Kristine Barilli

occupation: DJ, student, and musician

“I am obsessed with anything from London in the late ’70s, Seditionaries, Anton LaVey, black metal, Clockwork Orange, anything black, anything dead, the New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, Bas Jan Ader, anyone crazed and creative.” Kristine Barilli

I always leave a SLU shoot inspired by a tip or idea. In Kristine’s case, it was many things, but the one I followed through on was the Rick Owens onesie (birthday present to myself). She fully convinced me of its worthiness for every day and every occasion (you could sleep in it or wear it for black tie), which is pretty much how Kristine always dresses. She despises Halloween, because for her, every day is an organic expression of “dressing up” as she feels. It’s all about her uniform of all black (never jeans) and an architectureal silhouette. You might see Kristine walking to the corner bodega in her only vintage piece, an ostrich feathered bolero, inspired by her ultimate style hero Brian Eno, or in one of her cutting-edge pair of boots to the gym. She actually works out in her favorite band T shirt that she wears all the time, Suicidal Tendencies, and reluctantly caved into purchasing sneakers, but the closest ones to her armory of wedges. Admittedly hardcore about her passion for music (she is habitually either djing or home researching bands and songs), she is equally driven to perfection with her impeccable futuristic goth wardrobe.

To learn more about Kristine, click on the detailed credits page.

If you like Kristine, you might also enjoy Antino Crowley, James Gillespie, or Becka Diamond.

Tay Trong

occupation: unemployed taste purveyor

When asked what inspires Tay, he said: “John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway , William Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski, Harry Dean Stanton, Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek in ‘Badlands’, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai, which I think is the greatest film in the history of cinema, any stylish character in any Wong Kar Wai film, industrial designer Marc Newson, photographer Andreas Gursky, 1960’s, German engineering , Tom Sachs, NASA’s photography, Tracey Emin, Japanese minimalism, architects Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Richard Neutra.”

Tay is our Thanksgiving present to the Stylelikeu family. His story is such an inspiration as to the possibilities of where life can take you when you are empassioned and courageous. He was born in a dirt floor hut in Vietnam, where he made toy cars out of clay and used toothpicks for their axles. En route to being placed in the U.S. at six-years-old with his immediate family (he was separated from the extended one), he lived in a refugee camp in Indonesia. Tay spent the rest of his childhood in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, a town of 2000 (it was so small that it had only one stop light). It was here that he told me he would stare out his window and know there was a world out there for him. The world that he was largely referring to he learned about by watching “Fashion with Elsa Klensch” religiously every Sunday, a show on everything related to the kingdom of fashion. Totally hooked into style as self-expression, he wore his Levi 501’s and French connection shirt with the label on the sleeve, almost everyday to school. The sensitivity with which he describes this visual of himself in his “favorite outfit of the year” is priceless. Tay recalls that the brand name, when he was poor, made him feel powerful. Today his wardrobe is an extremely well-edited selection of the quintessential pieces, some with well-known labels that live up to their name and deserve his affection, and others are so timeless that they were branded a hundred years ago. The ideal camel Prada blazer, the perfectly cut Junya Wantanabe motorcycle jacket, the “badass” python cowboy boots, and the salmon colored Gucci button-down are among them. His deep joie de vivre is noticeable as much in his massive amount of cultural interests as in the detail with which he describes his discovery of the non-primary color palette during those early years by the sea in Southeast Asia. Tay’s fervor for “fashion as art” made my heart race when he pulled out a plaid blanket that he converted into a cape/coat that was inspired by Comme des Garcons Fall/Winter ‘09 collection. However, what defines him most is his rapture with the liberation of motorcycling and his near fatal accident that was the impetus to leave the rural midwest for urban Chicago. When Tay awoke from his coma, his first feeling was that he “had a fight with death and won,” his second was “Is my motorcycle ok?”, and his third, “Where are my prized, worn-to-perfection motorcycle boots?

Check out Tay’s blog here.

Hiraku Morilla

occupation: student

“I like to wear things that make people say, “Ew, thats disgusting.’ It makes me feel special. It gives me a sense of individuality.” Hiraku Morilla

For me, everything about Hiraku says distinct and nothing says “Ew,” but I get what he is saying, because few can understand how to rock and roll a velvet, leopard-lined mumu with antique broaches like he does. Memorable to the point of a new obsession for me are his oversized scarves, perfect touches to everything in proportion and pattern. Hiraku is a creative force in the burnt orange ethnic scarf with the timeless Lanvin blazer and his “this year’s” leopard shawl, with the literally infinite and ingenious ways he wears it. Despite Hiraku’s penchant for the unpredictable, his roots in the traditions of style comes from his grandmother, who is a tea ceremony teacher in Japan and where he was “surrounded by beautiful kimonos.” But mostly, his mom, who moved Hiraku from Tokyo to the Bronx when he was 13, was serious about fashion and heavy on the traditions and rules. If he was wearing a heavy jacket in the beginning of the fall, she would say, “But what are you going to wear in the winter?” Hiraku says that she “fashionably” educated him, and he glows with the appoval he would get from her over “the splash of color” of his belted royal blue jumpsuit. However, they are worlds apart in many ways – she would take off the leopard scarf and and he wears it with everything, everyday, and in every way.

Nikole Ramirez

occupation: student, dj and entrepreneur

“I am not one to talk very much. I am the person that walks into the bar and goes straight to the corner to watch everyone else.” Nikole Ramirez

Nikole has a picture of her “Nana” in her closet in honor of what a big influence she was on her style – she was very glamorous (I remember a big head of coiffed hair) and she never left the house without makeup. It’s hard not to notice the correlation between the strong and well-dressed women in her family (her mother too) to Nikole’s fascination with the performance artist Leigh Bowery, guys in drag, and club kids, whom she is so inspired by because of their freedom to express themselves in the most extreme ways. She loves watching their confidence to appear in public looking “completely ridiculous, with glitter all over their faces and in get-ups that resemble condoms.” Nikole interprets the street into her own – often but not always less glitzy, with a myriad of mixes of denim and black leather (not surprisingly, considering her obsession with punk and rock). She is proudly from a few generations of entrepreneurs, who over time transformed a hot dog stand into beautiful restaurants. Nikole’s big black eyes reflect the deep roots of her heritage and has given her an understanding of the beauty of all parts of a culture, from the homeless in with their “dirty” and “torn” clothes to her prized Givenchy peep toe boots.

Magda Berliner

occupation: designer

“As you progress in age, everything comes back. If you always shop to suit your style and your body type, you’ll always be able to wear everything in your closet.” Magda Berliner

Magda is a pro of classic meets cool, high meets low, most exemplified by her mixing of thigh-high, eight-year-old Margiela split-toe boots (they make my heart skip a beat) with her quilted, colorful YSL vintage blazer. She is so passionate and literate in everything related to culture, style, and fashion that its hard to consider keeping up, even though I am dying to. An accomplished fashion designer and mom of a teenager, she still manages to know probably every vintage haunt in the world, get on a plane to Paris, New York, or Portugal for the opera, and still not miss the “trade night” in LA (her hometown) at “What Goes Around Comes Around,” where she recently acquired her red leather “Pat Benatar” blazer. She styled for Aerosmith and during that time, among other things, helped design custom YSL for Joe Perry and juxtapose classic English sweaters with Tripp. For Magda, it’s the hunt for quality over quantity and thus her attraction to all things European, like the experience of eating two ounces of the best ice cream instead of a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and her extremely precise wardrobe of the creme de la creme of what suits her style and body type to the point of not needing anything more. She is so educated in the ways of the world that she opened my eyes to the fact that even the cheesiest store in Paris has state of the art hosiery, because of how refined the French are with dressing, and she herself is a confessed sock and tights freak. Magda’s acuity for experimenting with design came early, when she dressed Barbie in curtain fabric and tissue paper and started gluing seams together outside of a garment. Her own Margiela blazers today are conceived in this way. Magda loves grocery shopping as much as perusing Balenciaga, and like the Europeans, it’s more about the visual and experiential stimualtion than consumption and accumulation.

Take a look at Magda’s design collection.