In pursuit of a photo: How streetstyle ceased to be independent
Text: Ira Dubina
Milan, sunny day. At the entrance to the Prada headquarters on Via Fogazzaro, where the Italian brand traditionally takes place, there is a lot of people: photographers who try to catch famous and not very fashionable crowd characters in their lenses. Those pose with undisguised pleasure: here they are, the cherished fifteen minutes of glory, maybe they will be able to get into the selection of Vogue.com. Finally, the show is about to start - part of the public, the happy owners of invitations, pass inside. Those who are not honored with this honor remain behind the gate. Their faces immediately change: a carelessly bored look didn’t happen — yes, I was just passing by, and not at all to be photographed for street style.
Images of StreetStyle's early heroes did not seem deliberately thought out - each of them, with rare exceptions, read individuality.
It is believed that street style was popularized by photographer Bill Cunningham. In fact, he was not the only one who started the phenomenon long before it became mainstream. Last September, famous street-style photographer Tommy Ton posted a snapshot on his Instagram with the following caption: “Do you see these women walking alongside Giovanna [Batalla]? We owe it to them that everything happens everywhere on fashion weeks off the catwalk. They they have been doing this for many years, and thanks to them street style has evolved from a local phenomenon into a global phenomenon. It was because of them that I started doing street style photography, they are my inspiration. Before social networks caught our attention, Asian magazines were the only source of street style from fashion weeks. Along with Bill Cunningham, these women were the main enthusiasts who showed what the guests of fashion shows were wearing. " It would be naive to believe that interestingly dressed characters appeared only with the arrival of Tommy Ton and Scott Schumann during fashion weeks. Not at all, they just, along with several other enthusiastic photographers, realized in time that the “fashion crowd” was interesting.
It was a deadly zero, when everyone was tired of celebrity faces that had become familiar, and the public demanded fresh blood - and it turned out that it didn’t even have to be someone famous. At about the same time fashion bloggers began to appear, who laid out themselves in fashionable clothes - in this way, quite naturally, the goods found their merchant. At first, it was curious to follow the chronicles of street style: no “licked” catwalk images, which at the end of the 2000s were still dragging behind them the weight of the era of reinforced concrete luxury. They were mostly fashionable journalists and buyers in clothes found on vintage ruins, mass market hits, diluted with "heavy luxury." The images of Streetstyle's early heroes did not seem deliberately thought out - in each of them, with rare exceptions, individuality was read.
As soon as street style got popular, everything changed. Glossy and not-so editions understood that photos of fashionistas are a great way to make traffic. It became interesting for everyone to see what “ordinary” people wear, not celebrity, over which the team of professional stylists conjures. The more popular the "street style" section was, the higher the price for their services was appointed by street style masters of photography. Overnight, almost everyone began to shoot the same characters, walking the same things in similar combinations. Photographers have practically stopped looking for new faces. In the world of street-style appeared their stars, whose popularity was measured by the number of readers of the blog and subscribers in instagrame - it became clear who needs to take pictures to gain views or followers. Everything began to turn like a snowball: the popularity of "Street Style Diva" was converted into the popularity of photographers and vice versa.
The visuality has become more important than the content: the main thing is to get cool photos, and what will be behind them is the tenth thing
At the same time, the third link joined the chain - fashion brands, for which bloggers and heroes of street style chronicles became new stars, which used to be famous actors or models. Fashion houses realized that public credibility to them is higher than to Hollywood celestials, which means that the advertising they broadcast will be potentially more effective. And since only hidden advertising can be better advertising, brands have found a way to competently press the lever. Bloggers and other representatives of the fashion community began to send things, as a gift or for a while - to flaunt the fashion week. Now it is easy to trace who is at the helm, it is enough to calculate how many times iconic things will appear in street style chronicles in one season.
They look like groundhog day: a series of identical images from New York to Tokyo, through London and Stockholm. Immediacy, which was so attractive at first, has evaporated: it's hard not to notice the kind of scrupulousness of bows, how carefully the current image of “I don't care what I wear” is created (in fact, of course, not). In one of the interviews, stylist Lotta Volkova, who asked the vector of modern street style, said: "There are no more subcultures. If someone wants to wear a punk t-shirt, he will put it on, even if he does not like this music and he does not share the political views of punks." Visibility has become more important than content: the main thing is to get cool photos, and what will stand behind them is the tenth point.
If there are no small subcultures, as Volkov believes, then there is definitely one left, but a big one. In fact, fashion has become this very subculture, uniting the most different people. Life in the metropolis pushes to the fact that, even having lost contact with the family, we still strive to find a community of like-minded people. Fashion has become a global circle of interests, supporting the course on consumerism and consumerism. We are agitated to look conventionally attractive (dating applications, in which the main evaluation criterion is a person’s appearance, this is extremely helpful), dress fashionably and be successful - only so supposedly you can feel "really" happy. Often, role models are people who broadcast the glossy life on Instagram, and the modern style icons are the owners of an impressive list of contacts between PR managers of fashion brands.
Other stars replaced one star, which means that a new, independent view from the inside will soon appear in response to this.
You should not take what you see in the street style gallery from the regular fashion week at face value. The whole ugly routine remains behind the scenes: numerous attempts to make a perfect picture, clothes that look good in a photo, and in life too dramatic and pretentious, especially against the background of city landscapes, and branded trunks with things in hotel rooms that are after the heroine or hero in the light will go back to the headquarters of fashion houses.
For the sake of fairness, it’s worth saying that in the midst of all this, there are still characters who dress for themselves and not for street photographers. For example, Italian journalist Angelo Flaccavento is a lover of vintage suits and "fishing" hats, which is almost impossible to persuade to pose for a snapshot. Or stylist Ursina Gisi, the author of the latest Y-Project advertising campaign, who wore voluminous down jackets, caps and heels together long before the Balenciaga shows. Or designer Gaia Repossi, who has not changed her style for many years. Street style has lost its reputation as an independent fashion messenger who, a few years ago, was considered a much more important source of inspiration than the shows themselves. However, there are people for whom a fashion show is primarily a professional event, and not a vanity fair. Other stars replaced one star, which means, in response to this, a new, independent view from the inside, which street style was at first, will appear very soon.
Cover: Getty images