Oh the chic and glamour of it all… all the craziness that goes on inside the new shrine to fashion, a.k.a. Lincoln Center.

Now I could be writing a review of all the fashion week shows by each luxurious and chic designer after designer – however you can find that on my go-to favourite websites like www.NYMag.com, www.Style.com, www.WWD.com as well as many more and countless glam bloggers – but like I said, my blog is not about that. I don’t want to become a “news” blog – I am a fashion designer who is writing about my inspiration so hopefully you get a different perspective that you cannot find anywhere else. And although the shows that I went to were amazing (Thanks Meital) and the Fall 2011 RTW looks were inspiring on their own, I decided to pick a different perspective from the fashion world – the one OUTSIDE the shrines, on the street…

After devouring an eloquent article in the Spring Fashion issue of New York Magazine (acquired in the main lobby of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week entrance), an Ode to one of my favorite bloggers The Sartorialist in “The Street Is Their Oyster” by Amy Larocca, the inspiration really is alive in the hearts of the people on the streets. Scott Schuman not only shoots the looks going down the runway – but also shoots the unassuming street promenadists all through out the fashion capitals. He shoots where inspiration takes him, when it moves him and how it moves him. No apologies. That is what I intend for my blog and hope to follow in his impeccably stylish footprints.

From the article — {“The world of who, exactly, makes the images that become our idea of “fashion” has, for a very long time, remained shockingly small. There are a few photographers who are on contract with several magazines, and they produce not only those magazines’ covers and editorials but also, more lucratively, the slick and shiny ads that appear between these pages. It’s been very close and very cozy for years.

But the Internet changed all of that, or some of it, and (Scott) Schuman, 43, and (Garnace) Doré, 35, [Of thesartorialist.blogspot.com and garancedore.fr respectively] were there at the right moment, lingering outside (and, as time progressed, inside) fashion shows with their cameras around their necks. It’s not that the concept of street style was invented by these two—Bill Cunningham’s been at it forever—but they introduced the world to its latest commercial possibilities. If once upon a time the idea of “street” fashion suggested looks that were somewhat off the fashion grid, either in opposition to or in advance of the runway, Doré and Schuman are the opposite of that. “The thing that is really different from street style that came before is that it always seemed like they were trying to find the really different thing, find the crazy people and take a picture,” says Schuman. “I’d take a picture of a guy in a suit, and people would say, ‘That’s not street style,’ and I say, ‘But he was on the street!’ There’s much more subtlety on my blog than on other blogs.”

What Schuman and Doré do, in effect, is to remove one layer of fantasy from a typical editorial shoot. Their subjects still radiate glamour, but they are very rarely models. They are on Sixth Avenue or the Rue de Rivoli rather than in a stark-white studio.”} —

In the NYMag.com article one of Scott’s favorite specimens Anna Dello Russo, Japanese Vogue editor remarks that Scott once said to her; “When I look at a fashion magazine, I don’t find anymore the look of fashion. I saw beautiful images but not how you can put on a coat for life’. And I would say, ‘This is very clever. In a magazine, the images are so high, they are so beautiful.’ They are talking about the dream, but they don’t have reference about how you do this for life. That’s why these blogs are a revolution.”

Revolution indeed, Schuman, Doré and all the other trending photobloggers capture elegance, beauty and chic in its natural form and habitat – on the people who LOVE fashion, and take pride in the art of dressing. Schuman has been famous for ignoring the celebrity that passes him on the street, if they are not so artfully dressed he doesn’t care that they are a celeb but only if their look is right. And IF he manages to catch a sumptuous ensemble on an actual celebrity he sometimes doesn’t even I.D. them in his blog – he takes the genuine approach to the photos and his blog, purely for the love of cool.

Photo courtesy of New York Magazine “The Street Is Their Oyster” by Amy Larocca
Photo by Graeme Mitchell

Hope that inspires you!
xoxo
Emily