Kendra Brea Cooper
The streets are where it all happens. For now, it's the way we gather as strangers in one large space. We see each other. While we many not always speak, our clothing speaks for us. Street style is the conversation, even before the words are spoken.
The street is a gathering. It's the place to check out one another, witness walks of life, and express yourself. The street is the in between from your home to your work, or where ever you are going. Inside the crowded, hectic mess of determination, there are gems in the form of wearable art, just begging for human connection.
Getting dressed in your room is like the backstage of life. Once your door opens, the curtain is up. Clothing can be part of your character, and who ever you choose to be for that day. The street is a stage, where everyone is part of the show, and also part of the audience
Street style pictures are everywhere. I suspect this is because of a fascination with unrestricted, and uncooked style. A fashion advertisement is shot with symbolism in mind, that which plays with your head and asks you to buy, but street style is raw expression. The photograph is unplanned.
Getting dressed to go outside is a decision that’s usually made while thinking about other people. In that way, it can be seen as community based. A band t-shirt can start a conversation with a stranger, and a pair of bell bottoms might bring back some fond memories between you and a friend. These things connect us.
Street style is where we can see how people take fashion into their own hands. Sometimes people create their own clothing, or upcycle in resistance to the mass produced stuff. Here is where the real shift happens. People are not cultural dupes, we take things we see, re-make them, and make them our own.
Nowadays, street style and social media go hand in hand. People take photos of their "outfits of the day", making the street an even larger and far reaching one. Over social media, fashion is in the hands of the people, outside of advertisements and the style police. It's like a giant fashion magazine spread, but without the intention of selling, only expression.
Street style is what happens in the middle. It is in between commercial style and the resistance to that very same thing. Some of the items, like safety-pins for instance, get sucked into the mainstream by exposure and popularity. But there's always something new, something outstanding, and something that resists the mainstream. Even anti-style has a message. Fashion is the visual tug-of-war between the people and the system.
Street style has made cities like Tokyo and New York the place to go for style inspiration. You don't have to have any elitist seats to any snubby show, you just have to walk down the street. It's the communal fashion show.
Street Peeper is that place where you can witness what’s happening in street fashion on every street corner. The fashion industry knows just how important the everyday street fashion is, and usually, it’s better than any constructed catwalk.
Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist) takes us on a walk with his camera on the streets of New York City. His famous blog is stacked with photos of fashionable people on their everyday routes. Here is a look at renegade photography where the only rule is to live in the moment. Who doesn’t want to do some NYC people watching?
Pop culture and all that ideology sitting in the blind spot. Also crafts.
