This Is Morgs: People to Watch - Sarah Koyi Lai #165

This weeks people to watch is my friend and 'coffee Sunday co-pilot', Sarah Koyi Lai. She's a kiwi working in fashion here in New York. What's awesome about Sarah is that she has amazing style. I have, on countless occasions, found myself writhing in jealousy over what she's wearing (it's usually an ensemble that only those with a great figure could pull off). She also has a signature perm that's not easy to replicate, and everyone here in New York seems to notice. Sarah is one of those people that is constantly stopped by streetstyle photographers. Just yesterday we were walking along 14th Street and a man politely asked us (I say 'us' but I mean Sarah) for a photograph. Like a true professional Sarah kept a natural stroll as he took his pictures. The result? See below (I also included a few photos I took of Sarah at NYFW in February-enjoy!).

Photo: Lovis Dengler

Sarah and I also had a bit of a chit-chat about her life, here's how it went down:

Where's your motherland aka hometown? Well I'm really from Taipei, Taiwan - but Auckland, NZ is home!

What's your job here in New York? I wish I had a more glamorous reply - in brief, I'm a showroom assistant in the garment district. I do everything from managing production, buying, 'design'/specs, helping sales, to photocopying and buying coffee. What can I say, it pays rent - I can't complain (too much).

Got any rad personal style inspirations? Nothing in particular, I'm embarrassingly illiterate in fashion/pop culture sometimes/mosttimes. I could almost type that sentence twice, that's how much truth it is. I'm embarrassingly illiterate in fashion/pop culture sometimes/mosttimes. I love beautiful and quirky shapes and colours and fabrics.

Cant leave the house without? My face/shoes/keys not really don't know, enough of a clutz to have left the house without those things before - I feel very naked without my rings though. Hands are so interesting. My newest (and first acquisition in New York) is a double claw gold brass from Verameat in East Village, someone actually stopped me in IKEA to take like 360 pictures of it. I'm also on the hunt for a new pinky ring to replace one I lost wandering in the Upper West.

Coffee or Tea? If I could drink coffee full-time without becoming some kind of rabid sleepless creature, I probably would - not for the caffeine, I just really enjoy everything about it. I drink a lot of tea too though. I think coffee is my favourite food. Yes - food.

Fav NZ designer? - Oh don't throw this one on me! I think NZ is small enough that everyone who's been around enough has done really well in their field (and that's not just me being PC, cos you know very well I'm a far cry from). There's bits and pieces of (almost) everyone that I admire. If it counts, a favourite piece I own would be a two hands necklace I was given [to me] after an internship I did at Cybele - I really want another one as I've really worn mine out, but they were never for sale to begin with. It kind of reminds me of Buddhist art, there's a peace to it which I love. A Bowery Coffee barista also commented he liked it because it reminded him of Disney's Atlantis, which I thought was very cute. One day I'm going to see if I can get it re-plated.

Scariest place in New York? Hmm another toughie! I don't think it's scary, except the crazies and the tourists. I don't actually mind the tourists so much, as unpleasant as it is - you should expect no less when you go to a main street in SoHo on a Saturday arvo, or something of the sort. It's part of the New York package.

The homeless/drunks/crazies are a bit more touch-and-go - I think no one really knows how to react. It feels like most people want to help, but there's just so many people that need it, you really can't do anything so you don't. You also don't really want to step out too much to help a stranger sometimes because there are a lot of REAL NUTJOBS/scams.

The social disparity here is quite a shock still, up until NY, it's never really hit me how nice it would be to be really wealthy. The extravagance of wealth here is quite scary. I'm still super uncomfortable about doormen - I really can't comprehend that someone's full time job, is to wait and open doors for people - and that there are people who are okay with that. It's probably the one place I've lived that I've sometimes felt guilty about what I'd consider necessities. I'm no preaching OWS-er, hell look at me talk about nice clothes and good food, but it makes me curious how "the 1%" live.

This turned a bit serious, didn't it? New York's a strange place, but I'm still glad to be experiencing it.

What do you miss about home? THE CAFES oh-em-gee, I miss miss miss the coffee, and the cafe culture (people at home, you don't know how good you have it!!). They don't know how to make a real flat white here!! I miss being able to just lie down on (unfenced) grass without hesitating because of all the dogs/people pissing everywhere or being worried about stray needles or goodness knows. I miss my friends too, but I think almost everyone's moved to bloody Melbourne, so they're not really home any more!

Finish this sentence, right now I wish I had… my full shoe wardrobe, I really should have brought more with me. I haven't found anything I LOVE here (crazy I know). I probably just haven't dedicated the time to shopping, cos working 9-5's (more like 9-8's), and weekend shopping just makes me want to curl into foetal position and hide forever in a very very quiet corner. Actually, I just wish I had a whole lot of new shopping, that would make me so happy right now. It's so shallow but what the hell, it's the truth.