Yesterday, one of my colleagues over at NSMBL posted an article on this intriguing video by Garage Magazine about the fact that streetstyle is exploding in the fashion industry at the moment, and might become more important then the fashion shows themselves. Seeing this interesting video made me feel like giving my opinion on this.

Fashion capitals
All the big fashion designers are showing during the fashion weeks in the so-called ‘fashion capitals’, which are New York, London, Milan and Paris. Though I’ve never been to one of these big fashion weeks yet – I say yet, because I might visit one sooner than you think, maybe more on that later – I know these fashion shows aren’t easy to get in, and thus these shows are only visited by the crème de la crème in the fashion industry. It won’t be any surprise these people probably are dressed superb and so it might be interesting for big photographers to shoot them while they’re on their way to a fashion show.

Out of town visitors
As you’ve probably mentioned in this video, according to The Guardian there where about 232.000 out of town visitors in 2012 at New York Fashion Week alone. Why were these people visiting the fashion week? For professional reasons, to be visiting the shows or just to get snapped by the famous Schuman’s, Doré’s and Ton’s? This might be a relevant question to ask.

Bloggers
But doesn’t all this hectic about all the streetstyle photographers happened some time ago with the fashion bloggers? I was told one out of three girls in Sweden has her own blog – rediculous, right? – but how many of them are really making any success or will survive out of this enormous pile of fashion bloggers? Though I’m really thankful and happy for all the opportunities my blog has giving me, I totally realize I’m not the new Tavi Gevinson, Elin Kling, Hanneli Mustaparta, Susie Bubble or Bryanboy. And how many of these ‘streetstyle kings and queens’ you can see in this video will continue to have success, being shot at the streets of these major fashion cities? I highly doubt this madness about streetstyle photographers will continue to appear for year after year.

Street?
Now don’t get me wrong, I can be so amazed about streetstyle shots taken of fashion influencers like Anna Dello Russo or Miroslava Duma, but let’s be honest: is this really representative for the way people dress on the street? Am I the only one questioning what’s the word ‘street’ for in the term ‘streetstyle’? Absolutely not. Highly appreciated fashion journalists like Suzy Menkes are standing up. Last fashion week season her column ‘The Circus of Fashion‘ was a huge hit on the internet.

Future
In response to videos and columns like these, people are saying fashion shows will become less and less important in the future of the fashion industry. Streetstyle will become be way more influential and trend-setting than the fashion shows of major designers, according to this same group of people. Personally, I think they might be exaggerating on that part for a bit. Do you really think a small group of successful fashion editors and a huge pile of random visitors seeking for fame on the internet are going to take over the entire fashion industry and thus become more important than the creative and unique designers showing at fashion weeks? I highly doubt it…

Photos/Tommy Ton

Posted in Column on March 14th, 2013 | 2 Comments