Check Mate

Fashion Over Reason under the Brooklyn Bridge, Lower Manhattan at nighttime, sundown, sunset, black & white look

Ain't no thang to look like a human checkerboard if you're going to be doing it according your personal style convictions. In this instance, I am relishing in my unintentional channeling of Hedi's Saint Laurent girl -- I swear, I didn't mean to! -- with my pairing of the two most basic hues in history. How cool of me. A classic combo of black and white, with a rock n' roll, modern boho twist (how's that for a definition?). Because something as timeless as those two shades can also be inadvertently trendy, as demonstrated to us by Slimane himself.

The most important "lesson" (I'm putting that in quotation marks because it is to be loosely interpreted) to take away from this outfit is that my checkerboard look is a discerned variation of the penguin suit, a woman's riff on the tuxedo, if you will. As a self-proclaimed [high-maintenance] tomboy, I have an innate gravitational pull toward all types of menswear, whether it's baggy trousers, impeccable tailoring, oversized anything, you name it.

The tuxedo is something so very intrinsically manly, forever the peak on the fancy scale for our male counterparts. Adapting that vibe to an ensemble that is all woman is not only incredibly fun, but also a bit unexpected, which is always a good way to stand out. But what's even more amusing about the whole thing is that while my outfit is reminiscent of Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent, it also borrows something from Yves's woman, the one he imagined wearing Le Smoking, that legendary woman's wear play on the tuxedo. Check mate.

Black & white look, Joe Fresh silk blouse, Stefanie Biggel sheer liquid black shorts, nighttime shoot