Arrived home Sunday evening from five days in New York! This was a family trip; I was accompanied by DS, DH, SIL, and tween niece. We stayed in a gorgeous Harlem brownstone in Strivers Row and spent most of our time wandering all over Manhattan, plus one afternoon in Brooklyn. Tween niece was *very* keen on shopping and it was her first time in NYC (but she lives in Montreal, which sets a pretty high bar for style and urban life in general!). We walked a lot, ate a lot, and managed to squeeze in a mix of museums, parks and playgrounds, bookstores, and all manner of clothes shopping/browsing. The weather mostly cooperated, staying above freezing and drizzling a bit but not all-out raining during the day. Below are some "field notes" on what I noticed about street style. I'll do a separate post on packing and WIW.

1. Lots of cloth topcoats (long menswear style, usually neutral plaid but sometimes houndstooth, tweed, herringbone); these seem to have taken the place of both trenches and shackets in the current mild transitional late-winter weather. Tons of puffers too, both short and long. Either black (sometimes matte, sometimes super-shiny) or Rihanna Red. Short and mega poofy, like the Aritzia Super Puff, seems to prevail.

2. More sneakers than boots, both tending toward very chunky. More Docs than Blundstones, and Nike seems to be the predominant sneaker brand these days (last time I was here, 5 years ago, it was Stan Smiths as far as the eye could see). Dad sneaker styles are mainstream. A cream platform Chelsea with black soles and gores seems to be a staple for the wearers of the aforementioned topcoats.

3. Two notable colour trends: 1) Green! Seafoam/pistachio especially. Saw it in everything from scarves to handbags to tracksuits to parkas. It's in shop windows and on the streets. 2) Yellow pants! I kept noticing warm, saturated, dandelion yellow bottoms, often embellished with prints or embroidery. All different fabrics: denim, cord, sweats. Kinda 70s and very cool.

4. As far as denim goes, nothing too far out there. Plenty still rocking skinnies and slim-straights, plus a good array of looser legs and trouser styles. Mostly higher rises. Rarely saw super cropped or super-long. Slit hems were well-represented but definitely not mainstream. Almost everyone wearing a straight or wider bottom was wearing them hemmed just to the top of the foot, so the whole shoe is visible. New full length as Angie refers to it.

5. Accessories-wise, the predominant look seems to still be chunky beanies and big knit scarves. Not seeing much in the way of lighter/more refined accessories (silk scarves, berets, etc), although it was warm enough that many were forgoing accessories altogether. I wish I could comment more astutely on bags, but I'm not a big bag person so they don't often register for me, beyond the fact that everyone in New York seems to be carrying either two-to-three or none at all.

Would be curious to hear from locals if these observations hold water!