Right Now: Casual Looks and Converse Kicks

I’ll be the first to admit that throughout winter, I am noticeably more casual and feel less put-together overall. It’s somewhat difficult to wear tailored items everyday when you must throw on a coat over your pre-existing layers of shirt, sweater, blazer and scarf. In New York, especially, wearing those beautiful over-the-knee leather boots with 5-inch heels is tempting, but walking from your apartment to the subway (and actually making it down the stairs without the help of a pitying stranger) makes you want to mount the boots as display rather than show them off yourself.

With that said, while I don’t like to look like a slob, I can appreciate the thrown-together looks I’ve seen around the city with a mixture of vintage, high street and the casual shoe of choice: the Converse Chuck Taylor. When this iconic American shoe gets a little dirty, the overall looks gets even better. What other shoe can count that as a benefit? Some of my favorite looks are particularly feminine and colorful, with a pair of worn-in Chucks immediately bringing the ensemble down to Earth and giving it that chick-who-can-hang sort of vibe. There’s no such thing as a look too tailored, too bohemian or too girly for the Chuck Taylor.

Below, some looks I like.