Introducing Syd

Sydney ( who goes by "Syd”) opens the door to her home in Crown Heights - the same house she grew up in - and tells us that, “If someone comes here I want them to leave feeling better”. Since it was her childhood home, she’s taken out a lot of the things that used to fill it, and made it into a space for her to be able to think and create, decorated purposefully (mainly yellow for astrological reasons) in a way that allows her mental space. She meditates and spends a lot of time spiritually charging the space around her: “Since this is my old family home I had to re-birth it and make it into my space, so it’s an actual creative hub. It feels like a recharging zone”, she explains. She grew up in this house, but at one time or another she’s lived in every borough of New York, studying dance and ballet at the legendary Fame school for performing arts when she was younger. “We were dancing on tables and s**t until they told us no!” she laughs, remembering her time there.

Her friends describe her as “the mother warrior”, because, as a young queer polyamorous black woman, Syd has always felt that she was fighting against society in some form or another; fun, caring, and trustworthy, she likes to think her friends would say she was like “lightning” because she always appears “rumbling like thunder to shake s**t up”, continually inspired by life and everything around her. We haven’t even left yet and we’re already feeling better.

Let’s start with having you explain your style to us, Syd...

I would describe my style as eccentric, it depends on whatever I want to blend with that day. Not blending into my surroundings but blending into whatever energy I feel. I’m inspired by so many things in the world that sometimes I want to embody different things each day. One day I might want to wear green and be like a floating fairy. Tomorrow I need to be Prince in 1987 coming out with my hair all sticking up with platforms and leather pants. I jump from style to style, mood to mood. Love a good wig, I just like to embody the mood and whatever I feel in the day.

Would your friends describe your style any differently do you think?

I think my friends would describe me the same way, if anything they would say I’m like a canvas and then I paint clothes on me. The paint can be watercolor paint, acrylic paint, it can be metallic paint. 

Thinking of your friends, what’s your ‘style/fashion role’ in the group?

I would say that I lead and inspire, all my friends have at least one or two articles of clothing that belong to me. They all come to my house and take my clothes. They love my stuff. 

Who inspires you style-wise?

My mom, my grandparents, and I’m more inspired by eras than people. I love Prince, Janet Jackson etc. The eighties and nighties were really big for these people so I loved them at that time, Chaka Khan. I love what they represented.

If you could ‘steal’ one person [in the public eye’s] closet, whose closet would you steal and why?

• Princess Diana - I loved her athleisure looks and also in her own outfits, she would rise up to a certain air.

• Prince

• Rihanna

Where are the other places you’re getting style/fashion influence from?

The spiritual stuff that I’m learning comes from eastern cultures and I look at videos of this stuff all day long, looking at their music and how they’re moving, their clothing.

Where are your three favorite stores to shop in for clothing/apparel?

Any Goodwill thrift shop, because they’re cheap and have a one-of-a-kind feel. Moshood in Brooklyn, so good but expensive, their stuff is hot. Cool prints, cool colors. Estate sales, I just got into that. There are a lot in the south. I hardly ever go into stores.

Does the experience of those stores matter to you too?

The store experience can be important. The people there might make me want to come back, I’m not just a customer to them. I’m inheriting something at these thrift stores. Moshood isn't like a huge brand you can find. You’re only going to get this stuff here and they’ve been making it forever now. They’re putting their time into it and their investment, the energetic investment as well.

What are your favorite brands?

• Dr Martens

• MJ Jewellers

• I’ve been off the brand wave for a long time. I inherit things from people all the time.

What are your top priorities when it comes to buying new items of clothing?

I don’t give a f**k about a price, if I want it I’ll get it.

How many pairs of shoes, any shoes, do you own?

A s**t ton. I have 3 bins of shoes in my house right now that I don’t even wear, I need to give one of them away and the others decide if I’m going to keep them. I have about 13-20 pairs of shoes I’m wearing right now.

If you had to split them up into categories and write a percentage next to them [what, math!] what would that look like?

20% - sneakers

60% platforms

20 % randoms, could be slip ons, whatever

What type of shoe would we typically find you in, if you there is a ‘typical shoe’ for you?

Boots and platforms. I’m only 5ft6 and people think I’m 5ft9 because I’m always in high boots.

And what are the most important things for you when it comes to buying your favorite kind of shoe?

Size, because I wear a size 9-10 depending on who makes it, color and uniqueness, eccentricity and how they look on me. Am I pump or nah?

What about your favorite brands for shoes? Who do you always end up going to?

Dr Martens religiously, I’ve been getting into Dolls Kill and Naked Wolf too, they just have hot boots.

And what about your favorite shoe stores, again - on or offline? What makes them your favorite stores?

Goodwill, anything second hand, Salvation Army, they just have s**t I’m not going to find elsewhere.I only go into other stores to buy shoes, because I have to try them on. If I didn’t have to try them on I wouldn’t go to the store. Maybe I’ll go and try the shoe on in store and then try to find a different version of it online.