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There are so many great things to say about Natalie Orenstein. While many of the people that I have featured in the past were previously strangers to me, I lived next to Natalie last year and still spend a good deal of time with her. So to finally be able to hear her speak about the sense of style that has caught my eye for all this time is quite exciting for me. I have seen how her style has changed since coming to college and have had the privilege of seeing her outfits day by day. It has always been another one of those little joys that one is able to look forward to.
Natalie's style is very much influenced by her having grown up in Berkeley and exploring the rest of the Bay. She was able to pick and choose small stylistic elements from the countless number of interestingly dressed people in her city; the simple act of people watching helped her to create a vast visual encyclopedia to draw from, incorporating her favorite elements into her own personal style. But I wouldn't call her style "urban" or anything nearly that generalizing. Even now, as far away from home as she is, she keeps a bit of her beloved city - and not just any city - with her in the form of a bracelet from Brazil Cafe (which serves one of the most delicious tri-tip sandwiches I've had in a long time).
But as Natalie now resides in sleepy little Claremont, away from the quirkiness of Berkeley, her ability to people watch has become a bit restricted. So instead of picking up random things from strangers as she goes about her day, she has the opportunity to become more in tune with the styles of others - to get to know the ins and outs of the way people dress, so that she can better understand the elements that she then goes on to experiment with, eventually making some form of that element her own.
It keeps her style shifting this way and that, which makes it all the more fun to see what she's wearing for the day.
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