Re: The Fashion Thread

[Guest]

hahaha... and my birthday is near... hmmm...
no, I saw the bag in the shop too and it costs too much for just being a bag

[Guest]

I was going to try a new hair style
but I think I've been intoxicated by hairspray
and my mother says I look like a starving woman from the war

[Guest]

and my mother says I look like a starving woman from the war

I don't know why since half a year ago or so I have a sunken cheek. It's weird... it's only happening to one of my cheeks

[eddie]

Street style bloggers: dedicated followers of fashion

What we wear is increasingly shaped not by glossy magazines but by fashion bloggers – arbiters with a camera, a website and a sharp eye for clothes. Ever since the pioneering Bill Cunningham started his influential On the Street column in the New York Times, this breed of fashion photography has both moulded the fashion sensibilities of magazine readers and kept fashion houses in touch with what people are really wearing. Now via the internet, street style photography is a worldwide, viral phenomenon – and has opened a window onto current fashions in other cities and cultures. For those not privy to the catwalk shows, these fash-pack photographers are the closest many people get to witnessing couture in motion. We talk to some of today's notable street style bloggers.

Morwenna Ferrier and Kathy Sweeney

guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 February 2012 22.00 GMT

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Catherine Fuller
cocolefreakcestchic.blogspot.com

What kind of subjects you are looking for? I love an outlandish look but also relish shooting subtle styles. The personal touches make it interesting.
Do you have any “regulars”? I like to keep my images diverse. London fashion week is different – you’ll see the same faces every day and look forward to what they’ll wear tomorrow.

How do you approach people? I’ll compliment them on what they are wearing. I would say 20% say no but people who say yes are usually flattered.
Has street style usurped catwalk style? Street style is a way to see how the catwalk trends trickle down to the mainstream.
What is the most irritating current trend? Studs and ripped tights have been big where I live. I have to say, I’m over that.

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Stephen Moloney
stitchesfabricandsoul.com

When did you start blogging and why? I began it as a kind of visual notebook of how, excitingly, Irish style was beginning to transform itself for the better.

What are looking for? You don’t find much, if any, deliberately trend-led looks on the street in Dublin. Instead, I look for someone who is well put together and whose personality is translated through their clothes.

Do you make a living from this? A lot of opportunities to generate income through advertising have come and gone. Some publications have begun to seek out my photos, which is a compliment. It’s also opened a lot of other doors.

What is the most irritating current trend? I find it tricky to photograph boyfriend jeans on girls. I appreciate them, though, and what they stand for, so I will always try. Photograph: Patrick Bolger for the Observer

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Hannah Bodsworth
nicelyturnedout.com

When did you start blogging? Summer 2010. Me and my digital genius friend wanted to make an iPhone app that we would want to have on our phone. Being able to access a library of photos of stylish London people for day-to-day inspiration made perfect sense.

Which shows have the best-dressed people? Up-and-coming designers such as Mark Fast, Georgia Hardinge and Jonathan Saunders tend to have the most outrageously dressed guests as they attract fresh fashion folk who aren’t yet concerned with looking nonchalant in head-to-toe black.

What’s the worst thing that’s happened while style hunting? I took a photo of a glamorous-looking man who was wearing a bit of eyeliner. I said he was a great-looking man, but he interjected with a very stern face that he liked to be considered female. I got the giggles. Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Observer

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Elena Alhimovich
alhimovich.com
When did you start blogging and why? I’ve had a blog for a long time but only started to take it seriously a couple of years ago when I published a series of photos of Londoners wearing hats in their ordinary lives.

What kind of subjects do you look for? Strangers wearing hats, people with kindness in their eyes, people with dogs. If I see an interesting character, I have to take a picture.

Do you feel like you are documenting trends or helping create them? I am certainly capturing trends, be it the unusual characters of London or the usual ones; people who think they are trendy or people whose trend is to follow no trends.

Which bit of London has the most stylish people? Primrose Hill has its own unique style and atmosphere. Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer

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Lou Jones
thestylekaleidoscope.com

What are you looking for? Young, daring individuals who buck the trend or wear something the way it wasn’t intended to be worn. If it’s the right person, I’ll run for a long time to catch them.

Do you make a living from this? No, I don’t earn a penny. If you love fashion that much, you’ll keep on going.
Are you documenting trends or helping create them? Both – I’m capturing what I like best. I know various artists refer to the blog for inspiration, but I’ve no idea if any stylists check it out. I’d bet money they do.

How do you approach people? People are normally shopping or on lunch break, so you have to read their mood. I say something along the lines of: “I love your outfit” and show them my blog: 98% say yes before I’ve finished my first sentence. Photograph: Fabio De Paola for the Observer

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Anonymous
styleeast.blogspot.com

Why did you start? On a whim, feeling there was a real gap in representing east London, which is known for its unique style, whether good or bad.
Do you make a living from this? No. I have a full-time job in Whitehall, where nobody knows I spend my spare time blogging.

Are you documenting trends or helping create them? Both. Designers are inspired by people on the street – they make the look high fashion, then the high street brings it to the masses.

What’s the worst thing that’s happened while style hunting? I ran after Jefferson Hack at fashion week, only to stop dead in front of him and then not utter a word, before walking off.

What is the most irritating current trend? Pastels. Nothing feels less wearable than a lemon capri pant. Photograph: styleeast.blogspot.com

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David McLean
Shotbyshooter.blogspot.com

When did you start? I lived in Milan in the 1990s and earned a living photographing backstage at shows. I had no way of exhibiting my work. Three years later, I stumbled across a fashion blog and thought I could do that.

What camera do you use? I started out with a Leica and one day saw David Bailey. He let me take his photo and he advised me to change cameras – he had a Lumix GF2 so I got one.

How do you approach people? People respond better to a hand-held camera; they think you’re an amateur. I even got Carey Mulligan to pose for me by being polite. I prefer real people in vintage or older men with great beards. Street portraiture is so compelling. It’s like what the protagonist from John Fowles’s The Collector says of butterflies: “They’re pretty, petrified objects.” Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer

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Jill Adams
streetstylelondon.blogspot.com

Do you make a living from this? I wish! I don’t earn a thing. I only link and promote something if I genuinely like it.

Who is the most famous person you’ve photographed? I’ve shot Anna Wintour, but the biggest feeding frenzy I’ve seen was over Anna Della Russo. My favourite discovery on the street was the Swedish model Frida Gustavsson in H&M. She was still at school. We stayed in touch for a while and then she became Elle Sweden’s model of the year.

Is there competition between bloggers to snap certain people? Do you ask for exclusivity? It’s not like “real” journalism; it’s never an issue of exclusivity. At fashion week, so many women come to be photographed – to be “famous”, through being on blogs. They want to be shot by as many people as possible. Photograph: Suki Dhanda for the Observer

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Street style: how I learned the art of fashion blogging

What does it take to be a top blogging fashion photographer? We get a lesson from Wayne Tippetts

Tom Lamont

The Observer, Sunday 5 February 2012


Tom Lamont finds his inner David Bailey. Photograph: Wayne Tippetts

We've been stalking central London for an hour, cameras slung low but ready for the quick draw, when we spot something: a flash of vivid green, across a busy Mayfair thoroughfare. Wayne Tippetts, a photographer who since 2008 has been taking pictures of any fashionable strangers he meets for his blog, Street Style Aesthetic (streetstyleaesthetic.com), cranes for a better look. "We might have something," he says, with the don't-jinx-it caution of a hunter who has learned not to trust any old rustle of leaves. "But no need to rush it."

Ignorant about clothes and about cameras, I've spent the morning being patiently schooled by Tippetts in the ways of street style photography. He's told me to avoid a magpie-ish temptation to focus on something singular and flashy, such as a hat, but to consider instead a passer-by's whole get-up; he has counselled me, above all, to "work to your own aesthetic. Have confidence in what excites your retina".

The woman we've spotted in Mayfair is wearing a green dress under an enveloping black shawl. I can't tell how the whole package rates in fashion terms, but, yeah, I think my retinas are decently excited. The green fabric makes me think pleasantly of toothpaste. The shawl has a nice Nancy from Oliver! feel. We cross the road to say hi.

Her name is Zoë, she's 32 and a doctor, just off a night shift at King's A&E. Remembering what Tippetts has told me about the approach phase (that he's occasionally been taken for a mugger; that it's best to kick off with a compliment), I mention the dress. Zoë agrees it's very green and lets us take her picture. "I don't know what to do!" she says, posing awkwardly. "Give a little more hip," Tippetts advises. "That's it. You look great."

Earlier, he'd told me: they're giving up their time, so it's your duty to "make them look fabulous. Don't shoot them next to an overfilled bin". I guide Zoë away from a pile of construction signs so that she's in front of some attractive slate steps. I'm pleased with the results.

Before Zoë, we'd stopped 21-year-old Florienne in Fitzrovia, and after we had taken some surprisingly brilliant photographs of her in a brown poncho she revealed she was a model, which made it all feel like cheating. After that, we'd found Helena (24, in a spotty skirt and a beanie); then Zoë in her green frock. Now, walking in Soho, Tippetts decides I'm ready to strike out alone. I gingerly accost a woman wearing a colourful puffer jacket.

She's Carri, 31, a fashion designer, and I ask her to pose on busy Berwick Street. The shoot's a bit rushed and I'm worried there might be a piss-streak on the wall I've stood her next to. Happily, Tippetts approves the pictures. "Who's the jacket by?" he asks and I admit I didn't find out. "The jacket's the whole piece!" It's another lesson learned: ask for label names.

To end the day, we move east to scour Hoxton. Nobody's wearing the hoped-for bowler hat and there are no full-body animal costumes, so we call it a day after taking some shots of Roxeanne, 24, wearing cool earmuffs. "Sometimes you've got to accept," shrugs Tippetts. "You can't get 'em all."

[eddie]

Goth for life – in pictures

Pictures from wo of the biggest goth festivals, Whitby Goth Weekend in the UK and Wave Gotik in Leipzig, Germany, reveal that for some people, the goth look has never gone out of fashion

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 April 2012 20.00 BST

[eddie]

Carl McCoy of Fields of the Nephilim. Their new album Ceremonies is out now on EMIPhotograph: Rob Monk/Getty Images

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Fields of the Nephilim perform in London in 2011Photograph: Jim Dyson/Redferns

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A female goth makes her way up to the Abbey to pose in her finery during Whitby Goth WeekendPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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Locals mingle at an outdoor cafe with goths who have gathered in Leipzig for the annual Wave Gotik music festival. The festival began in the 1990s and has since grown into one of the biggest gatherings of goth scene followers in Europe with around 20,000 participantsPhotograph: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

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Goth Ian Bricknell poses on the promenade during Whitby Goth Weekend.Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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Goths arrive at the Wave Gotik festival in Leipzig. The festival offers concerts, historical markets, theatre, cinema, goth scene performances, exhibitions, readings and partiesPhotograph: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

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A man in a Victorian style goth outfit walks through Leipzig during the Wave Gotik festival Photograph: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

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Goths attend a classical concert during the Wave Gotik festival in LeipzigPhotograph: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

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Guests in costume arrive for the renewal of goths Tony and Angela Lightowler's marriage vows at St Mary The Virgin Church during the Whitby Goth WeekendPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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The bejewelled hands of goth Tony Lightowler during his wedding vows renewal service during Whitby Goth WeekendPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

[Guest]

...we can't leave Cher out of this thread. Here she is at the Oscars in 1986:

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