27 10 / 2011
NYC Style or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Penn Station
New York can be daunting to the traveler or transplant with low style-self-esteem. It is a notoriously fashionable place, home to very celebrated fashion weeks, Fifth Avenue, SoHo, a few seasons of Top Model, a handful of H&Ms, and even an American Eagle in Times Square. People from all over the world come to New York to shop at the original Macy’s, the original Saks, and any of our many Forever 21s. Well-coiffed rail thin women tottering about in their sky high Manolos alongside their delicately chiseled male counterparts might make you think you’re never fully dressed without a paper sack over your face. But take heart! There’s a place where everyone can feel like the most beautiful person in all Manhattan.
Two words: Penn Station.
Yes! Nestled between Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, Penn Station is a smorgasbord of hastily made business decisions, transients, ill-advised tourists, convention goers, and people who begrudgingly work in the area. You know who won’t judge you for pairing dirty sneakers with your rumpled suit? The many Children International and Greenpeace drones milling about 34th street! Or the habitually striking Verizon employees! Or the phalanx of caribbean men in Harold Square trying to shuffle you onto a Greyline bus tour of the top of the Empire State Building! The point is: people in corporate issued tee-shirts don’t care what you’re wearing!
Maybe that still isn’t enough for you. Maybe you want to adopt a new look, reinvent yourself. You can do that, too! Shop for wares you can only find in NYC at any of the neighborhood’s many boutiques such as Old Navy, Foot Locker, Sketchers, Gap, Victoria’s Secret, and famed New York surf establishment Billabong. And after you’ve shopped yourself silly, pop in for a frozen-yogurt/cupcake/iced-coffee/sushi/pizza/manicure/pedicure/eyebrow-threading/iphone-case at any of the delis in the neighborhood.
Still feeling down in the frumps about your style? You just had a $1 slice while you had your eyebrows shaped for $6.24 while sporting your sick new shape-ups - what more do you need? Well, if you’re in need of one last boost, just take a walk and feast your eyes on the double-wide asses (tourist and local, alike!) traipsing down the street! Sure, you’ll see people who look better than you, but I promise you are not the weirdest trainwreck on that block. And no one is terrible looking in an ironic way. Everyone is genuinely not giving a shit. Join them, won’t you?
