Looklyn: How we dress now … and what it tells us about who we are

A new semi-regular series will hold a mirror up to the borough to ask what we can learn about what we're wearing

Personal style isn’t 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. So Brooklyn Magazine is launching a new semi-regular series called Looklyn that holds a mirror up to the borough to show us how we dress now … and what it tells us about who we are.

Here, photographer Johnny Cirillo introduces us to Janeese Brooks:

Name: Janeese Brooks
Age: 26
Occupation: Piercer
About the outfit: The coat was recently bought at Le Grand Strip in Williamsburg. Shoes are from Rag and Bone and the dress is Pinkyotto. The yellow jacket she found on the floor while visiting Bethnal Green London last year. She made the mask and pendant herself.
About Janeese: “I make these ‘paper paintings’ as a hobby, but a few years ago, my mom pulled the headphones off my head and said ‘I know you want to sing or model or do all these things, but I think this is it for you, these collages.’ She killed herself a year later. And now I guess I’m a bit determined to make her kinder words true. She didn’t have many of them close to the end of her life.”