These images from the July Elle Taiwan capture gritty California style: acid-washed jeans, lace-up sneakers, itty-bitty hot pants, tousled hair. Mix in the graffiti and skateboards and I'm sold. In general, I root for the sporty-downtown-cool-chick type in magazine spreads and lookbooks versus the pretty-polished-stiletto-wearing-woman. These kinds of styles seem effortless and not overly calculated (I think the model above is even sporting a candy necklace), which is why I love them.