Hi! Welcome back to Wear is She Now Wednesdays, a series that aims to highlight one special girl each week and let her shine! Every Wednesday, we feature a different “she,” and get the scoop on her style, what makes her tick, and how the heck we can learn to be as awesome as she is. Today we’re asking the question everyone wants to know… Wear is Sydney Bradley?

Hi Sydney! Please introduce and tell us all about your wonderful self! 

I am Sydney Bradley, and this — my name — is sometimes a fact I repeat to myself in the mirror in order hype myself up. Not in, like, a pathetic way, but a reminder to myself that “I am Sydney Bradley.” I think this all began when I won a raffle at age 14 to meet Cody Simpson and the announcer said that my name has a ring to it and sounds like someone famous. That may have gotten to my head, just a little.

At this same time in my life, I moved away from New York, where I had grown up, to the South where I stayed for almost seven years. Moving around throughout my adolescence, I developed an impermanence to the places I lived but a strong attachment to the people around me, to the books I always carried, and to the clothes that traveled with me. Then for four years I studied at the University of Virginia — a place that taught me so much, but also took so much from and out of me. If anything came out of my years in living in the South and attending that university, it was that I value honesty and truth, in its best forms.

And this is how I ended up writing (and still pursuing fashion) (whatever “pursuing fashion” actually means). Writing became not only therapeutic in these past few years for me, but a necessary lens or filter for me to process my own and the world around me. My clothes, as well, being both an armor and art form — allowing me to hide beneath layers of colors when things were gray and express every color I had in me when I needed to be bright. This is why my favorite color is yellow. It is bright when I need things to be bright.

Sydney in her signature color, yellow

New York is a nice mixture of grays and yellows, now, I find as I settle into my new life living in Brooklyn. Having returned home to New York, it has been an interesting crossroads between past and present, and vague premonitions of my future. I am now working as an editorial intern for The Face and as a showroom intern for Mode World PR. I have no idea what I am doing and this is all very wild. But — and no I don’t really have a conclusion or any promising words to give — I do have people like Veronica (Wear Is She Now) and my many close friends that lend me inspiration and empowerment unconditionally.

Additional dump of things I really like: beets, also good beats, plantains, Blood Orange, Sex and the City, “Got to be Real,” Lily of the Valley, Jia Tolentino, and morning light.

1. How would you describe your style in 3 words?

bright yellow peacock

2. What was your personal style journey like? (how did you discover it, did you make any mistakes along the way, etc?)

When I was in 9th grade, I made a pact with myself to care about what I wore. Maybe it was being dumped by my first “boyfriend” or maybe it was the transition into High School — who knows. That was the first time when I felt confident though, and my friends like Veronica, Kim, and Kristina all helped me find my style with trips to Salvation Army and our shared closets.

Over the course of many years I went through several phases, notably: Hot Phase (i.e. many push-up bras), Preppy Lite (i.e. wore a lot pleats), Soft Grunge (i.e. I went to private school and wore more black than usual), I Have a Boyfriend (i.e. I wore what he liked, and also we dressed scarily alike), I Am Carrie (i.e. post-breakup Carrie Bradshaw brief obsession), and finally Sydney “fk’n” Bradley (i.e. bright yellow peacock).

3. Who or what inspires your style most currently?

Carrie Bradshaw, indefinitely. And colorful abstract paintings. But recently, what has been shaping my style has been HBO’s Euphoria because of all of the colors, self- expression, and also great costume design.

4. What’s one thing on your thrift list right now?

I have been looking for a fun, colorful mesh top (similar to this one from Need Supply) and for a babydoll dress that doesn’t make me look like a child.

The top from Need Supply that Sydney is on the hunt for

5. What do you hope to be remembered for?

Among many things like being a, uh, good person, I want to be known for what I am able to express and how I express it — whether that be words or through clothes, whatever.

6. And the bonus question I like to ask everyone before they go: What’s something you’re really proud of right now?

I finally started taking care of my feet. I treat my feet terribly because I wear heels most days, but now I treat them with more respect. They carry a lot.

Where else can we find you, Sydney?

My Twitter is sometimes funny, I think, and that is @sydneykbradley. I really love Twitter. My Instagram is @sydneybradley and I am not terribly active but who knows, maybe next week I will be on it more. Or the next. Or never. Otherwise, I am around on the internet, generally speaking.