Plaids in Public

I watched Bill Cunningham New York the other night, a documentary about the street fashion photographer, and it inspired me to take my camera out on the street again. 

It's so cold here, people are well-covered, mostly in drab colors, but I noticed a lot of plaids. 

John, below right in a hand-tied plaid bow tie, confirmed for me that plaid is in. He also told me that the red and black pattern of the Woolrich jacket isn't a plaid, it's a check, specifically a buffalo check.*  

I've been fretting about the ethics of using photos of people without their knowledge. (It's legal in the U.S., but that's not the point.) 

I finally decided that tempting as it is, I just don't feel right exposing people's faces without their permission, for the most part. (I asked the three people above whose faces show for permission.) 

But I feel fine using body pix, like the ones below. Where faces showed, I blurred the features. They might still be somewhat identifiable, but I don't feel I'm using them.

The scene outside the library that I posted yesterday felt so much like public performance, I'm letting it stand. But I deleted the accompanying photo of the old woman in fur: I sensed even as I took it that she didn't want me to.  

Anyway, ethics & ease aside (it's certainly easier in all sorts of ways not to talk to strangers), for me it's more fun to ask people for permission.

Of course sometimes they tell me to f**k off,  so I have to be prepared for that. In my limited experience, though, most people say yes, pretty happily, and go on and talk about all sorts of cool odds and ends.

Yesterday not only did I learn about buffalo check, but the woman in the plaid cap told me she was buying food for her son's fat hamster. 
"I never thought I could love a hamster," she said, "but I do."
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*Buffalo check fabric was originally used for blankets and lumberman jackets, like Paul Bunyan's. "Plaid" is an American name for Scottish tartan, and that's a whole other ball of yarn.