New York City
Inhaler: Warsaw /
Sour Tour Bus: NYC, Day 1 /
If you know me, you know I love a good pop-up and I love some good outfits, so when Olivia Rodrigo’s tour had a New York pop-up and a prom theme, I had to be there. The icing on the cake was I even made some friends in line (literally the cutest humans)!
Still Woozy: Brooklyn Steel /
I would like to insert a special shoutout to the tall-ish girl who let me stand in front of her after we weren’t allowed pit access. She literally saved these shots.
Finneas: New York, Night 1 /
Standing in the back of the venue, as it steadily filled with buzzing voices, I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. The atmosphere before Finneas’ first sold-out night at Irving Plaza was was fun, goofy, happy—quite different from his melancholy indie pop songs. I’m usually pretty good at describing emotions in my room or in myself, but this was stumping me.
Why did this room feel so exuberant?
It didn’t make sense to me.
Still unable to shake the mystery, I made my way to the front, to the pit, where I’d be shooting the first three songs of each set. While I’m up there, I get a front row seat, yes, to the artist, but also the crowd. Draped over the barricade was a pride flag. On the corner to my left, a bouquet of white hydrangeas was perched in someone’s hand. Held over the metal wall and into the air were signs with stars and hearts—and Finneas’ face, depicted as a photo and as a cartoon (think Phinehas and Ferb). At one point, the folks towards the front each held up their signs so everyone in the balcony and in the back could see them. They were met with laughter, cheers, and cameras. There was this joyful affection, but not in the overtly sexual way you see at some shows.
This was something else.
The crowd began singing the Phinehas and Ferb theme song and I could see two of the security dudes to my right—twice as big as I am and a little bit older—laughed at the commotion.
Have you ever heard of anything so wholesome?
As I sat—with admittedly terrible posture—against the barricade, I realized what it was. Much of the crowd is under 30 and likely sees a lot of themselves in Finneas’ sister Billie (Eilish). They feel seen, understood; they’ve found camaraderie in her willingness to say what she thinks, to wear what she likes, to continue changing herself and the world, no matter what.
And if you see Billie as your peer, if you see yourself reflected in her bright tees and tight corsets and blunt poetic lyricism, then it’s likely you also see Finneas as a sort of older brother to you, too.
It’s true to his online persona, making dad jokes on Tik Tok and hanging out with his girlfriend and dog.
Suddenly it all made sense.
Everyone felt safe to show up as their happiest, goofiest, nerdiest selves, to sing some sad songs together and in that, to make them some of the happiest songs.
I looked around again, at the upturned faces.
There’s space to be here.
There’s space to be here, to breathe here (no really, the security has made sure of it). Because if there’s one thing a good big brother does, it’s create space for you be yourself. It’s to set an example of speaking the truth, even if you’re still figuring it out. It’s to not being afraid of the hard feelings or hard conversations or hard possibilities—and to choose to love anyways. A good brother is honest and kind and brave and admits he’s still figuring it out, too. And the funny and beautiful thing about someone admitting they’re still figuring it out is it creates space for you to figure it out, too.
You’re safe to be here.
You can be yourself here: happy or sad, messy or best dressed, complicated and figuring it out. You can bring your art or your flag or your flowers and hold them above your head as you cry or as you dance. You can cry to a love song or dance to the hope of the end of it all but maybe, just maybe, tonight you’re okay in the in between.
And more than that,
tonight might just leave you feeling
more like an optimist.
6 months in New York /
Today marks 6 months in New York. Well, more like 6 months and 2 hours. Kassie and I arrived at Lindsay’s apartment in Brooklyn around 10pm on the night of July 9th.
I didn’t realize that until this moment—as I wrote that date—that it’s the same date Taylor Swift wrote about in “Last Kiss” (don’t worry—I’ll update this link to Taylor’s Version as soon as it debuts):
“That July 9th:
The beat of your heart—
It jumps through your shirt.
I can still feel your arms,
But now I’ll go sit on the floor,
Wearing your clothes.
All that I know is
I don’t know how to be something you miss.
I never thought we’d have a last kiss.
Never imagined we’d end like this;
Your name, forever the name on my lips”
My July 9th felt very different—an adventure, an arrival—but it also felt similarly because leaving and breaking up are both different sides of the same coin of grief. But sometimes endings look strangely like beginnings. It’s why I have a sunrise and sunset mirrored on my finger. Even in the beauty of a beginning is the necessary grief of the parallel ending.
And the last 6 months have been this dance of loss and gain. Loss of sleep, gain of friends. Loss of one job, gain of another. Losses and gains of weight and stress and money. I’m learning to value the calm and the steady: the fresh air and a friendly face and a sunny day.
No choice or change is without loss or opportunity cost, but you have to decide what’s worth it, even if you don’t know the ending. Because you never really know the ending. All you can do is factor in everything you know and lean into the feeling of what you hope for, believing it exists. This is true for love, for adventures, for new cities and new dreams.
So I think all I can truly ask myself after 6 months is: has it been worth it? And all I can reply is the cliche of a resounding YES.
*And I’m posting this a day late because I watched the new season of Search Party and had dinner with friends and forgot about posting this, which really speaks more to the goodness of life than any photo, don’t you think?
photo by my friend Michael on a good day
Inhaler: Mercury Lounge, New York /
While I listened to Inhaler on my way to their show, that was my only exposure to them prior to shooting their set. However, the crowd was super kind and welcoming, the music was great, and these are some of my favorite rock’n’roll-esque photos I’ve ever taken. Like ever. I hope you enjoy them!
Harryween, Night 1: Fan Fashion /
If you’ve been around here for a minute, you know I’ve document Harry Styles’ fans’ fashion at almost every single New York show (night 1 and night 3). But the Harryween show: that was my Met Gala. I have been looking forward to this night for SO long and I definitely went a bit overboard, documenting over 200 (!!!) looks!
With each show, I’ve organized the photos in different categories, mostly for my own sanity. For this show, I arranged them in correlation with the song titles from Harry’s two albums. Enjoy!
P.S. If you’re in this post, details on how to obtain your image are at the bottom. Thank you!
1. Meet Me in… Madison Square Garden
Imagine being the person Harry dressed like, because I cannot imagine.
2. Sign of the Times
3. Carolina
4. Two Ghosts
5. Sweet Creature
6. Only Angel
7. Kiwi
This category/song title I took a little less literally and based the section on the line about the black dress—so the looks are black dresses or all-black outfits.
8. Ever Since New York
This section I made about creativity and nostalgia and the way we will all feel looking back on this someday.
9. Woman
Yes, I stretched this category a little, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. I took the “romantic comedies” line and just turned it into a section of movie-and-character-inspired outfits!
10. From the Dining Table
This is very literal. These costumes are things you’d find on a dining table. By that I mean food.
1. Golden
2. Watermelon Sugar
I put all the Grammy’s inspired looks here (from the “Watermelon Sugar” performance) and the watermelon and strawberry looks.
3. Adore You
First of all, I am obsessed with this group “Adore You” costume. Second, I really ran with the fish theme and included our other “under the sea” outfits here, too.
4. Lights Up
5. Cherry
We had a lot of fun pink outfits, so while, yes, I know cherries are mostly red, I felt like it still sort of worked and all felt cute together. And when you listen to “Cherry” it really feels like a pastel song.
6. Falling
They made this replica outfit to look like something worn at the real Los Angeles Beachwood Cafe!
Fall outfits… the song “Falling.” Yes, this is a bad dad joke.
The yellow suit outfit is a replica of what Harry wore to the 2020 BRIT Awards where he performed—you guessed it—”Falling.”
7. To Be So Lonely
Is anyone more lonely than superheroes and superstars?
8. She
9. Sunflower, Vol. 6
10. Canyon Moon
11. Treat People With Kindness
This category sort of became a catch-all, especially for groups, but that doesn’t mean your costume wasn’t amazing! That just means your energy and care for each other and kindness was what shone through the most.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you!
If you let me take your photo, thank you for trusting me. If you’re simply reading this, thank you for gifting me with your time. It’s our most irreplaceable individual resource and it means a lot to know you’d spend some of yours with me and my stories and my art.
If you see your face in this post and would like a copy of that photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting cheerful and excited dm’s! Send away—I love meeting y’all! But for more logistical things like getting you your photo, email is more effective: dm’s get buried super easily and we don’t want that. Let me know which photo is you and I’ll send it to you as soon as I can! Feel free to use it on social media, but please caption-tag me (@estorie on Instagram, @estorieco on Twitter, and @estoriethegirl on Tik Tok—yes, I wish bots didn’t snatch my matching handles, too). Please don’t crop, edit, or otherwise change the images. If you want to use them anywhere else (publications, promotional material, anything published online or in a physical form, etc.), just shoot me an email and we can talk details. Sound good?
If you enjoyed this post and would like to work with me, the same is true. Just send me an email: estorie@outlook.com! I’m available for articles, portraits, live music shoots, street style—and whatever other ideas you might have.
If you enjoyed this post (start-to-finish, all of this—shooting, culling, editing, writing, uploading—took about 14 hours!) and would like to support me as an artist, my venmo is @estorie! Thank you!
12. Fine Line
Harry Styles, Love On Tour New York: Fan Fashion, Pt. 2 /
Welcome back to fan fashion at Harry Styles Love On Tour! Last time, I grouped the photos by a variety of different categories and I found that worked really well. So this time I did the same thing, but with different categories—primarily by color and described by lyrics. The first set of photos is the only exception, as I couldn’t resist a good Gossip Girl pun for the steps images. Can you blame me?
You know you love me…
xoxo, Love On Tour
On a couple different occasions, I ran into the same people I photographed on night one! Our friendly banana sunflower was one of those! I love that this creative endeavor has now become an avenue of connection. If you ask me why I love photography, that opportunity for connection is at the top of the list.
“strawberry lipstick state of mind”
If you guessed that this section is full of pink and pink-adjacent outfits, then you’re right!
“in a black dress”
Soooo… I took some liberties with this section (meaning if one person in the group had one article of black clothing, I put the photo here), but I feel like it all still vibes, right?
Remember the sparkly cowboy hat from October 3rd? She’s baaaaaack! Once again, I loved recognizing folks from the early tour date. So fun!
“pay attention, I hope that you listen,
'cause I let my guard down”
This show had some amazing earrings and they definitely merited their own section.
“same lips red, same eyes blue”
This section is all about those red and blue outfits (duh).
can someone find me a Harry Styles lyric
about the color green?
“you’re so golden”
Both sides of this sign had Taylor Swift lyrics and honestly we love to see it.
“I've got your face, hung up high in the gallery”
While signs stole the show during the first MSG show, it was the cardboard cutouts that dominated the third sold-out night. The queen of England was my particular favorite, but I was informed that the last fellow is actually someone in Harry’s band—with his face stuck on Harry’s body, which is pretty funny.
“she’s dressed as a banana”
This photo was really cute and didn’t fit in any exact category so it’s bookending this post (or maybe just ending it). But I want to specifically clarify that I am not implying that anyone in this image is a banana.
The End
If you’ve made it this far, thank you!
If you let me take your photo, thank you for trusting me. If you’re simply reading this, thank you for gifting me with your time. It’s our most irreplaceable individual resource and it means a lot to know you’d spend some of yours with me and my stories and my art.
If you see your face in this post and would like a copy of that photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting cheerful and excited dm’s! Send away—I love meeting y’all! But for more logistical things like getting you your photo, email is more effective: dm’s get buried super easily and we don’t want that. Let me know which photo is you and I’ll send it to you as soon as I can! Feel free to use it on social media, but please caption-tag me (@estorie on Instagram, @estorieco on Twitter, and @estoriethegirl on Tik Tok—yes, I wish bots didn’t snatch my matching handles, too). If you want to use it anywhere else (publications, promotional material, anything published online or in a physical form, etc.), just shoot me an email and we can talk details. Sound good?
If you enjoyed this post and would like to work with me, the same is true. Just send me an email: estorie@outlook.com! I’m available for articles, portraits, live music shoots, street style—and whatever other ideas you might have.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to support me as an artist, my venmo is @estorie! Thank you!
Harry Styles, Love on Tour New York: Fan Fashion /
Over the pandemic, I thought a lot and wrote a little about the way fans shape a concert experience. That’s why livestreams—while a creative shift during a difficult season—weren’t the same. So much of a live music experience is in the way we experience it together. Even if you show up alone, you aren’t alone, not really.
I knew this intellectually, but it didn’t really set in fully until I went to a One Direction dance party about a month ago.
There was no band there, just a DJ, but everyone still dressed up. In some ways, they dressed up even more than they would at a One Direction show because there was no chance that any band member would see them, so they could be their funnest, nerdiest fan selves. They showed up in the most unique shirts and outfits and they showed up ready to dance. I think this is fan culture and community at its best and most pure and most beautiful.
My friend Maggie and I ended up at the back of the room and to our right was a group of friends. I don’t even remember the song, but at one point they put their arms around each other, singing and dancing and and jumping and swaying. Tonight. Together. Happy. Alive.
I knew I was going to write this story for this blog post after that dance party. Then this morning I woke up to a video of the Kiwi Pit. Watch this and tell me it’s not about the feeling, it’s not about being together, it’s not about the midnight memories we make dancing together to the best song ever (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
This post is divided into titled sections and there’s information at the very bottom about how to get ahold of me if you see yourself in one of the photos or if you’d like to hire me! Thank you for reading, for showing up, for dancing.
Close-Ups
Some folks had an accessory or wardrobe highlight or tattoo that really popped and they were kind enough to say “yes” when I asked for an extra photo.
Sign(s) of the Times
The Power of Harry Lambert
A quick aside: I asked the folks above for a photo, assuming they were all friends and coordinated this look. When I finished shooting, I asked them if they planned it. Not only did they not plan it, but they didn’t even know each other! They literally just randomly ended up in line together—the odds!
If you’re new here, Harry Lambert is Harry Styles’ stylist and one of the top people I’d want to work with someday (if you’re reading this, please email me: estorie@outlook.com!). I studied styling and really respect his eye and the way he can put together a unique outfit that embodies what’s next. Innovation and creativity. That’s the thing.
He was the one who put Harry in the iconic leather suit and boa outfit at the Grammy’s. That look was worn one single night and Harry hasn’t been spotted in a boa since. But you wouldn’t believe how many boas I saw outside Madison Square Garden. That man’s power to influence an entire generation of fashion! We love to see it.
One of the other iconic looks he’s revived is 70’s-style pants (and pantsuits) that we have seen on Harry Styles since his 2017-2018 tour.
Last but not least, Harry Lambert styled Harry Styles in the now-Tik-Tok-viral JW Anderson cardigan. Harry Styles wore this look on Good Morning America in late 2019. Shortly after, the pandemic hit and homebound fans took to learning knitting and crocheting, teaching themselves how to make this cardigan. Instead of getting annoyed at the imitations or trying to shut them down, the brand instead responded with gratefulness, thanking fans and even releasing their exact pattern to make creating it even easier! That’s really treating people with kindness, am I right?
Fan-Made
No shade to Harry Styles & co., but the Harry Styles fan-made merch consistently blows the “official” merch out of the water. If you spend any amount of time on Harry Styles (or One Direction) Tik Tok, you’re bound to see creative stickers, phone cases, necklaces, shirts, and sweaters. Please link me to your favorite creators by commenting below so I can go Christmas shopping for my sister!
To Be So Lonely
Just kidding, I don’t think going anywhere alone has to be lonely. Honestly, it can be pretty fun! As someone who has gone to a lot of concerts alone, I have so much respect for the folks who love something enough to show up alone, all dressed up and ready to dance in a crowd full of strangers. It’s a unique sort of bravery and vulnerability. And that’s far more beautiful than lonely.
Two Pretty Best Friends
I would like to submit these images as proof that two pretty best friends do indeed exist.
'Cause your friends,
They look good and you look better
Name that song!
Berries (and Watermelons and Bananas) and Cream!
If you’re wondering why “she’s dressed as a banana,” just watch this.
The End
If you’ve made it this far, thank you!
If you let me take your photo, thank you for trusting me. If you’re simply reading this, thank you for gifting me with your time. It’s our most irreplaceable individual resource and it means a lot to know you’d spend some of yours with me and my stories and my art.
If you see your face in this post and would like a copy of that photo, please email me at estorie@outlook.com. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting cheerful and excited dm’s! Send away—I love meeting y’all! But for more logistical things like getting you your photo, email is more effective: dm’s get buried super easily and we don’t want that. Let me know which photo is you and I’ll send it to you as soon as I can! Feel free to use it on social media, but please caption-tag me (@estorie on Instagram, @estorieco on Twitter, and @estoriethegirl on Tik Tok—yes, I wish bots didn’t snatch my matching handles, too). If you want to use it anywhere else (publications, promotional material, anything published online or in a physical form, etc.), just shoot me an email and we can talk details. Sound good?
If you enjoyed this post and would like to work with me, the same is true. Just send me an email: estorie@outlook.com! I’m available for articles, portraits, live music shoots, street style—and whatever other ideas you might have.
If you enjoyed this post (start-to-finish, all of this—shooting, culling, editing, writing, uploading—took about 10 hours!) and would like to support me as an artist, my venmo is @estorie! Thank you!
