By: Arta Ghanbari

Even a rainy day is a good one when it comes to fashion in New York City. Hid-ing under mostly black umbrellas were thousands of Manhattan residents rushing to work, grabbing their morning dose of caffeine, and fighting the rain in high-waist skirts,sleeveless, silk blouses, and four inch pumps.

On 7th Avenue, a major street inManhattan which cuts through landmarks such as Time Square, the Garment District, Financial District and TriBeCa (Triangle Bellow CanalStreet), it wasn’t difficult to separate tourists from residents. While tourists covered themselves with comfortable flip flops, jeans, t-shirts and cargo shorts, much similar to what’s seen amongst Torontonians, the few residents that were visible at the 7th Ave. and W 37th St. intersection stood out with their designer bags and day dresses.

Each neighbourhood had its own flare.While some areas, such as Upper East Side,are dedicated to the city’s most wealthy and luxurious like seen on the hit show Gossip Girl,other areas such as Chinatown, are covered with sidewalk sales, cockroaches and a smell that’ll burn your nostrils.

Starting from New York PennsylvaniaHotel directly across Madison Square Garden at 7th Ave. and W 33rd St., I walked north on 7th Ave. where many square shouldered\professionals carried their briefcases to nearby offices, especially surrounding Times Square. Besides being the financial capital of the world,New York is also the journalism capital of the world. Within the small square are the Ernest and Young building, the Conde Nast building which holds the infamous American Vogue office seen in the September Issue, and Glamour, Elle, Allure, Marie Claire Magazine offices. You can also find the CNN, ESPN, TimeMagazine, New Yorker, and Reuters news wire offices within the vicinity. Bryant Park, where theMercedes Benz Fashion Week is held biannually is a block away from this magazine flooded area at W 42nd St. between 6th and 7th Avenues.

Arriving in style in this city means having your driver pull over a black windowed limousine in front of your office. On certain streets where you would expect to see mostly yellow cars honking at traffic were executive vehicles painting the roads black.

Besides Times Square, the Empire State build-ing, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, andChrysler building are also located in Midtown. New York 3 Public Library, as shown in the film The Day After Tomorrow, is home to thousands of leather bound originals and can be found on Fifth Ave. andW 42nd St. next to both high-end and affordable boutiques. The crowd around this area is professionals of all ages, mostly in suits, working at nearby offices. New York fashionistas haven’t been spotted yet.

Continuing north on Fifth Ave.brought me to the south-end of Central Park, and stores such as Saks, Gucci, Ferragamo, Bergdorf Good-man, and Escada, where it was clearI had entered the Upper East Side. The next streets,Madison Avenue and Lexington Avenue, stretch the east side with a collection of shopping strips where you can find Bloomingdales, Marc Jacobs, Barney’s New York, Celine, Chloe, Givenchy, Yves Saint-Laurent, Valentino and others. The mood from one block to the next changed quickly as the crowd went from dressing in suits to putting fashion before function in six inch heels, Chanel bags and silk dresses. Not a single pair of jeans could be spotted amongst the pedestrians in this area.

Before falling too madly in love, I decided to make my to the west end of the city and see what’s trendy at the city’s Theatre District and Upper West Side.The march of well-dressed pedestrians continued as couples and families left theatres and dined at some of the city’s finest restaurants. What doesn’t this cityhave? It has the best fashion, the best restaurants,the most wealthy and successful individuals, world famous landmarks, a massive park, the best theatreproductions- everything.

Everything can truly change within a block inManhattan. The crowd went from young professionals to middle and lower class individuals just south of theTheatre District in Chelsea. Nearby south was SoHo(South of Houston Street) and TriBeCa , home to young,trendy artists and ironically expensive boutiques. Residents wore Bohemian inspired outfits all much too similar to each other. Flowing, colourful day dresses with floral prints paired with brown strappy sandals, fedorase “Manhattan is full of glamour, there’s no doubt about that”and hair braids was the repeated look worn by almost every girl as they entereda Starbucks with a line-up of about 20people and the infamous Top shop store.

A strident hype surrounds Top shop (located in SoHo on Broadway close to Broome Street) as being the ultimate hip store for NewYork hipsters. When I entered the store, expect-ing to be dazzled by Alexander Wang inspired pieces, I was hit with a nice slap of disappointment. The store was no better than main-stream-hit Urban Out-fitters. Looking through the four floors of cloth-ing, I felt like I was l see-ing the same things over and over again in different colours-lace, lace, and lace.

Dissatisfied, I continued south to TriBeCa where the apartments were dirty, but the only one’s affordable. The traffic had quieted down and so had the number of pedestrians. Similar to SoHo, the street style was casual and vintage enthused. One thing was made clear; New York women don’t like pants. From Midtown to TriBeCa, I hadn’t spotted any women in pants. The population was generally about three sizes thinner than the population in Toronto, which comes expected with the more fashion conscious lifestyle amongst residents.

Hitting the Financial District and the notorious Wall Street, the old stone, four storey buildings previously seen in TriBeCa turned into all-glass, modern condos, clean offices and government buildings such as the Stock Exchange. Tiffany’s and top English menswear store Thomas Pink were found on Wall Street for the successful business types in the area. Typically, you’ll find women in either grey or black dresses or pencil skirts with pointed-toe pumps and conservative hair styles. Men are in navy, grey and black suits with white or blue collared shirts, cuff links and striped ties usually with blackberries in hand or against ears negotiating business with clients.

The population is more brand-minded, more accessorized, only in skirts and dresses (not even shorts), and more influenced by the dozens of magazine offices and its world renowned fashion week. Walking through the Upper East Side is almost like seeing photos on The Sartorialist live. Besides street style galore, by being surrounded by so many successful individuals, New York City is a great place for inspiration as it can often make you build a dream for yourself. Like Alexander McQueen’s innovative collections, New York City’s style can never be copied.