I’m usually drawn to pairs of friends. Not ones that look exactly alike, more the kind that are vibing off each other. Case in point.

Carl (aka Chrome) and Simire. Ages 19 and 17, from Southwest Philly and Center City respectively.

So if you were gonna describe the general style of Philadelphians to other people, what would you say?

C: “I think in Philly you get a wide selection of styles. Everybody has their own different style. But then you also have trends and everybody follows the trends. Like the snapback trend or the tattoo trend.”

Is the tattoo trend a trend??

C: “Yeah, you have people out here that’s gettin bad tattoos in houses, just everywhere. They don’t even mean something, like street names, your clique name or whatever. So that’s a kinda trend. But I think where you live at says a lot about your style. I mean, the way I dress — you can’t go to the hoodest part the way I dress. So it’s like where you come from.”
S: “He pretty much covered it all.”

What kinds of things inspire the way you dress?

S: “I think groups like N.E.R.D., I like how they dress. [...] But other people in Philly, they probably look at people like Wiz Khalifa and stuff like that and just try to [do] stuff like that.” [Sorry, someone was coughing in the background, obscuring the recording. ]
C: For me, my style comes from colors. I like a lot of color. I might not match that day, but if I wear a shirt with a little bit of red in it, I might wear red sneakers just so I can bring out the red in it. It’s about colors for me.”
S: “It’s about how you feel, like if you feel comfortable wearing it, that’s what you wanna wear.”

Is there a favorite thing that you’re wearing right now?

C: “I usually — my favorite thing — I love wearing belts. But I’m not wearing a belt [today].”
S: “My favorite thing? T-shirts. I like this shirt, and this brand.”

Do you have an excess of t-shirts?

S: “Yes.”

Like more than fifty?

S: “More than a hundred. (laughs) But I leave them everywhere. Like I’m clueless when it comes to clothes, so I might have some at his house or a friend’s house.”

Do you get them back? Do you like, see your friend wearing one and you’re like damn it?

S: “No, not really. Like if I see a friend wearing it, I’m like that’s my friend, I really don’t care.”

Okay, well that’s cool.

C: “Yeah. We love clothes so much we’re coming out with our own line soon. It’s gonna be called Witness to Legacy. Short for Legacy, but the full name’s gonna be called Witness to Legacy. ”

What kinds of things are you gonna put out?

C: “Right now there’s t-shirts. We do a lot of t-shirts. But our stuff is more about fabrics. We like a lot of different type of fabrics. So it’s more like you don’t see of t-shirts with fabrics on it, you see graphics. So it’s gonna be different fabrics like, poking out of the shirt. Stuff like that.”

Do you have a current obsession?

C: “Watches. I love watches. My favorite watch now, I like Michael Kors watches. But I’m trying to find out a new watch that not a lot of people have, and buy a lot of those watches. Heh. I forgot the name of it but there’s some color watch they have at Zumiez a lot. They come in all different colors…”
S: “Uhh… Right now I’m gonna have to say sneakers. I like Jordans but —”

[Interruption from my friend who has to go check in at the Apple store on their busted iPod, resulting in the following picture.]

Okay, so current obsessions. Jordans.

S: “I kinda like the retro Jordans, but I’m kinda lookin for something new. That nobody else has. But likes. [I like] to look a bit different.”

Are there trends in Philly that you wish people would move on from?

C: “The tattoos.”
S: “And smokin weed. It’s not for everybody.”
C: “Yeah.”
S: “It’s not. Like he said that people go into basements with tattoos and they come out looking weird.”
C: “And they end up regretting it. And that’s everybody’s decision, you make that decision on your own. There’s a lot of trends in Philly I wish people would stop. I’m tryin to think of the best one.”
S: “Snapbacks. ”

Are the snapbacks all like, vintage snapbacks too?

S: “Not all of them. The Mitchell & Ness ones, they’re different. Like this is a vintage one (takes off hat to show), but those, they’re new so… I dunno.”

Are there things you wish people would start to do more of?

S: “Go to school! And stay in school!”
C: “I wish people would just like, be more open with people. Like Philly is more — it’s gettin really bad now, like violence, riots, and people are more closed minded. People need to open their minds to more different things. [...unintelligible part... ] As soon as they see one thing and they think of it, they judge it before they actually know it.”
S: “Or like, be yourself. A lot of people are not gonna be.”

Are you guys in the student union? This is like…beautiful talk.

C: “No, we’re just like (shrugs).”

Hah. Okay, any questions or shout-outs?

S: “Follow me on Twitter.”
C: “Follow me on Twitter!”

AT?

S: “@ChromieNotYours.”
C: “And mine’s is @SimireIsWinning.”

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Camera nerd talk: I went back to my stock zoom lens this week. It’s good for regular street photography, but I think I prefer my fixed 28mm/f2.8 for B&M…