“I don’t like neutrals, and I never wear black,” Haley Martin, 28, said. “I like to dress like a rainbow.” At Soul Summit in July, a summer music festival held at Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, she sported various colors — olive green, aquamarine and pastel pink among them. “I’m getting positive affirmation from people whenever I go out and I’m colorful,” she added, noting that she has a color wheel in her closet to help her coordinate outfits.
A user-experience designer who recently moved from Austin, Texas, to New York City, she explained that her new home has encouraged her to take more style risks, especially in the office. “I also really like to, at work, set the standard for what is acceptable work wear, because there’s no dress code,” she said. “So I’m just like, someone has to be the one that’s wearing the most crazy thing. And then I think it’ll influence people that are new to tech or new to the corporate world, that they can wear whatever they want.”
Simbarashe Cha is a Times photographer and visual columnist documenting style and fashion around the world.
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