Street Style Schmeet Style



When I am not planning how to hijack Conde Nast and take all the jobs, I work part-time managing a boutique in Carnaby St. It's a job I've had for years now supporting me through my Psychology degree and then supporting me in the past couple of years while i've had to take on internship after internship to the present - where I can almost smell Anna Wintours perfume. JUST KIDDING, NOT REALLY A STALKER.

Being around Carnaby I've had my picture taken for quite a few street style blogs and magazine features, I've also used it as a base when I've had to take them myself. I began my long slog of internships during my 2nd year of uni when I decided I wanted to write and wound up doing work experience with Elle Magazine taking pictures for their street style section online. Around this time the idea of street style was fairly new, The sartorialist had been going strong for about 2 years by then and the fashion world was picking up on the appeal of cool individuals being captured on film as they go about their daily lives.

Street Style to me has become a joke and the meaning has disintegrated. What triggered this for me was a TKMAX advert where the people were called 'street stylers'. I stopped to question why this annoyed me and it's because the idea is so manufactured. You can't be a 'street styler', it suggests that it's a possible full-time job, the whole essence of street style is that these are pictures of unassuming everyday people, it's not supposed to be a conscious decision.

But Street Style appears to have been hijacked by the PR dudes and dudettes and is now just a marketing tool. Brands hire models to wear their garms, take their pictures in pre-picked places and then feed it back to us, bloggers are paid to wear certain items of clothing in casual settings. I guess you can just call it another form of product placement I call it fuckry! The other day someone approached me to take a street style picture in front of one of those white boards with a brands logo all over it and then was given a card and had to write down my email address.  I walked away so confused, so very confused.

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