Time: 930 a.m., Saturday

Location: An MRT Station

Debby, Lari and I rode the trains across the town (well, from Jurong East to Redhill anyways) in search of juxtaposition, and I daresay we found it:

Of course, we split the work equally. Debby took the photos, Lari looked pretty and I lived up to my name, and carried the bags.

Lari (21, smart, funny) makes the perfect photo subject. In front of the camera, she’s unafraid and just completely willing to put herself out there: which basically sums up her personality, and her style.

It’s hard to put your finger on it, or to assign a label and define her sartorial sense, but I’ll still try to sum it up for you -

- a little smattering of trends (studs, leggings), and a lot of sharpness, lines, definition and structure which give the impression of strength and substantiality, despite her small stature.

She’s also vehement about individuality:

“I would say just go forth and experiment ’cause each day you choose the safer/trendy/ whateveryoneelseiswearing option, you conform a bit more to other people’s notion of who you are and the voice inside you perhaps drowns a bit in answer to the voice of Others.”

^She gets her clothes from everywhere. Definitely no brand-snobbery here: “My leggings? This Fashion. Gold jacket? A|X. If I really like something, I’ll probably spend…at most, $400 on it, thereabouts.”

We are loving the aunties. So obliging and benign. Give up your seats for them, won’t you?

“You mean, I get to do anything I like? Ok!”

The girl loves her colours, despite what you see here. In fact, I can attest to that – I spotted her striding down the hallways in school wearing neon orange doc martens, a tie-dye shirt and if my memory serves me right, pink leggings.

And now for the ‘I’ word: Inspiration. Where does a girl like her get her inspiration from? She assures us she does not sit around, twiddling her thumbs to figure out what she’s going to wear next, and reveals to us the source of it all:

My inspiration is a combination of all the stylish people (in my point of view) that I have ever come across be it in magazines, street style blogs or in real life. I love people who are able to interpret style according to their own definition.

And, we all need friends, best friends: she bounces off ideas with one Debra – whose style is vastly different from hers, but still they share stuff and borrow from each other’s wardrobes -’cos isn’t that what best friends are for? (see hat above, in first outfit.)

<< Custom-made boots from Hoi An, Vietnam. Lari tells us you can  get anything customised, as long as you give them a picture, and  some time – from 2 to 3 days. So be sure to drop by the moment you  get there. Also: beware of rude craftspeople. But methinks the end  result is worth it. (P.S Boots are the only things strong enough to shore up our defenses against the perennial flip-flop brigade.)

Train doors are closing – it’s time to get off now. Any last words for us?

To me, to be considered “stylish” it is much much less about the clothes you wear (read: carrying a Channel 22.5 does not automatically confer you style goddess status) Rather its more about how you wear those clothes and how you carry yourself in them and who you are as a person which will transcend and transform any outfit. Clothes should be an extension of identity; a personal expression and not a comformative measure.

Thanks Lari, we’ve enjoyed having you along for the ride!

for the rest of the shots, please click on over to our flickr slideshow