are just sublime. Right on indeed.

Whole Foods, St. Paul

What's relevant here is that she is wearing shorts on November 7th in St. Paul. She nailed the prevailing zeitgeist by simulcasting summer shorts, fall plaid high tops and festive holiday knee socks. Nice.

Macalester College, St. Paul

She got the eye-catching scarf in a DC thrift shop because she had no idea it could be so cold there in July. She is not the only Twin Citian relishing the schadenfreude.

the dude abides, Menard's, Maplewood

This doesn't just happen friends. The dude got the purple vest back in the 70s and pimped it out a bit with the black fringe. The feathered cowboy hat rocks, and his freak flag is nothing less than spectacular. The belt buckle says Vikings but this is just one heckuva versatile outfit because you can wear it to rock concerts "and shit" too. Believe it or not he has about five pairs of pants just like this at home. He punched holes along the side seam and did a pseudo-buckskin thing with purple leather. But he didn't stop there -- he cut out and inserted the red,white and blue on both legs to "support the troops and the Olympics and stuff." I encourage you to click away on this photo to fully appreciate the detail and the thought the dude put into this look, just to go to Menard's. I know I did.

Bloomington Savers

This woman was the class of Savers by a factor of at least seven, so I had to take her picture. I would have preferred to get down on my hands and knees and get personal with her shiny stilettos with a nonfunctional buckle around the heel that sort of meant business. But since I was in an advanced state of decay (fresh off a trail run) and she already, very reasonably, had grievous doubts about my being, my mental state, my intents, I thought best not to push it. Her shoes are by Guess, which saddens me a little. As if. An individual who reeks like three-day-old fish, has dried spit on her face and is in all respects a danger to the public has no business putting on airs.