“New York is dead!” “Fashion week is over!” Don’t believe the headlines, friends. This September will certainly be one of the quietest our city has experienced, with a mostly-virtual NYFW schedule and a noticeable lack of international editors, buyers, and models on the streets. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening. We’re looking forward to seeing what designers come up with in lieu of IRL shows, and since we aren’t zigzagging between Manhattan and Brooklyn for back-to-back shows, we may even have more time to catch up on the latest news and shows. The one major downside? Few physical events and a fraction of editors to photograph means there won’t be much of an opportunity for Phil Oh’s must-see street-style coverage. During a typical New York Fashion Week, he might publish more than 200 photos in the course of seven days; this week, it might not be possible to shoot at all.
The prospect of a street style-less NYFW inspired us to look back at some of Oh’s coverage through the years. The process quickly became a reminder of just how creative, energetic, and flat-out wild street style can be in New York—and how ridiculous it is to suggest that it could disappear in a single season. New York is definitely not over, and neither is New York Fashion Week; both are resilient, and both are likely to change for the better. Here, scroll through 44 of Oh’s very best New York street style photos—in reverse chronological order, all the way back to 2011—for a dose of inspiration on Day One of the spring 2021 shows.