While in his 20′s in London in the 60′s, Duggie went to the underground jazz clubs where a band called The Rolling Stones was playing, he saw the Who before they recorded records, and he roomed with Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett for years. Duggie would return home from art school in those days to Pink Floyd rehearsing with light shows in his flat, and he would advise them to get more rhythm into their music, actually enlightening them to his soul music. But what is coolest about Duggie is that while Syd and a few other of his close friends (who he feels privileged to have known) destroyed themselves, he learned to withdraw and in his words “be a part of it, but not be a part… open, but cautious.” He recalls painting himself right through the ups and downs of being an artist and encourages the importance of not ever getting too far from one’s creative expression and “keeping the connection.”

I love how timeless Duggie is while never being out of step with the times. His bespoke Ozwald Boateng pink blazer is eternally chic and his Post Modernism paintings harken back to Paint by Numbers from when he was a kid, but are filled with social commentary on culture, from sexuality to pop icons (he makes ties, pins & throw pillows of Michael Jackson, Lady Di and the late Luciana Martinez de la Rosa, an influential artist and friend, among others.) Currently, Duggie works in digital media with his art and is also exploring his voice and musical talents. He says that he loses himself at the end of a paintbrush as much as he does a mouse these days. About his eclectic world and life, Duggie says, ” I make my environment something that sustains me,” intuitively knowing, “This doesn’t work for me and that does”– and that is cool.

If you love Duggie, you may also like Andrew Logan, Edmundo Desnoes and Freddie Leiba.

Visit Tamu’s blog, All The Pretty Birds.

If you love Tamu, you may also like Rashida Robinson, Gloria Baume and Alesssandra Calabi.

Unique is what you have to be to break in the music business today, as “it is no longer this kid is good and get him dressed by a stylist… You have to wake up in the morning and have your own agenda,” Theophilus says. He stops at nothing when it comes to sartorial details– he is a designer as much as a musical artist and alters everything to his exact fit and refined liking, even admitting that as a kid, he would take his pair of Jordan’s over a million dollars. An example of his keen eye for detail can be seen in Theophilus’ custom navy blazer that has gold buttons going up the sleeve, green felt under the collar and touches of royal patches from English flea markets on the pocket. He complements the jacket with DIY Ksubi’s, that have crocodile on the back pocket and monogrammed velvet slipper that he designed.

On the shoot, we got a hint of Theophilus’ taste for the finer things in life, like one of his latest songs that includes a sample from the seminal “Dance Hall Days,” as well as his Prada suede argyle jacket that he wears with handmade camo leather pants. However, despite his success, Theophilus clearly remembers his days of couch surfing and making his first record on 12 dollars a day eating wings and fries. I am inspired to pray for money to fall from the sky like Theophilus does, but his overriding desire to make music that will stick with his generation is his true source of wealth, studded Louboutins and all.

If you love Theophilus, you may also like Jean Lebrun, Chris Benz and Fatima Robinson.

Video edited by John Mattia.

When I came to shoot this feature on Sara, I knew that I would be overwhelmed (in the best way) by her passion for dressing, but I didn’t expect there to be as much as I found. Sara’s affection for all things Native American goes way beyond her seminal squash blossom necklace that she paid for on lay away in 8th grade. A white leather coyote bag with feathers that she made hangs in her closet, while white fringe Isabel Marant boots are on her “must get” list. In fact, boots play a close second to jewels for Sara in order of obsession. Haider Ackermann over-the-knee ones are drop dead sexy with a floral dress and Gaultier ankle booties, that she cleverly wears with American Apparel athletic socks, giving a tough feel to a Vivienne Westwood halter dress and bloomers. While rock and roll lives on in a big way with Sarah in her American flag leather pants and a Rick Owens fitted jean jacket that makes all others pale in comparison.

But the utimate inspiration for me about Sara is her “I don’t give an fuck” attitude in general that reflects not only in her style, but in her willingness to be out of the box in her self-expression, even if it means flying under the radar when she is more talented than most. Nothing can get in the way of her attention to detail, for her, art means more to her than commercial success. Sara will alter something until it’s right or she will make something if she can’t find anything as great, like her Victorian silk bloomers. I envy both her blunt honesty when she says, “I just like to make shit” and her unsual humility when she pulls out this spectacular, embroidered coat that she made while on vacation. Creative purists like Sara fascinate me, I am attracted to them like a magnet because of the part of me that isn’t one.

If you love Sara, you may also like Jimmy Webb, Kay Kasparhauser Goldberg and Sarah Temple Raston.

In fact, William is effusively at ease not living up to the expectations that popular culture puts on him and his profession. This can be seen in everything from his warmth and refeshing honesty about how his prayers are getting less wordy, the joy he expresses in shopping on Portobello road, how a marigold sock looks with a trucker boot, and the disappointment with every outfit since the perfection of his cinnamon colored knickerbockers, yellow stockings and cable knit jumper of middle school. What really matters is what William feels Jesus Christ was really about, he points out. “He was a disruptive trouble maker with a dry wit who questioned authority and came to show that those who are poor and dispossessed are precious in God’s eyes and they should be precious in our eyes as well… And not to walk past them,” no matter their dress or circumstance.

With his flaming curly red hair, cut in his own version of a faux hawk, attraction to Victorian vintage and colors that don’t necessarily go together, it is not a surprise that William is a square peg in a round hole in terms of fitting into the holy bubble of the church and organized religion. As a result, he has chosen to spread his faith by being in the real world and not confined to a building. “You have faith, but how can these awful things happen all the time, isn’t that the ultimate conflict of it all?,” Williams seeks to address. Presently he is the Chaplain of The University of the Arts, where people have challenged the notion that artists would need assistance with their spiritual lives. To the contrary, William is passionate about artists as the world’s healers.”The creative process,” he states, “involves an element of deep exploration and a little suffering and pain along the way, like giving birth, bringing life and creativity into the world.” His hope is to show the students, that through their power of creation they can change the world, and mine is to give a voice to those as inspiring as William, for their ability to stand as alone in their garb as they do in their daily lives.

If you love William, you may also like Cator Sparks, Natalie Gibson and Waris Singh Ahluwalia.

It was the birth of music videos on MTV in the early 80′s and its captivating eye candy that Sarah feels had a lot to do with her profession and obsessions of today. You can see the hints of punk, new wave and rock in the way she mixes a romantic embroidered Commes des Garcon sheer cape with a fishnet vintage bustier top, or in the story she tells through her arm, which is filled with many dark, idiosyncratic and ethnic bracelets. Each and everything that she wears has to be extraordinary, picked from all over the world, and together, all fit into the puzzle of her wardrobe. A curation of herself, Sarah’s Balenciaga mesh chain top with tapestry and her medallion inlaid necklace from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul are museum-worthy, while a Rick Owens, not so simple, simple black dress, is her equivalent of a tee shirt. You can look sloppy in it or wear it to a party, Sarah claims. But ultimately, Sarah’s passion for self expression is fueled by the fact that her mom was never able to live out her hippie fantasies after becoming a school teacher. “We live the unfulfilled lives of our mothers,” Gloria Steinem recently told Sarah while working together on a shoot.

If you love Sarah, you may also like Betony Vernon, Jarka Cole, Mark Hester and Elizabeth Burns.

She claims that she is a quiet observer due to the critical disposition of her Virgo sun. People born into this astrological sign seek to attain an appearance of perfection, Emilie says. You can see it in her quintessentially quaint decor of dried roses and antique cameras next to candle sticks covered in melted wax, as well as the continuous blank slate she pursues when it comes to her clothing, attained through buying and selling things on Ebay. Those under this sixth astrological sign of the zodiac also have a crazy side, she claims, which would explain Emilie in her drapey, black Bernard Wilhelm kaftan dress, love for Bram Stroker’s Dracula and passion for Jesus and Mary Chain. Quiet or crazy, in denim cut off’s from her mom, a vintage tee with DM’s on Emilie is laid back, while all so enviably chic, as only the French can be.

If you love Emilie, you may also like Kristine Barilli, Mia Christiana and Nadia & Hassan.

Carrie Bradshaw and her comrades may have fostered the idea that shoes are a girls best friend, but actually shoes are just as important, if not a more, as an accessory for men. Indeed, while menswear on the whole tends to be simpler than women’s, shoes can serve as an integral way for men to express their personal style. Wingtips, boat shoes, moccasins, sneakers, and the list goes on and on, the adage that you can judge a man by how he adorns his feet can oftentimes ring very true. In this edition of StyleLikeU “Addictions” Jace shows his enviable and diverse collection of footwear, walks us through why each pair is important and proves once and for all that having a fanatic shoe obsession is certainly not a hobby reserved for females. Watch more to the left.

You can find Jace’s blog here.

A “tough”exterior uniform of black jeans, tees, and boots are not meant to be a cover up for how devastating it was for Holly to deal with the challenges of losing what seemed to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. She’s honest about the hard lesson of being too cocky and unready for fame, and today she is ecstatic to be on a label that backs her creatively 100%. Holly’s boyish touches, like Costume Nationale’s army green twill blazer on top of something feminine, and the strong impression of her serious wedges , are a testament to her uncompromising attitude concerning one’s ability to overcome adversity with perseverance. Holly’s eighty-four year old grandmother, who has purple hair and a nose ring, rediscovered her inner lesbian when she left Holly’s grandfather, after having five daughters together, for a woman. Clearly role models are important in having the chops to follow your dreams.

If you love Holly, you may also like Liza Thorn, Dana Suchow and Annakim Violette.

The two in live in a way that is refreshingly traditional and yet distinctly modern, much like the quaint countryside to which they retreat from their urban lives. Preferring Dostoevsky and the spoken word to Facebook and Twitter, Hassan wears his Dad’s khakis with a unique touch; he rolls up the hem to fine-tune the proportion with a chambray shirt cut up into a vest worn over a t-shirt. Nadia is interested in esoterica; books like The Poetics of Space, films like Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears Of Petra von Kant and taking photos with film as opposed to digital. She makes kitschy corduroy overalls with a Mickey Mouse belt and sweaters recovered from her childhood seem 21st century. Few can tuck socks into trousers with handmade brogues and possess both a serious stature while remaining hip like Hassan, or exude both a sultry and edgy glamour in a calf-length dirndl skirt with a chopped-off man’s shirt like Nadia.

If you love Nadia & Hassan, you may also like Tat Vateishvili, Freddie Leiba and Desiree Neman.