Lisette Model was walking along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, then there was William Klein making his “photographic diary” in the streets of Brooklyn while Robert Frank was touring the United States, each taking the life of the street as raw material for their photographs. Today’s bloggers, for their part, roam the streets of the world and post their pictures on their blogs as comments from internet users pour in. Is this a new way to tell the story of the time?
On these so-called “street style” blogs which have flourished on the web in recent years, the image is artificially spontaneous. Appearing on these blogs is to have one’s style validated by the new authorities of fashion. But it is also to be exposed to millions of users who will dissect our clothes, comment on them, and share them on social networks.
Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist, and Garance Doré, his partner on the web and in the city, rules this world of fashion headhunters. The American launched his blog in 2005 and has inspired many others since: FaceHunter, Jak and Hil and Street Peeper to name just a few.
Ari Seth Cohen launched in 2008 advancestyle.blogspot.fr, the “retirement home” version of the genre. The older people he photographs in the streets of New York pose just like the young ones. The eccentric Iris Apfel, well over 90, a late-in-the-day fashion icon who is now signing advertising contracts, is one of the site’s recurring characters.
In the 1960s, would Iris Apfel’s enormous, round black sunglasses have caught the eye of Diane Arbus, who followed so closely the customs of American society? Unlike these new fashion stars of the internet, Arbus’ subjects never even considered , the idea of their bags matching their shoes.
Garance Doré http://www.garancedore.fr/ The Sartorialist http://www.thesartorialist.com/ Street Peeper http://streetpeeper.com/ Jak & Jil http://jakandjil.com/ FaceHunter http://facehunter.blogspot.fr/ Advance Style http://advancedstyle.blogspot.fr/
Pauline Auzou
