Crossing the Mississippi: What Memphis taught me about dressing with heart

Why We Were There
I hadn’t seen my big brother in over a year, so when his USL2 team had an away game in Memphis, I didn’t need asking twice. Harrison plays for a club based in Louisiana and watching him run out in a city I’d never been to, with absolutely no agenda beyond “go, Harrison, go” - turned out to be one of the more soulful days of the whole US trip. Sometimes the best style inspiration doesn’t come from a runway. It comes from a quiet Tuesday in Tennessee, cheering for your brother.

A City That Wears Its Contradictions Well
Memphis doesn’t pick a lane, and I loved that. It’s Elvis and gospel and Beale Street blues, with a layer of country twang running underneath - a renegade blend of rock ’n’ roll swagger and small-town warmth that shouldn’t work but somehow does. We swung past Graceland too, I mean you can’t really be in Memphis and not - it’s as much a part of the city’s story as the music itself. Drive a few streets further and you’ll pass grand, columned mansions, then a few more and you’re somewhere far less polished. It’s a real place, not a postcard, and somehow that made the style on show feel more honest — nothing trying too hard, everything meaning something.

Game Day Dressing, Memphis Style
With FIFA fever in full swing globally, the streets had that unmistakable football energy ... club shirts (local and very much international) thrown on over shorts, paired back with whatever felt normal that day. No overthinking, just genuine support dressing. It made me realise how much we could all take from that at home: a jersey isn’t just for the match. Worn with the right knit or under a sharp coat, it’s a genuine look.  It was a quiet weekday when we were there, so we only got a glimpse, but you could feel exactly how the energy (and the outfits) would lift on a weekend.

Crossing the Bridge
One of the strangest, loveliest moments: standing mid-bridge over the Mississippi, with Tennessee behind us and Arkansas ahead, realising the state line runs straight through the water. It felt like the perfect metaphor for Memphis itself; a genuine melting pot of culture, music, food, sport and style, with no hard edges between any of it.

A Quiet Nod
Memphis is also where Dr Martin Luther King Jr was killed, and the National Civil Rights Museum sits there today as a place of real reflection. We didn’t want to rush past that.

It’s impossible to walk through a city shaped by that history without thinking about what it really means to stand in who you are — visibly, unapologetically, on your own terms. That’s not nothing, and it’s part of why personal style, worn with real individualism, will always matter more to me than simply following a trend.

What I’m Bringing Home
Back here in NZ winter, the lesson translates easily: don’t force one mood all day. Some days call for the sporty, easy layer; some call for the going-out glam. Honestly, half the time I can’t decide which one I am until I’m halfway dressed ... and that is exactly why our Plan B service exists. Pick your Plan A and your Plan B, get 30% off the total hire value, and decide on the day depending on how you’re feeling.

No wrong answer, no waste and that’s good for your wardrobe and the planet. Hiring instead of buying that one-off going-out piece extends its life, and just nine extra months of wear can cut a garment’s footprint by 20–30%.

Choose it. Wear it. Return it. Easy!