Angus Hodg­son | 22 | Brook­lyn Archi­tec­ture stu­dent, polit­ics tutor and Rix­on Groove store assist­ant | Wears: made-to-meas­ure Rix­on Groove shirt, G‑Star RAW jeans, boots from Mark Kendall’s. | Describe your style: Went to a semi-form­al event, got stuck. | What makes someone well dressed? Clothes that fit and don’t make pro­por­tions look out of whack.

Cara Hill | 35 | Mt Vic­tor­ia Mar­ket­ing man­ager at Circa Theatre | Wears: Pinup Girl Cloth­ing leo­pard dress, City Chic shrug, boots from Over­land, pet­ti­coats by Hell Bunny and Dom­ino Doll­house. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? My pet­ti­coats – I have 11 of them and wear at least one nearly every day. | What makes someone well dressed? Being com­fort­able and con­fid­ent in your clothes – whatever they may be. Own it.

Chris Hales | 46 | Khan­dal­lah Fash­ion buy­er and retail­er at Good­ness | Wears: Sabat­ini, Deborah Sweeney, Good­ness and shoes from I Love Par­is. | What inspires your style? Whatever I’m feel­ing in the morn­ing, plus I’m inspired by things I see. | What makes someone well dressed? Always chic, cas­u­al and relaxed, but always polished.

Chris Park | 24 | Cent­ral Wel­ling­ton Price­wa­ter­house­Coopers tax con­sult­ant and Wel­ling­ton edit­or at NZ Style Col­lect­ive | Wears: Work­shop T‑shirt, car­digan by 6x4 (his brother’s label), Cheap Monday jeans, ToBe shoes, Michael John Jew­ellery neck­lace, Moo­chi brace­let. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? A good T‑shirt – nice cot­ton, well cut (tailored like a shirt) – and sturdy black skinny jeans. | What inspires your style? I get inspir­a­tion from a lot of street-style blogs, and run­way shows both in New Zea­l­and and overseas.

Chris Tse | 30 | Te Aro Writer and edit­or | Wears: World suit and shirt, Wood Thumb bow tie. | Where are your favour­ite places to shop? World, Crane Broth­ers, Mis­teR, T‑Bar, Top­man | What inspires your style? Cas­u­al, but with an edge. I’m per­fectly happy in a T‑shirt, jeans and sneak­ers, but I love an oppor­tun­ity to dress up.

Christina O | 60 | Brook­lyn Own­er of Hunters & Col­lect­ors | Wears: Vivi­enne West­wood dress, Lela Jac­obs plaited hair cape, 1980s res­in brace­lets from the US, vin­tage rings. | Describe your style: I am into con­cep­tu­al cloth­ing – cloth­ing that is art-based rather than fash­ion. Unusu­al, eclect­ic and rare items. | What makes someone well dressed? A taste for tex­ture, form, lines and a good col­our palette, plus atten­tion to detail.

Con­rad Reyn­ers | 25 | Cent­ral Wel­ling­ton Pub­lic law­yer and video-game crit­ic | Wears: Oswald Boateng suit from Lon­don, Rix­on Groove made-to-meas­ure shirt, bow tie from Kirks. | Describe your style: Quirky but refined, with a clas­sic touch. | What makes someone well dressed? Try­ing new and inter­est­ing things with the con­fid­ence to pull them off. Hav­ing fun with your threads and not really wor­ry­ing what oth­ers might think.

Corinne Blum­sky | Ori­ent­al Bay Pat­ent attor­ney | Wears: Diane von Für­sten­burg dress, Zara jack­et, Chris­ti­an Louboutin booties. | Favour­ite places to shop: Andrea Moore, World, Super­ette, Work­shop, Kim­ber­leys, all Par­is design­ers. | Describe your style: Clas­sic with an edge – I like col­our so [I like to] incor­por­ate some­thing bold.

Derek Elvy | 54 | Kel­burn Asso­ci­ate dir­ect­or of Buoy Hairdress­ing and Mine Medi Spa | Wears: Man­dat­ory Menswear suit and ic! ber­lin glasses. | Describe your style: Arty/punk and eccent­ric. | What makes someone well dressed? People who don’t overthink dress­ing, and seem to be effort­lessly com­fort­able in their skin. The abil­ity to make the ordin­ary cool and inspiring.

James Gard­ner-Hop­kins | Te Aro Envir­on­ment­al law­yer | Wears: Jef­fery West shoes, off-the-rack suit, detailed shirt and an over­coat found at Kirks. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? A decent over­coat, par­tic­u­larly in Wel­ling­ton. I had a vel­vet one that I loved but I wore it out. | Where are your favour­ite places to shop? Out-of-the-way places. I get my many-buttoned shirts from a hid­den-away store in Sydney. I vis­it once a year and I still don’t tell any­one where it is!

Jam­ie-Lee Burns | 25 | Miramar Exec­ut­ive assist­ant, fash­ion blog­ger (mademois-elle.com) and stu­dent | Wears: Acne blouse, J Brand jeans, T by Alex­an­der Wang car­digan, Diane von Für­sten­burg heels. | What inspires your style? I’m inspired mostly by that effort­less Parisi­an look, which is quite min­im­al, as well as the Scand­inavi­an aes­thet­ic. Not too many pat­terns, and mixed pro­por­tions. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? My Kar­en Walk­er coat – I recently had to take it to the dry-clean­er and felt lost without it, espe­cially dur­ing the Wel­ling­ton winter.

Jane Dip­lock | Roseneath Dir­ect­or of Aus­trali­an Fin­an­cial Ser­vices Group | Wears: pink flor­al suit. | Describe your style: Tailored, lady-like, fun. | Where are your favour­ite places to shop? I buy online, and in Wel­ling­ton and Singa­pore. I have some things tailored by a won­der­ful loc­al dressmaker.

Lorenzo Bresolin | 31 | Lyall Bay Res­taur­at­eur | Wears: coat from Hunters & Col­lect­ors, World car­digan, blue suede shoes. | What item of cloth­ing can’t you live without? My father’s box of ties, scarves and cravats. I love pat­terns, col­ours and tex­tures. | What makes someone well dressed? You have to be com­fort­able in what you’re wearing.

Mar­tin Brown | 45 | Cuba Street Own­er of Brown & Co. | Wears: Little Broth­er shirt, Tom Ford bow tie, Crane Broth­ers blazer, Lan­vin trousers and lapel pin, Mar­tin Mar­giela shoes, Comme des Garçons belt and socks. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? I can’t live without good-qual­ity socks. Invest in qual­ity hosiery – noth­ing ruins an out­fit more than cheap socks! | Describe your style: Every morn­ing, dress like you have a premiere to attend – you nev­er want to be under­dressed for that cock­tail party you com­pletely for­got about.

Melissa Pear­son | Cent­ral Wel­ling­ton PR and media rela­tions, includ­ing for Wel­ling­ton Fash­ion Week | Wears: L’Officiel dress from Style on Jack­son Street, Nord­strom jack­et, boots from Duo Boots. | What are your favour­ite places to shop? Zig­gur­at, Style on Jack­son, Trel­ise Cooper, Kar­en Walk­er, Cue, op shops. | Describe your style: Clas­sic, tailored and feminine.

Nic­ola Prov­ost | 25 | Evans Bay Man­ager of Zambe­si Wel­ling­ton | Wears: Zambe­si bod­ice and patio pant, Mar­tin Mar­giela belt and cyl­in­der heels. | What inspires your style? I put on whatever I feel like wear­ing in the morn­ing when I open my ward­robe. | What makes someone well dressed? It changes every day! Style is etern­al, fash­ion changes.

Rex Mas­sey-Mol­loy | 43 | Miramar Dir­ect­or of Work­ing Style | Wears: Work­ing Style everything, Breitling Superocean watch. | What inspires your style? My style is prob­ably based in con­ser­vat­ism. I push the boat out occa­sion­ally, but then I have the lux­ury of not hav­ing to fit into a cor­por­ate envir­on­ment and can gen­er­ally wear what I please. | What makes someone well dressed? Style should be effort­less. A per­son shouldn’t spend a lot of time or effort on it as the res­ult is often over­done. Style is some­thing we can work on our entire lives, tak­ing inspir­a­tion from here and there.

Ruby Hig­gins | 22 | Te Aro Mod­el, presenter and food blog­ger | Wears: Vin­tage shoes from Search & Des­troy, boyfriend’s jeans, In-N-Out Bur­ger T‑shirt, vin­tage wool coat. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? My Wu-Tang sweat­er. I wish I was wear­ing it tonight, it’s so badass! I also love coats and jack­ets, I have about 50! This white one is my cur­rent favour­ite. | What inspires your style? I don’t have a par­tic­u­lar style icon, but I guess I’m influ­enced by what I see on the street and what my friends wear. I would describe my style as very casual.

Susan Hornsby-Geluk | 42 | CBD/Pekapeka Man­aging part­ner of Dun­das Street law firm | Wears: Orange bro­cade vest and neck­lace from Anton’s in Mel­bourne, John Cav­ill liz­ard-skin jack­et, Zambe­si tie. | What item of cloth­ing could you not live without? A tie from Assins in Mel­bourne, made from crys­tal diamante beads. It is fab­ulous. It sparkles. You can’t have it. | What makes someone well dressed? It’s where you can own your look with con­fid­ence, not apology.

Twyla Bell | 25, Aro Val­ley Man­ager of The Hangar (Flight Cof­fee) | Wears: Pleated skirt from Cos­mic, Glas­sons velour crop top, vin­tage boots from Empori­um, Kitty Gang bean­ie, neck­lace by Kris Gil­lan. | What makes someone well dressed? Being your­self, dress­ing to your shape, not wor­ry­ing about what’s ‘in fash­ion’. | What inspires your style? My fant­ast­ic friends and Ins­tagram. I love a mix­ture of pin-up and street style.