View of Photographing Fashion: a critical look at The Sartorialist

(1)

Image & Narrative, Vol 11, No 4 (2010)

158 Photographing Fashion: a critical look at The Sartorialist

Esther Rosser

Abstract (E):

Scott Schuman’s photographic style and blog project, The Sartorialist is investigated through the frame of fashion photography. The location of the city and the rhetoric of street style underline the visual and conceptual relationship between Schuman’s work and the discourse of fashion. The notion of the blog as an alternative mode of address is contrasted with the more conventional content of the images.

Abstract (F):

Le présent article examine le style photographique et le blog de Scott Schuman, "The Sartorialist" (Le Tailleur), par le prisme de la photographie de mode. Le décor urbain mais aussi la rhétorique d'un style venu de la rue soulignent les rapports visuels et conceptuels entre le travail de Schuman et le discours de la mode. La notion du blog comme forme alternative de s'adresser à un public est opposée au contenu plus traditionnel des images.

Keywords:

fashion photography / blog / the city / street style / The Sartorialist

Article

Scott Schuman’s fashion blog and ever-expanding photographic project—encompassed under his brand/pseudonym ‘The Sartorialist’ (thesartorialist.blogspot.com)—is an instance which may exemplify the shifting mode of the alternative fashion press; from the pages of the low-budget magazine to the internet forum and, as a consequence, towards a greater degree of amateur activity. Like many fashion bloggers, Schuman was neither trained as a photographer nor as a journalist and the blog began as a personal project. Despite what would appear to be an outsider position, Schuman in fact occupies a prominent place in the fashion world and media. Undoubtedly this is due in part to the contacts and connections already in place before he began the project: Schuman trained in garment construction and merchandising, worked in fashion sales and marketing, and ran a showroom boutique for young designers. The continual expansion of his blog into a photographic exhibition, a book, contract work for

(2)

159

magazines and advertisers, and a rumoured forthcoming television series secures his position beyond the somewhat marginal location of the blogosphere. While the blog itself, as a form of cultural production, and the manner in which he works (side-stepping the photographic print in favour of posting digital photographs online) are comparatively recent phenomena, the style in which Schuman photographs draws on a longer, yet equally complex, lineage. In simple terms Schuman could be classified as a street photographer and perhaps even set within a tradition of social documentary photography. Despite the fashion content of his images, Schuman has claimed: ‘I don’t often think of “fashion” when I look at my photos...I have begun to see my images more as a social document...than as a catalogue (Schuman 2009: 5).’ The photographs can also be read as portraiture and indeed the very question of who he photographs is of interest. Additionally, Schuman set out with a conscious desire to not become a ‘fashion photographer’ (http://www.thesartorialist.com/bio.html). Yet, for a project that is so fundamentally fashion-orientated it seems shockingly erroneous to consider Schuman’s work outside the frame of fashion photography. It is at least in equal part the personality as much as the clothes they wear that prompts Schuman to photograph a subject. And if we are to consider his project as a Sander-esque typology, then it could most simply be a typology of fashion(able) people. Fashion photography has always involved an intricate dance between style and motivation, paradoxically allowing room to incorporate a variety of approaches and interpretations within a highly codified system. While the individual utterances may vary widely, on a more fundamental level all fashion photographs participate in the discourse of fashion. It is within this space that Schuman’s work is most naturally received, within a relationship between fashion and the street that stretches back beyond photography’s history and as such has played an integral role in the development of fashion photography. It is beyond the scope of this article to address all of the many and varied relationships between the street and fashion/fashion photography. However, it is intended that the discussion that follows will allow us to critically place and analyze The Sartorialist as a fashion photographic project and, through this example, consider the viability of the blog as the new medium for the alternative fashion press.

The City: location

Schuman originally began The Sartorialist blog ‘simply to share photos of people that I saw on the streets of New York that I thought looked great

(3)

160

(http://www.thesartorialist.com/bio.htm).’ While the streets of New York proffered the physical backdrop to Schuman’s photographs, New York’s status as a fashion world city provided the context. Along with forerunners Paris and London, New York has enjoyed a historical connection to fashion—a connection strengthened by symbolic and material factors, combining fashion production and consumption with the social, economic and architectural culture of a ‘great’ city (Gilbert 2006). A similar confluence of factors can be seen to support Shoichi Aoki’s photographic documentation of Tokyo street fashion published in the Japanese fanzine Fruits, which—like Schuman’s blog—was established for the purpose of circulating these images. Along with Milan, Tokyo is a more recent addition to the inventory of fashion world cities and, uniquely, its status is primarily dependent on the consumption of fashion and its symbolic, rather than material, production (Kawamura 2006). Aoki’s project is grounded in its location yet the motivation came from observable developments in fashion. Teenagers and young adults had adopted new ways of mixing and styling their outfits, which were regularly displayed in the Hoko-ten area of the Harajuku district (Aoki 2001). In contrast, Schuman turned to photography—undoubtedly with a fashion focus (‘people...I thought looked great’)—at a time when, post-9/11, the city of New York itself had been dramatically altered culturally, economically and architecturally.

Schuman’s fashion focus is exemplified in his documentation of or around the collections, which initially centred on New York fashion week (September 2005, February 2006). In addition to providing the calendar for the entire industry, the collections are a central feature of a fashion city’s identity and global status. Within a year of starting the blog Schuman began travelling to other fashion world cities for the purpose of photographing ‘around’ the collections; rarely documenting the shows themselves, but rather the before and after moments on the streets outside the venues. Although the collections were the object of the travel, they were only more obliquely the focus of the resultant photographs Schuman posted on his blog. (With the spring 2011 collections shown in September/October 2010 Schuman shifted focus to include images taken during the shows themselves, which serves to signal his position within the established fashion press but also creates a potential rupture in what was, previously, a street fashion blog.) Travel has become a feature of Schuman’s work, whether for the purposes of book promotion or photographic assignments. While no longer a blog about solely New York street fashion, The Sartorialist continues to promote fashion as a western, predominantly trans-Atlantic, urban phenomenon.

(4)

161

‘The city’—whichever city it might be—not only provides the physical and contextual location for the photographs but also seemingly motivates the represented fashions. Schuman titles his images with information in which the location is of central importance whether that is ‘Seventh Ave.’, or ‘outside Jil Sander’, or simply the name of the city itself as in the ‘young Moscow’ series. Each photograph, thus identified, is explicitly tied to its location. This person, or rather the fashion on this person, is directly connected to the city they inhabit. Rocomora has argued, with respect to the discourse of French fashion journalism, that the city of Paris ‘is invoked as an active agent in the making of fashion (2006: 44)’; that ‘the city itself is depicted as an author of fashion (45).’ The same could be said of Schuman’s own form of fashion journalism where the different city locations that title his photographs stand in for differences in fashion. The men’s fashion in Milan, for instance, is consistently highlighted as distinctive from that in other cities.

Within the cities themselves there is a further level of specificity. Schuman’s photographs reveal the extent to which he frequents the fashion districts of each location. This is evidenced in the street names and often familiar background elements; the garment district in New York, the Tuileries in Paris. Symbolic elements of a city may find their way into the background; yellow taxi cabs in New York, for instance. This manner of accessorizing the city is a familiar trope of fashion photography (Gilbert 2000). The reaffirmation of such standardized connections extends further to our imagining of each city’s fashion, which is supported by the blog’s photographic subjects; the Parisian woman is effortlessly chic, London is populated by fashion rebels and so forth. The fashion blog may be seen to expand the (immediate) urban audience that fashion requires (Wilson 2006). Yet, as Schuman’s example clearly shows, this is accomplished in a manner that does little to disrupt the dominant notion of the metropolitan experience of fashion (Gilbert 2000). Location is, on every level, an index of the relationship between Schuman’s images and fashion, which includes both its conceptual framework and pictorial representations.

The look

From the very start of the project Schuman has photographed fashion insiders and this is an aspect of his work which has continued rather unsurprisingly given his close following of the collections. As well as ‘ordinary people’ he photographs designers, editors, stylists, other photographers, and models (despite his claims to the contrary). Some industry insiders

(5)

162

become regular subjects such as Carine Roitfeld, editor in chief of Vogue Paris. Almost a century prior to the advent of Schuman’s blog, the Séeberger brothers photographed a nearly identical group of people in a similar manner, setting their subjects within small crowds or against tree-lined avenues. Much like the mythology of Schuman as street photographer, one would be tempted to assume that the Séeberger brothers (and their contemporaries) simply prowled the streets of Paris and captured happenchance on film the famous and the fashionable. However, their visits to the race tracks, and later the seaside and mountain resorts, were not only anticipated but highly organised events. Professional models were hired for the day by fashion designers eager to display their latest fashions. Fashionable socialites also acted in effect as models, wearing designer clothing either on loan or purchased at a significant discount in exchange for which they had to be ‘recognizable by photographers and, preferably, by the readers of fashionable magazines, wear the outfit well, and be clearly visible (Demange 2007: 34).’ It has been argued that these outdoor, pre-World War II photographs, which were increasingly taken solely for the purposes of style and fashion reportage, are evidence of the Séebergers as ‘journalists’ (Aubenas 2007). This is separated from the later period of the firm’s existence (after World War II until its dissolution in 1977) where there was a focus on studio and publicity photography, using hired models and loaned clothing. It would seem that here the distinction between ‘photojournalism’ and ‘fashion photography’ is dependent on firstly, location (outdoor v. studio) and secondly, the degree of premeditation the location implies (irrespective of the reality).

Schuman’s work also plays into such complexities. In place of the racetrack, the collections provide his agenda and the documentary style of his photographs combined with his use of ‘real’ people likewise suggests an element of so-called straight reportage. However, given the rather esteemed group who regularly populate his images, one would certainly expect that these are people who take very good care of their appearance as it is—if not overtly, then certainly implicitly—part of their job (Titton 2010). This ambiguity between photojournalism and fashion photography, where the standard presumption is ‘the decisive moment’ contrasted with elaborate construction, can be most clearly evidenced in the pose of Schuman’s subjects. Several street photographers have been known to operate at a distance from their subjects, unseen and thus able to catch people in moments where they are not conscious that they are being observed. Schuman’s subjects are decidedly conscious, they are posed (after asking for their consent Schuman ushers them to a spot that holds the most interest or the best light) and while they may assume a ‘normal’ street function such as

(6)

163

crossing the road, smoking a cigarette or talking on a mobile phone, they typically gaze directly at Schuman’s lens, complicit as they are in their own status of ‘being looked at’. Schuman has introduced himself, if this is in fact still necessary, and asked the subject to pose for him, perhaps even engaging them in conversation about the element of their attire that caught his attention. In response, the subject has assumed their role of ‘model’ in a fashion photograph and this is in turn how we income to view them.

Perhaps Schuman constructs this exchange—where we look at the subject who, in turn, looks back—in order to emphasize the role of the gaze, which is so fundamental to his work. We are reminded that it was he who first looked, he who spotted this subject, and it is he that the subject now looks at. As a fashion photographer at work on the street, Schuman functions as a contemporary flâneur. ‘The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes (Sontag 1977: 55).’ The idea of the casual flâneur in fact belies the amount of work required of a fashion blogger and also provides a convenient foil for the more constructed way in which they work; Schuman does not so much ramble the streets as attend fashion events, but the idea that he might ramble encourages the reader’s fantasy that they might one day be spotted by him (Titton 2010).

The Street: style

The street has long been an integral site for fashion; one’s public appearance, the necessity to distinguish class or profession, the desire to be viewed and to view others all feeding into fashion’s social function. Over the course of the twentieth century ‘street style’ came to infer the fashion of certain, mostly youth-based sub-cultures such as the Mods, the Teddy Boys, or the Punks (Hebdige 1979; Polhemus 1994). The street, itself a space of display also became a site for creativity—a kind of creativity which did not trickle from the top down, as Veblen (1899) and Simmel (1904) suggested, but rather ‘bubbled up’ (Polhemus 1994). The street came to signify a more ‘authentic’ form of creativity, which, rather than remaining solely in the hands of the elite fashion designers, was available for all. While the street could be seen, along with the photographer’s studio and the runway/catwalk, as ‘a setting for the articulation of fashion’, it was distinguished by its presumed access to the ‘real’ (Rocomora and O’Neill 2008: 185). The photography of street fashion became likewise embroiled in the rhetoric of creativity, defiance, and democracy, which also comes to bear on Schuman’s work.

(7)

164

These formulations of street fashion and its photographic representation can be evidenced most clearly in the photographic style known as the ‘straight-up’, most commonly associated with the alternative fashion magazine i-D. Terry Jones launched i-D in the summer of 1980 with its vox-pop style of photography born out of an earlier collaboration between Jones and the photographer Steve Johnson (see: Williams 1998). The straight-up is a full-length photograph taken on the street, often set against a (white) wall, and accompanied by text providing information about the subject’s clothing and, in the case of i-D, music preferences. ‘Colin is wearing black pleated trousers which he made himself. The cardigan is from Marks and Spencers, £9.99 and the shoes from Axlom in the Kings Road £5.99. Fave music— Siouxsie and the Banshees and David Bowie (‘WiLd’, i-D, no.1, 1980).’ The text that frames a fashion photograph has proven essential to several commentators,1

At the time of its inception, the straight-up likewise performed a distancing function. The first low-budget issues of i-D included typewritten text and were simply a few dozen pages stapled together. Framed within these pages was a photographic style distinct from the and it is this information that may allow the straight-up to operate as fashion photography, rather than simply portraiture or social documentary (Smedley 2000). As the straight-up itself has become mainstream and such street style reportage can be found in virtually any Sunday newspaper supplement as well as the mainstream fashion publications, this informative function remains and may even be complimented by an array of similar items of clothing available for purchase so that the reader may copy the look themselves. Schuman, by contrast, does not typically publish the name of the person or list the labels they are wearing, although recurring favourites are often referred to by their first name, such as Giovanna (Battaglia) or Fabrizio (Rollo), and it is never surprising to find the shots taken outside certain shows feature people dressed in the company’s designs. This decision, on Schuman’s part, to avoid including purchase details may be a distancing (or framing) strategy, hinting that his project is somehow at a remove from the straight-up, its most immediate predecessor. However, given the status of the blog and some of the people and fashions he photographs it could rather be that Schuman need not provide such details as the assumption is that we, the reader, are already ‘in the know’; a photograph of Vogue’s Hamish Bowles is simply titled ‘On the Street...Purple Wellies, NYC’.

1_{See: Roland Barthes, The Fashion System, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990 [Systeme de la Mode,}

Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1967]; Paul Jobling, Fashion Spreads: Word and Image in Fashion Photography Since

(8)

165

aspirational, overtly prescriptive message of high glamour fashion photography found within the pages of the ‘glossies’. The alternative fashion press, spearheaded in the UK by i-D and The Face, seemed to celebrate the street and the people who populated it. These ‘ordinary’ people performed the functions of both designer and model much like de Certeau’s notion of the ordinary person as an everyday artist/producer in their own right (Rocomora and O’Neill 2008; de Certeau ).

Judgement and selection

Popularly heralded as a ground-up, democratic vision of fashion, the straight-up is rather a re-packaged form of prescriptive fashion journalism. Although framed by the rhetoric of the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘real’, the straight-up can be as staged as any other type of fashion photograph. The ‘models’ never stray far from fashion’s ideals of youth and beauty, the sanctioned styles must adhere to the thematic message of the publication, and the authority of the fashion journalist as arbiter of style is upheld (Rocamora and O'Neill 2008). Certainly the mainstream adoption of the straight-up is clear evidence of its malleability; that which was once, if at all, a deliberate shift away from elitism and glamour was effortlessly recuperated (back) into this system.

Schuman emphasizes that the looks he photographs are about ‘inspiration’ and not ‘judgement’ (Schuman 2009). Indeed the marketing of his blog and some of the press attention he garners centres around the idea that his photographs are used as inspiration not simply by us ‘ordinary folk’ but also, and importantly, by designers themselves. The Sartorialist blog was selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 top designer influences. Seen in this way, Schuman’s project could be regarded as an entrepreneurial effort akin to the profession of ‘trend-spotting’ or ‘fashion-forecasting’. But this clever packaging naively avoids, or perhaps even purposefully disguises, other aspects or outcomes. While Schuman argues against inciting judgement, the comments posted by followers on his blog are often judgement-loaded whether discussing the clothes or even the wearer—especially when the wearer is a ‘beautiful girl’. Certainly, it would be heavy-handed to align Schuman’s project with the infamous ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts’ of Vice magazine, where judgement is both swift and severe and framed by the magazine’s editors. However, it remains appropriate to place The Sartorialist on a spectrum with other similar fashion journalistic endeavours that seek to edify or reproach their readers—readers they share, no doubt.

(9)

166

Somewhat problematically, Schuman claims: ‘I like people to draw their own conclusions, to find their own inspiration without the influence of a guiding hand (Schuman 2009: 7).’ Such a statement could be read as an attempt to distance his work from his more overtly critical peers, but what is left unacknowledged here is that in his very selection process Schuman provides a clear and decisive ‘guiding hand’. Naturally he uses his own judgement to select a look, a detail, a person to photograph and then again makes a further selection about which photographs will be published on his blog (or in other forums). As outlined in the rather witty diagram entitled ‘Oh Snap! How to Get Shot by the Sartorialist’, this selection process is anything but arbitrary or ‘objective’ and reinforces a very personal vision of ‘good’ fashion (http://www.refinery29.com/get-shot-by-sartorialist.php). The women featured on Schuman’s blog are, according to this schema, ‘model pretty’ and must own or borrow items such as quirky hats, expensive scarves, or men’s tailoring. The men by contrast are preferably ‘old, rich, and European’.

The blog—the brand

Within the trajectory of the archived blog entries it is possible to witness a maturing of Schuman’s photographic skill, particularly with regards to light and locations. At the earlier stage of the blog Schuman would supplement his work by posting photographs from other sources. The recent (spring 2010) vintage photo competition he ran with his readers and some postings of work by other bloggers (notably, his colleague and paramour Garance Doré) have seen Schuman return to this supplementary approach at a time when increasing commitments presumably draw his attention elsewhere. The dialogue with his readers, in the form of either replying to posted comments or including a few lines about an image or idea disappeared from Schuman’s entries for some time. This aspect has also made a recent reappearance perhaps signalling a greater, yet unspoken, acknowledgment from Schuman that this remains a personal project; that he is in effect assuming a role akin to that of a fashion editor and is literally (and pictorially) giving voice to a certain idea of fashion. This is not surprising, if we accept that far from simply pointing to fashion, Schuman’s photographs have always functioned in this manner.

The Sartorialist is far from being simply a blog and the name has come to equate, firstly, with Schuman himself—he is the Sartorialist—and secondly, to infer a particular photographic style, which far from being the original invention of the photographer instead encapsulates a

(10)

167

history of transactions within and across the street, fashion, and photography. While the photographic style is a signature without the distinction of a trademark, the true revolutionary power of the project lies instead in its branding. Given Schuman’s history in sales and marketing this should come as no surprise. Schuman and ‘his’ photographic style are for hire within an industry that maintains a consistently schizophrenic relationship to novelty and renewal; constantly in search of the ‘next big thing’ whilst simultaneously reviving the past. Schuman continues to make use of his documentary style street photography when hired for contract assignments where he works with the benefit of other professionals, including stylists and models and where the resulting images may be published in a traditional print format. Schuman may at times cast ‘from the street’ for these assignments by contacting someone he has previously photographed for his blog. Although the pose and gaze of the subject remain the same, we are keenly aware of the fact that the model, in this instance, is not the stylist/producer. While the city and the street are employed as a familiar backdrop we are also aware that this comes without the ‘chance’ (or otherwise) transaction that normally occurs between the subject and Schuman. While these changes may seem small, The Sartorialist blog project was founded firstly, on the idea of spotting someone in the street and secondly, with the knowledge that this person had made their own style choices. In replicating the stylistic language of street fashion photography without these two aspects at play such images remove any residual trace of the ‘accidental’ or ‘authentic’ and reveal instead a staged site for the display of prescriptive or normative notions of fashion. This only serves to further reveal the extent to which Schuman’s project may operate in this manner at all times and in all contexts.

The blog is the Emperor’s new clothes of the fashion media. It would appear to herald a new era of alternative fashion press and yet it is but an illusion. Online media was lauded as the kiss of death for the traditional press. However, fashion publications have by in large weathered this storm by continuing to produce luxurious printed editions as well as adopting an online presence. As the example of Schuman clearly illustrates, the fashion blog is not at a remove from the hierarchies and codes of fashion. There are no overweight, disabled, unattractive people represented on these blogs (Titton 2010; c.f. Smedley 2000; Rhodes 2008), nor arguably are ‘everyday’ fashions (c.f. Williams 1998). The blogs themselves continue to replicate the normative mode of fashion journalism cleverly disguised as a subjective or confessional narrative and couched within the familiar rhetoric of ‘style’, which

(11)

168

is intended to elicit a hierarchically superior notion of clothing-as-personal-expression in the place of the victimised follower of fashion.

Schuman’s photographic style is in fact a form of fashion photography that has existed since the very beginnings of the discipline. His notion of fashion is only distinguishable from that of mainstream fashion journalism by dint of its even narrower restrictions. The blog or, at the very least, this blog is not the site of an expression of a truly ‘alternative’ fashion press. Just as the straight-up reveals both a democratic desire and a prescriptive undertone, so too does The Sartorialist. It is, after all, Schuman’s judgement that counts most of all. The photographer has assumed the roles of the stylist and the fashion editor, condensing the traditional team of fashion experts. He has even removed the power from the individual subject, his power to select and direct proving to be decisive. The individual subject who presumes that they are expressing their personal style is reduced, in the hands of Schuman, to a mere model; an expression of his notion of fashion.

References

Shoichi Aoki, FRUiTS, London: Phaidon, 2001.

Sylvie Aubenas, ‘The Séebergers, Fashion Photographers: Rediscovering Their Place’, in Sylvie Aubenas and Xavier Demange, Elegance: the Séeberger Brothers and the Birth of Fashion Photography, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007, 11-27.

Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

Xavier Demange, ‘Trend Setters at the Racetrack’, in Sylvie Aubenas and Xavier Demange, Elegance: the Séeberger Brothers and the Birth of Fashion Photography, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007, 28-37.

David Gilbert, 'Urban Outfitting: The city and the spaces of fashion culture', in Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson (eds), Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations and Analysis, London: Routledge, 2000, 7-24.

(12)

169

David Gilbert, ‘From Paris to Shanghai: The Changing Geographies of Fashion's World Cities’, in Christopher Breward and David Gilbert (eds), Fashion’s World Cities, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006, 3-32.

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Methuen & Co, 1979.

Yuniya Kawamura, ‘Placing Tokyo on the Fashion Map’, in Christopher Breward and David Gilbert (eds), Fashion's World Cities, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006, 55-68.

Ted Polhemus, Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk, London: Thames & Hudson, 1994. Kate Rhodes, ‘The Elegance of the Everyday: Nobodies in Contemporary Fashion Photography’, in Eugénie Shinkle (ed.), Fashion as Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion, London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2008, 200-213.

Agnès Rocamora, ‘Paris, Capitale de la Mode: Representing the Fashion City in the Media’, in Christopher Breward and David Gilbert (eds), Fashion’s World Cities, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006, 43-54.

Agnès Rocamora and Alistair O'Neill, ‘Fashioning the Street: Images of the Street in the Fashion Media’, in Eugénie Shinkle (ed.), Fashion as Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion, London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2008, 185-199.

Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist, London: Penguin Books, 2009.

Georg Simmel, ‘Fashion’, in Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings, Donald N. Levine (ed.), Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1971, 294-323 [originally published in International Quarterly (New York), 10 (1904)].

Elliot Smedley, ‘Escaping to Reality: Fashion Photography in the 1990s’, in Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson (eds), Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations and Analysis, London and New York: Routledge, 2000, 143-156.

Susan Sontag, On Photography, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.

Monica Titton, ‘Fashion in the City: Street-Style-Blogs and the Limit of Fashion’s Democratization’, Texte Zur Kunst, issue 78 ‘Fashion’ (June, 2010): 133-138.

Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York: Dover Publications, 1994 [originally published New York: Macmillan, 1899].

(13)

170

Val Williams, Look at Me: Fashion and Photography in Britain 1960 to the Present, London: The British Council, 1998.

Elizabeth Wilson, ‘Urbane Fashion’, in Christopher Breward and David Gilbert (eds), Fashion’s World Cities, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006, 33-39.

Esther Rosser is a doctoral researcher at the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography and the Art History department of the K.U.Leuven. Her research focuses on contemporary art and fashion photography. esther.rosser@arts.kuleuven.be