Silke Tudor, age 35,

I definitely use clothes—it’s not just throwing something on to get through the day. I use clothes to adjust my mental state and how I relate to the world. It wasn't my initial intention, but I realized the world relates to me differently depending on what I wear.

Sometimes I’ll dress in order to generate a mood. If I’m feeling kind of blue, and I don’t want to be blue, I’ll wear something that’s antithetical to my mood, and it will shift it a little because people generally respond positively to the color.

My parents tell me that when I was a little girl I would go off to preschool—I was very independent and we lived in a small town in California called Isla Vista at the time. I would go marching off to preschool, and by the time I'd get there, I'd be wearing layers and layers and layers of clothes, because I would stop off at the free boxes and put on four skirts and as many shirts as I could wear. I'd tie things around me, and I'd just show up, kind of like a little ragamuffin. A free box is a kind of hippie commune thing, where people could "Take a shirt and leave a shirt." People in the community would share clothes and help the homeless.

I'm from San Francisco where there is a greater whimsical and childlike quality. In New York, even those who are making a profession of playing, like performance artists or people who throw events and parties, are very serious.

But in San Francisco hardly anyone notices me. I get a lot more attention on the streets in New York. I think that in San Francisco, people try to act like nothing is ever out of the ordinary. You're not supposed to make a fuss about how people look or what they do. New Yorkers are actually friendlier. There's more engagement.