About two years ago, I was being shown around Orange County, California. Up until then, everything I knew about the OC was from MTV's "Laguna Beach." In reality, I noticed a uniform that Stephen Colletti could only give us the PG version of: flat-brimmed baseball hats, Vans sneakers with socks pulled way up, cargo shorts and plaid shirts with the top button done. Very "Jesse James Goes To The Beach." I thought about how unique that look was to Southern California, and how every region of our country has its native style. I'm from Connecticut, and there's definitely a dress code there too: It often involves Indian print shirts, cable-knit sweaters and/or a deliberately distressed baseball cap.
I wanted to catalog all the different uniforms across the country, and that's when the idea for HuffPost Style's new video series was born.
Now, thousands miles and many invasions of strangers' lives later, I'm proud to debut United States in Style.
For our first trip we went big: the state of New Mexico. Along with our filming crew, travel buddies and fellow Beyoncé fans Lily Mandelbaum and Andrea Cruz of StyleLikeU, we hit Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos. We met three particularly fascinating and stylish people who I'm happy to share with you: former fashion editor Nathalie Kent and photographer Jim Arndt, and Carol Melting Tallow, a Blackfoot dancer and fashion designer from the Blood Tribe. You can see their stories and more in the episode above.
Every Thursday for the next five weeks, you'll see styles and stories from Florida, Oregon, Iowa, and Massachusetts. Check back with us soon.
For more on the United States in Style, click here.
Street style comes in all shapes and sizes:
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