Hmm... an expensive French restaurant? I don't suppose that quite counts as "geographically"!

This has me thinking of *when* I feel I look my best - autumn! Fall colors are my jam (and comfort zone!). Olive, burgundy, navy... love em.

I've been asked for directions like I'm a local in a lot of places - maybe I just look friendly and unoffensive!

I'm not sure what my answer would be. SF has gone too self ironically hipster for me to totally fit in, and Silicon Valley is so anti fashion and slightly misogynistic in dress standards. I always like visiting Chicago in the winter - everyone wears such great coats and scarves. Definitely not SoCal - I can't maintain that level of immaculate but not looking like it.

Read the article- how great! I guess for us NZ is too small for there to be that big a difference, although it is said that in the capital Wellington they wear even more black and when visiting there I think it's true. Also there is a cool, funky vibe in our most Southern city Dunedin which goes with their music, the "Dunedin sound". I guess as an Aucklander born and bred and mostly having lived here, I'm best here. But do prefer the West Coast of the US to the East when travelling, we have quite a cultural affinity with California here. Surfing, the Beach Boys...when I visit Australia I'm really happy in Queensland for the beach culture but don't like the Gold Coast fashion, it's too showy, lots of very young women teetering about in high heels and teeny dresses flashing lots of flesh! And now I sound like my strict Presbyterian mother, 18 years dead!

I always get pegged as a local in mountain towns (South Lake Tahoe and the like). DH and I met while backpacking. So I'm going to hazard a guess that I look better outdoors. Cities? Pfft.

I do not like winter here, in Toronto. I dislike the winter heavy coats and boots and never feel well dressed during winter months. I feel great in any place I've been in Western Europe, in a big city or a small village on the Mediterranean coast. I haven't been to many places in US, will go NY in May, so we shall see.

I got asked for directions in St Paul, MN, so I guess I look like a Midwesterner! I live in the desert, but feel right at home at Lake Tahoe, both in summer and winter. My favorite season there is fall.

Interesting read--thanks for sharing the article! I can't say I'd be able to identify any of what she is writing about. I mean, if I saw the writer, I don't know that I would see how she looks like New York and not San Francisco, especially with the "look in her eyes" bit. So, I am not sure where I would look most at home. I wish it were Manhattan. New York is my favorite city. I love living in Seattle, and perhaps I look like I belong here; who knows?

That's a tough question. I always feel right at home in small college towns, particularly Ann Arbor and Burlington. There's plenty to do, but they are not formal, and jeans rule, or at least are very acceptable. I can still wear dresses when the weather warms up. I love the culture and variety of people, and the liberal atmosphere. I could see myself enjoying some warmer college towns also, but not anything too far south. I would consider California, I lived in Claremont for a year and was happy, but my co-workers were very formal with their style, I was out of my element. I prefer a more casual atmosphere, or at least a more casual work place.

I wonder if my city might be Heidelberg, Germany. I felt like I looked good there, and like I fit in, when I lived there in the early 90s. I took to the styles that were being sold and worn there, and occasionally I'd get asked for directions. ("Keine Ahnung"--no idea--is a good response to know for such situations.) The fact that I got engaged there to my amazingly wonderful DH could be taken as some evidence that I looked my best there, too.

If we go by the standard of "being asked for directions by a native of the place when you are actually a tourist," it seems I look right at home in Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Boston, Seattle, London, Manchester, Nice, Antwerp, Dusseldorf, Berne, Zurich, and even (once) Milan. I'm sure I'd also get asked in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam and a host of other places that I haven't been (yet).

It has nothing to do with a chameleon fashion sense. I just look non-threatening and also, usually, neat and presentable.

I think I look most "at home" in Toronto, which makes sense -- it's where I was born and where I lived in young adulthood and it's the place where I most intimately know the unspoken rules and codes. I know when I'll want heeled booties and when I'll want the Blundstones; I know when jeans will be right and when I'll want something dressier. I blend in, even when I wear a red coat while most others are wearing black.

But I feel best in any urban centre where I've brought some of my favourite and most current, fashionable clothing -- preferably one where the environmental norm is a bit dressier than my current city's, and where the climate is more temperate.

Oh! I can totally see you in Germany, Firecracker!

Hmm, maybe the moon? I'd never have to worry about losing a few pounds or my creaky knees when I get up from sitting position. High heels would be a breeze!

Assuming I'm stuck with being earthbound, I'd pick a Danish suburb just outside of Copenhagen. No one would ever think of me as a Scandinavian goddess, but the spirit of the women in that environment just seems like a coming home to me. I'd ride my bike wearing regular clothes instead putting on "bike gear". I'd let my hair curl and wear just a touch of makeup to polish me up a bit. No one would give me, a senior lady, a second glance if I chose to wear sensible footwear so I could walk for 10k to visit a friend. I'd feel free to wear pants everywhere if I so chose, but could opt for a skirt and sandals in the summer without any "wow, why are dressed up?" comments. And, best of all, no one would think it the least strange if I chose to wear a bikini (at 68!) at our summer cottage.

Yup, this dark-haired, short legged Canadian from Middle European ancestry has an inner soul of blonde Nordic Amazon.

This is a fabulous question with fabulous answers so far. I don't feel my best in extreme weather , too cold or too hot, and I do countryside chic very badly.
I feel very at home in Lisbon and Toronto and generally I feel my best in cities.
Also beach side towns in the summer.

These are great answers. So fun to read.

City of Berkeley, CA for me. DH took me there and I felt so at home both clothing-wise, intellectually and emotionally. It was like being home in Queensland.
Great question. Thanks so much for posing it.