Looklyn: Meet Audrey, comfortable in the unknown

In this installment of our street-style series, we meet a college student who is not sure where she's going—and is fine with it

By Johnny Cirillo

Street style isn’t necessarily the same thing as “fashion.” It’s … more personal. It’s rooted in self, an outward expression of attitude, vibe, swag, panache, aspiration, time and place. In this semi-regular series called Looklyn, we hold a mirror up to the borough to show us how we dress now … and what it tells us about who we are.

Photo by Johnny Cirillo

Here, photographer Johnny Cirillo introduces us to Audrey, who is in the unknown and heading somewhere yet to be determined. Read more about her below.

Name: Audrey

How you identify: I’m not sure if you’re asking about pronouns or something else but I’ll do my best: I identify as female, my pronouns are she, her, hers. I am biracial, the daughter of an artist and energy healer, raised in an illegally converted loft in Williamsburg. My entire childhood has been watching my neighborhood evolve.

Occupation: Currently identifying as a college student but in all honesty, I’m in the unknown. I wanted to create some distance for myself from the city, but there’s loss when leaving home.

Where are you heading?: Not yet determined.

Fashion inspo: Those that carry the belief that style isn’t limited to certain people and those who challenge barriers that never needed to be created.

About the fit: The entire outfit was thrifted.

The belt I got from an L Train Vintage in Brooklyn.

The top is a vintage children’s shirt/sweater that I got from 9 to 5 Vintage in Williamsburg. I tried it on out of curiosity and it was so small I needed assistance with lifting it over my head to take it off. I took the piece’s sleeves off and cut apart a thrifted dress that didn’t fit right. I don’t have much experience with sewing and I did the whole thing by hand. I wanted to go for a patchy style and I’m really proud of how it turned out. I sewed on all the buttons and used excess fabric from another part of the shirt to [patch] the cut down the neck. At the end I had a little blue fabric left and the perfect button to make a cute pocket.

I got the pants and shoes from 9 to 5 Vintage as well, one of my favorite people in this world owns the store with his husband and every time I work/hangout there I always seem to come home with even more pieces.

About me: I’m a person.

Thoughts on life: Listen as much as you speak and don’t normalize speaking less just to keep others comfortable. Staying in a toxic environment and or system shouldn’t make you content when there’s so much more out there that doesn’t come at the expense of others. Demand better for those out there and yourself. No one is “deserving” of basic living, it should be a given.