A StyleLikeU & Marc Baptiste collaboration featuring hair by muse Gerald Decock

Socially conscious herself in Stella McCartney animal-free “leather” boots and Clare Vivier clutches made of recycled leather, Sophie tones down the rough edges of a Hamnett studded denim dress with an over-the-shoulder cardigan and tennis sneakers, producing something more Angeleno-sporty. Vivier is a local handbag designer supported by Sophie for her talent and environmentally conscious products. Sophie loves the coincidences of living in LA (what she refers to as a small city) where you actually get to know people and their backstories. Meanwhile, Sophie’s own narrative of indelible memories, like when her dad shot the cover of Houses of the Holy, one of the all-time classics, has me in awe. She reveals that the typically gloomy London skies caused a last-minute frenzy to capture a sunset that wouldn’t come. The crew had to paint every rock in the legendary photo as though the sun was really setting.

It is the imaginary worlds that Sophie’s dad created in his photographs that inspired her to become a photographer herself, and from photography she got into fashion styling. It is paramount for her to be part of a collaborative, creative process where a visual universe that you would want to live in is constructed. She has not only found this in her career, but in her life. Whether referring to how untouchable she feels astride her horse in Los Angeles, her English pageboy look-of-the-moment in an Equipment shirt buttoned up to the top, or her latest foray into become a fashion designer– it is clear that her dreams couldn’t be more real.

If you love Sophie, you may also like Kristen Lee, Magda Berliner and  Karla Deras.

Hats and hatmaking are the ultimate enchantment for Heidi, as they can be made with your own hands, spark a conversation and carry a certain mystique. One of her happiest childhood memories took place at the Queens Botanical Gardens, while wearing her favorite white beach hat with a rose – her golden Kodak moment. As if the illusion of being naked is not chic enough in her chainmail dress that she likens to string theory or how the galaxies net together, Heidi wears it with her melting clock hat, a reference to Salvador Dali and her own attunement to vivid dreams. Heidi’s mom, whom she looks up to for her effortless ability to be gung-ho about everything, remains both a role model and a provocateur for Heidi to push for her own excellence. Heidi describes a dream about herself and her mom, explaining, “There are two beds…both of them identical. One side is me, the other side is my mom, and we would have these joint competitions with each other where we’d both have to make our beds. Every time, my mom would be able to beat me, a split second better.” A haute hat made up of strange plastic flowers and ferns is a creation spawned by Heidi’s interest in how fungi grow out of ants’ heads, worn with a Search and Destroy leopard and lace slip that she describes as Philistine with an old Roman feel to it.

In an iridescent, ecto-plasmic “kind of jelly fish shirt” that Heidi finds playful for its contours, shapes and a voyeuristic peek at the body, she wears her umbrella hat inspired by Issey Miyake, math and architecture. “There’s an alchemy that’s happening that’s interesting. And I go with it and then it’s a whole new concoction. A lot of times, it’s exploratory… but I am always happiest when I am wearing a hat,” Heidi says.

If you love Heidi, you may also like Goldie Rush, Ran Q Huang and Kristine Barilli.

The designer and mother of one prefers the old and traditional when it comes to aesthetics and techniques, including basket and loom weaving, embroidering and ceramics. “I love making things and feel a huge sense of pride when I can say I made it,” she says, like the multihued shawl/blanket that she wove for her daughter on a loom and looks like the twin to her antique skirt from Oaxaca. In a wraparound skirt with embroidery done by hand, Beatrice says with enthusiasm, “It takes many, many years to be able to get your craft to a level that’s like this.” It helps to appreciate the sartorial benefits of a handmade crocheted top with a folkloric Dries Van Noten skirt when you’ve grown up around beautiful textiles and the native people of Mexico, which to us unfortunately might look like a costume, but to them is their everyday wear. Just as Beatrice was surprised by the fact that everyone’s home in America looks blandly the same – hers by comparison looks like the Garden of Eden – all too often, so do their clothes.

If you love Beatrice, you may also like Kristen Lee, Chase Cohl and Susan Cianciolo.

Ultra-critical of himself, Eric leaves little room for anything outside his own well-curated spectrum when getting dressed. He attributes his self-imposed perfectionism to being a Libra and takes it as far as not needing to own a full-length mirror. It’s just “Check the face, go,” he says. “I tend to land on one particular thing I love for a while and I stick with it…Isabella Rossellini said that her closet is only navy blue, black, and gray because she doesn’t have the time to make decisions. It’s very smart.” Eric wore one outfit- his YSL tuxedo jacket that he says makes him feel important with a Rick Owens’ take on a tuxedo pant, an Acne sweatshirt and Prada patent loafers that he feels make the look traditional and not Goth – every day for months, withstanding people’s stares for its chic priest or “rabbi/Amish-gone-awry” look. He owns a vintage French linen Ungaro shirt that is disintegrating, but the boxy, very wide ’80s fit and the fabric is so unsurpassed that he takes it to the bathroom sink as if it’s the “holy grail.” Eric will go through a phase where he’ll wear all rings and then one day “wake up and think, ‘I look like a fucking hairdresser,’” and then not wear rings forever and go to bracelets, moving on yet again to necklaces in the summertime. “It’s one thing or the other, it’s not everything together.”

Rei Kawakubo, whom Eric admires, says that her work is an exercise in suffering and that that is the time you are the most creative. Considering the despicable pain that Eric has had to endure throughout his life for being gay, it is clear that his share of hurting must inform his resourceful creative talents. He’s been jumped by someone in a Cadillac who smacked him in the head with a Yellow Pages and has been shot with a BB gun by a neighborhood kid – the assailant’s parents claimed he had to be innocent because he had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart just the weekend before the incident. Getting older and losing it is something that Eric fears, “becoming bland like applesauce…my mom always said if you have too many friends, you lose your edge.” But between his life’s experiences and insights, obsessing over the ideal leopard print accent and giving the same clever answer to what his least and most favorite thing is about fashion – “It’s like a private club and a special ed class” – it’s unlikely that he will ever be considered milk toast or applesauce, no matter how hard he tries.

If you love Eric, you may also like Jake Oliver, Julie Kauss and Kevin Hwang.

Not afraid to admit that she has a fear of flying, Jenne is steadfast in taking risks despite any anxiety and is confident that they have led her to greater successes. The mother of three under the age of five whose names – Roxy, Valentino and Bowie – are tattooed in beautiful script on her arm, has her own rapidly growing business where she consults with companies on trends and pop culture. Knowing what is next is her basic instinct and it has only failed her when she has listened to anyone but herself. She feels that Rick Pipino, the father of her children and a legendary hair dresser, truly loves women and has taught her to celebrate a lot of her individuality. “He’s not the kind of guy who wants you to have long hair.”

Hanging at home, where she loves to cook and nurture, Jenne makes the moment her own in a fake DIY Gucci sweatshirt, a fake dollar bill “Biggie Small” necklace and slouching vintage long johns with visible plaid boxers unapologetically sticking way out. Her kids are her priority, but what I love is how she doesn’t lose herself in the process. Her signature touches of punk, with safety pins in one ear, hip hop, with one large diamond stud on the other, gothic, with a cross tattooed on the back of her neck make a demure high waisted skirt, YSL stacked pumps, an Isabel Marant net top, thigh high stockings, studded cuffs and belt, a melange so eclectic that it crosses all classifications. Her signature touches of punk with safety pins in one ear, hip hop with one large diamond stud on the other, and gothic with a cross tattooed on the back of her neck make a demure high-waisted skirt, stacked YSL pumps, an Isabel Marant net top, thigh high stockings, studded cuffs and belt, an eclectic melange that defies all classifications, somewhere between Body Heat meets the Upper East Side. A double layer of tattered Victorian skirts with a leather jacket, her favorite vintage black fedora and distressed army boots are unmistakably personal to her and make Jenne as tough as she is feminine.

The teenager obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Cream who wanted to be Lady Miss Kier from Deee-lite when she came to NYC says that her life is driven by goals, but the ultimate one is to be a grandmother. No doubt Jenne will be looking like the baddest matriarch in the unusual combination of her vintage leather jacket with an English punk band’s name across the back and the chunkiest ikat print Julian Louis for Aldo wedges, when in actuality she is the most embracing.

If you love Jenne, you may also like Shae Detar, Rebecca Weinberg and Stephanie Niedospial.

A big fan of Maison Martin Margiela for their design innovations, Kevin appreciates the way they make a garment with just one seam and the fashion house’s use of satire, like his cut-up blazer. Similarly, the message of his medieval dragon tattoo is that you can turn ordinary objects into something more precious. Kevin does so with the touch of his crystal and suede medallion necklace paired with a basic crew neck knit top, his perfectly worn dove gray Converse sneakers, a pair of charcoal socks peeking out from a black ankle boot or a strappy brown sandal and rolling your pants up just right so that you can see the subtle detail.

Kevin is consistent with his more of less style, just as he listens to the same song over and over and eats the same food, making his ability to distinguish himself from the crowd that much more skillful and considered. Bill Maher said recently on Real Time that convenience is the downfall of America – I agree.

If you love Kevin, you may also like Philip Crangi, Robbie Baauw and Daniel Peddle.

If you love Lisidolly, you may also like CC McGurr, Sophie Elgort and Masha Orlov.

The river that runs through Angelica’s grandfather’s village in New Mexico was named after the town that her grandmother was from – a time warp, Angelica says. It’s the kind of simple existence that the young Brooklyn mom wouldn’t mind living in one day, although Berlin, where Ben once lived while pursuing his music career, remains an option for its present purity of the arts. Angelica’s mother is her biggest influence, a “true lover of life and food, extremely giving and exciting and never afraid to be herself,” as her daughter recalls. She was the sort of free spirit that is deserving of the name, the kind that a designer would would emulate on the runway and the kind that makes Project Runway look like the uninspiring empty filling of space that it is. At times, she was in high-waisted pants with a shirt tucked in and wrapped leather sandals, or skirts worn high with Peruvian socks and Birkenstocks or clogs. At other times, she dressed like a man to avoid being noticed. Always with a camera over her shoulder, her long dark flowing hair and arresting beauty in the vein of Ali MacGraw, she could be wildcrafting or picking herbs in Sedona and then, on an impulse, drive three hours with her kids for dim sum in Phoenix. While some wear Pendleton in search of genuine design, Angelica was wrapped in the scratchy but handsome prints throughout her childhood.

Take 3: One of Anglelica’s most prized dresses is one that her mother wore when she was pregnant with her. There is a photo of her mom in it, standing in the Aravaipa Canyon creek where Angelica was born. Angelica was my assistant for three years when I was a stylist and there wasn’t a day that I wasn’t bowled over by her inner poise and effortless stylish charm. It was a shock to me during this interview that she said that she was inspired by my outifts. Both Ben and Angelica have that actual careless, unaffected ease in their clothes that comes with knowing who you are. You are so comfortable with life that you don’t need much and what you have looks like alot. She, in her Burberry trench with a layer of flannel, the better-than-Celine-for-a-lot-less modern take on a classic clog and her hair in a bun, or in one of her multiple vintage Indian dresses and heirloom jewelry piled on, with each piece having a meaning. He, in a loden military trench with a layer of flannel or a fedora, Uniqlo jeans and a pom pom necklace from a friend that he makes masculine and serious. Every picture tells a story, and the one of Ben’s white Vans – the same ones, like much of his wardrobe selections, since he was ten – and Angelica’s blood red moccasin booties from the source in New Mexico tells this one.

If you love Angelica and Ben, you may also like Gerard and Valeria, Reece Solomon and Ian Bradley.

So unaffected and relaxed in herself, Maripol shops at Beacons Closet, gets her cashmere at Uniqlo and is responsible for much of the styling of Madonna, including Like a Virgin, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Cher and Elton John. She was also the Creative Director of Fiorucci, is a notable Polaroid artist photographer, has directed documentaries like “Crack is Whack” with Keith Haring and was a stylist, muse and actress for Jean Paul Goude. Underneath and despite her success, Maripol says she identifies with Little Red Riding Hood – at six, her mom designed a costume which won a Best Costume award – so much so that the vulnerability of the character inspired the title of her second book. Her beauty is understated in a simple tunic and wedge boots and the tougher biker chick from her early days is visible in leopard and vinyl leggings, while the two parts make whole in a vintage Prada-like dress and neon Sylvia Heisel bolero. Then in angora and lamé, today in a classic v-neck, this profound impresario who had the gift to do everything from booking the post beat generation bands to originating the outfits for the opening of Studio 54 with Antonio Lopez deserves to be center stage.

If you love Maripol, you may also like Rebecca Weinberg, Virginie Sommet and Sam Quartin.