[Photos and Text Ari Seth Cohen]

Advanced Style runs the gamut from eccentric to chic. I always try and capture people with a unique perspective on personal style and talk to them about how aging has influenced and affected their style. The most usual response is that with age they have grown comfortable with who they are and are free to express themselves. This woman from St. Tropez came to the New Museum in this brilliant orange neoprene suit she purchased in France from designer Elizabeth de Senneville. She told me that she was surprised by all the attention she was receiving from people and showed me a text that she had sent to her designer friend saying that Americans were loving her outfit! She makes a nontraditional material look classic and elegant.

I have seen Bill Boiz around town and have always admired his amazing coordinated style.I was so happy to run into him in Union Square and get the opportunity to chat and take a few photos He is a fashion week staple and the New York Times called him A “New York Fashion Icon” in an article which you can read an excerpt from below:

“To those who stop to chat with Prince Williams, out of curiosity, or admiration for his style, the narrative is always the same: The cane comes from the Ivory Coast, where his father was born, the son of an African king. His love of fashion came from his father, a diplomat in Paris who impressed upon his son the importance of making an elegant first impression. Age 50-something, he’s a longtime designer for private customers, now working on his first collection.
Prince Williams’s business card names him as Bill Boiz, and has a ’30s-style illustration of a man in coat and tails; the business, it reads, is located in Suite 329 at an address in Times Square.”

Check out the full article HERE.

[Photos Ari Seth Cohen/Text Maayan Zilberman]

Ari burned three meals worth of calories running after this woman to interrupt her afternoon power-walk. The mad rush was well worth the effort, because when we finally caught up with her on the Upper West Side, she was an absolute delight and even more colorful than we realized at first glance.
Elaine, who is known amongst her friends as “Jazzy”, is originally from Montreal (where she was known as “Pepper”, for the condiments she’d put on Poutine). She moved to New York City to enroll at The New School, we’re guessing for DRAMA. This remains a mystery since we focused our chat on more important matters, such as color and where to find the best sandals.
When I asked Jazzy about her layers, she was especially excited to tell me about her romper, a staple in her wardrobe. “I always wear one-pieces. They’re all I wear.” Since Jazzy has lived everywhere from Los Angeles to Florida to Massachusetts, she has done her fair share of dressing for different climates, and prefers light and airy items like this one and the ivory leather studded sandals she’s wearing today.
My favorite thing about Jazzy’s look is her choice of hair color/lipstick/eyeglasses. She says her daughter helps with coloring her closely cropped cut to neon yellow, and her eyeglasses are “just $8 on St Mark’s Place, but the prescriptions cost a fortune!”

I met Maryann at The New Museum and we made a date for me to come visit her home to take some more photos. She is a wonderful self taught artist, who really started concentrating on her craft in the last few years after selling her business. Maryann, like many other people feature makes beautiful things and dresses up because it lifts her spirit and makes her happy. I will post some more pictures of Maryann and her story in a later post!

I was in California visiting my family over the weekend when I ran into this dashing gentleman in Laguna Beach. It was my mom who first spotted his elegant and dapper style amongst the casual beachwear and told me to run up and ask for his photo. She has a great eye for Advanced Style!