A few years ago, I started talking to people about how they dress. Some worked in fashion, but most were regular people—college students, baristas, shop clerks—getting dressed for their everyday lives. Speaking with them taught me more about style—how it shapes and reflects who we are and how we want to be seen—than anything I’d encountered in my career covering fashion and culture. These conversations eventually became my newsletter, American Style.
I always gravitated toward young people. They’re the group everyone studies to determine the state and fate of culture—where it’s going, or if it’s totally lost—but who rarely get to represent themselves beyond their own content. When Vogue asked me to find 50 stylish people across the United States to mark its 250th anniversary, I knew I wanted to create a platform for young Americans in every corner of the country to share what style means to them. Applications came from everywhere, from Kentucky to Puerto Rico, and inspirations ranged from Georgia O’Keeffe and Pinterest to transcendental meditation and many, many mothers and grandmothers.
After we narrowed down the 50 finalists, I traveled to Minnesota and Alabama to profile two of them: First stop, the suburbs of Minneapolis, where I met Owen Peters, 19, who is just as inspired by the frat boys at his university as he is by Jackie O. Then I was on to Birmingham, where I visited Chelsi Banks, also 19, who cut her teeth on fashion Twitter before developing her personal style during COVID.
Choosing finalists for this project, I found myself inspired (albeit slightly overwhelmed) by page after page of spectacular outfits. Someone asked me recently how I pick who to feature in American Style. I told her it’s an almost ineffable mix of signals—I’m often drawn to outfits that feel considered, unexpected, or speak to something I’m already thinking about. But mostly it’s the sense that I’ve never seen anything quite like this before, even if it’s a look that’s trendy or classic. That’s true of every one of the 50 finalists in American Style x Vogue. It’s the feeling that I couldn’t have put that outfit together, because I’m not you.
