Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

How street style changed fashion weeks, and why its future is in doubt as industry resets after the pandemic

The late photographer Bill Cunningham started a street style column documenting well-dressed fashion week show-goers in 1978 for The New York Times. Now, thanks to Instagram, self-promotion doesn’t have to wait for fashion week, so will the industry even miss street style amid coronavirus cancellations?

There’s one trend that fashion weeks across the globe consistently have in common: performative crowds of peacocking attendees. Every season, the industry moves between various cities – from Seoul to London – to see designers reveal their new collections in theatrical catwalk shows and presentations, but the real show is on the streets outside.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the usual fashion week routine of crowds piling into venues, sitting thigh-to-thigh and squashing to fit onto rows of wooden blocks is no longer safe. Showing online has been the only option, as Shanghai did in late March, Moscow in April, and London in June, and as Milan plans to do this month. Others, including Seoul, have been cancelled entirely.

Even the shows that will take place physically, such as Dior’s Cruise2021 show later this month, plan to be audience-free. The curtains have closed on the seasonal street-style circus.

Photographers shooting people’s looks outside the heavily guarded venues became a defining element of the fashion week economy, with influencers frequently dressed by designers for promotion, and other fame-hungry guests yearning to be shot and subsequently featured in top publications to carve their personal brands. Photographers sell photos, influencers sell clothes.

This exhibitionist parade didn’t begin until 35 years after the first fashion week was held, when the late photographer Bill Cunningham started a street style column documenting well-dressed showgoers in 1978 for The New York Times.

“We all get dressed for Bill,” editor-in-chief of American Vogue Anna Wintour confessed in the 2011 documentary Bill Cunningham New York, “It’s always one snap, two snaps. Or he ignores you, which is death.”

One of the first photographers to begin publicising fashion week outfits online was Scott Schuman, of street style blog The Sartorialist. He explains to the Post that back in 2005 when he started, the scene was authentic because people hadn’t yet realised the power that the photos would have.

“It was more stylists getting dressed up to share what great style they had to get work from magazine editors,” he says. “Editors also wanted to show their team was the coolest too. It’s not a new thing, people getting dressed up for fashion week, they always did that.”

When “street style” articles began circulating online, the culture, as we now know it, was born; attendees gained fame and set trends with their meticulously thought-out looks. Schuman says: “I was the first to shoot Giovanna Battaglia and Vogue Japan’s editor Anna Dello Russo. No one knew who they were before.” Thanks to photographers like him, they are style icons.

Lee Oliveira shoots fashion week street style for leading publications, and has done so for almost a decade; he tells us that the notorious peacock culture is a direct result of photographers like him.

“A lot of editors were wearing black before. They were trapped in a simple style but then they noticed that photographers were out there, so they wanted to show us that they were well dressed people. It’s become an opportunity for people to promote themselves.”

When the newer East Asian fashion weeks arrived, they quickly became part of the street style circuit, with Seoul (est. 2000), Shanghai (est. 2001) and Tokyo (est. 2005) all now known for having guests who serve an eclecticism of bold looks.

Stylist and former senior fashion news director at American Vogue, Monica Kim says: “Street style images played a large part in generating interest for Seoul Fashion Week on a global scale.”

People standing on the streets, ruffling their sartorial feathers for the camera has become the norm every season. Yet now, thanks to Instagram, self-promotion doesn’t have to wait for fashion week, so will the industry even miss street style amid coronavirus cancellations?

Ultimately, the scene can be credited for fuelling today’s brand-influencer model that is now a principal component of social media. Oliveira says that fashion week outfits would equate to immediate sales.

“Influencers would bring friends’ clutches, shoes and accessories. Six months later, you would see those small brands becoming huge simply because they were worn to fashion week.”

Shoots outside shows quickly became a multifaceted, moneymaking venture, but they also made for a more relatable industry. “Street style added that human connection to fashion week,” says trend forecaster Jane Boddy. “Often, what is seen on the streets is more inspiring and its reach can go further and last longer as a source of trend inspiration than the shows themselves.”
According to Boddy, without herds of well-dressed attendees getting photographed, fashion week also won’t be as appealing to consumers. “It’s an essential part of the process,” she says. “It adds a needed connection between the catwalk and the public. It’s about human expression.”

Before street style shots went viral and bloggers took over the industry, fashion was a lot less relatable. Schuman says that he doesn’t miss his self-titled “fashion week photography” because it has become less about style for attendees, and more about sales.

“Instagram really killed the mystery,” he says. “Fashion shouldn’t be about facts. It’s about creating a mystery, an aura, it needs all the smoke and mirrors.”

In recent years, fashion week looks reflected a commercially driven strategy rather than stylish creativity. And in a society overflowing with influencers posting #ad’s and landing constant brand deals, on Instagram, it isn’t so needed.

“I do feel that a lot of people, particularly those who have been in the industry for a while, were beginning to experience some street style fatigue [at fashion week].” Kim admits. “There were more people being dressed by brands, less natural style, and all the peacocking outside the venues did often detract from the main event.”

Catwalk shows and presentations will always attract fashion-forward guests. But if the future remains digital post-coronavirus, the current fashion week hierarchy of outfit prestige and self-promotion will be lost, directing more focus onto the actual collections.

Fashion is being forced to change; its notoriously fast pace has slowed, and the excessive travelling between cities every season has ground to a halt. Despite having to lose out on his fashion week income, Vogue photographer Paul Jeong says it shouldn’t be seen negatively.

“Fashion weeks offer multitudes of jobs to many professionals in this field,” he says, but “digitalisation is a progressive and more sustainable approach to how we go about fashion weeks.”

The ready-to-wear shows in Europe alone would ordinarily have thousands of professionals flying to four countries in the space of one month. However lovely live shows are and however famous street style shots make guests, it’s not essential. Jeong says: “Like many other creatives, I am having to reassess and adapt to changes within this market.”

As the world pauses, we can reflect nostalgically on the street style inspiration which fashion weeks have provided, and imagine a future without hordes of branded guests, one where our attention is steered back to the shows and we discover creative new ways to present those instead.

The industry is resetting, so fashion week street style will too. If the show does go on, we’re likely to see a revival of authentically expressive ensembles, with fewer overseas guests and therefore, a much greener ethos.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×