New York City, June 11, 2015

★★ The haze was thick enough that it showed in the foreground. Pale-skinned people were flushing pink, in suit or shorts alike. In the hot sidewalk mass of waiting streetwear shoppers, some loyalists maintained their commitment to hoodies, a thermal shirt, a flannel, even as one young woman at the rear of the line whooped with relief at a gust of breeze. People gathered on the fake-turfed hotel rooftop around a table, under a fuzzy boom microphone. Air conditioner drips splatted off the facade of the Helmut Lang store, and rust streaked the dark metal. On the jaywalk between cars, the tailpipe heat was choking.