An oldie but definitely a goodie, this short documentary offers great insight into street style photography and the “peacocking” that has come about because of it. Street style photography is not a new phenomenon–NYT’s (now known as the INYT) Bill Cunningham has been at it since the middle of the last century. Nonetheless, the current modes of street style photography sprang up alongside the rise of fashion blogging, smartphones and unprecedented access to fashion shows, once the territory of “proper” journalists. And while the initial wave of bloggers like Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist and Tommy Ton (who created the now defunct Jak n’ Jil) were instrumental in injecting fresh interest in fashion and championed its democratisation through their photographs, they also inspired an entire wave of imitators who drove the interest in street style to saturation point right around the time the documentary was made in 2013.

This phenomenon was also examined in The Circus of Fashion by Suzy Menkes, a hard-hitting and much-circulated piece she wrote for T Magazine the same year, in which she observed that the fervour for capturing street style at each season’s fashion shows had led to the creation of a new “celebrity circus of people who are famous for being famous,” a bevy of style-savvy bloggers and editors competing to out-dress each other. More importantly, it revolutionised the way brands market themselves, aligning themselves with certain bloggers to garner attention through gifting or access to shows. Even so, Menkes rightly pointed out that this only served to dilute these brands’ individuality as well as the credibility of bloggers as legitimate fashion critics.

This is corroborated by Tim Blanks, who is the undisputed star of the documentary. His wry comments about the antics that bloggers get up to at fashion shows reflect the bemusement of the fashion journalism establishment watching upstarts muscle their way to prominence. Even as he concedes that fashion blogging has been empowering for fashion watchers who want to be part of the process of commentary, he is right that the sartorial and artistic contrivances of some of these bloggers tend to detract from fashion and draw attention instead to the narcissism of individuals grasping desperately for their 15 minutes of fame. In other words, their exploits are exactly the kind of thing that reinforces criticisms that fashion is frivolous and quite ridiculous. Also, as he remarked at the end of the documentary, the overwhelming desire to self-aggrandise has led to an inevitable coarsening of street style photography, where quality and authenticity decline, and it becomes “a parody of itself.”

To be fair, the documentary does highlight the fact that for fledgling designers with small budgets, this is the perfect platform for broadcasting their brand through their personal style. For luxury brands, it is also a marvellous medium for existing and potential customers to see how their clothes are worn in everyday life outside of magazine editorials.

Therefore, even though its main subject is fashion, the documentary highlights the social phenomena that are shaping our world right now, whether it is the prevalence and power of social media, or the more sobering fact that more of us are getting drunk on our own Kool-Aid. Nonetheless, I feel that even though street style photography and fashion blogging has bred monsters, it might not be the worst thing in the world. Seen from another perspective, it merely hastens the elimination of pretenders, and time will tell who the photographers and style mavens with staying power are. Meanwhile, why not just sit back and enjoy the show?

Credits:
Photograph by Kamel Lahmadi from nytimes.com.
Video of Take My Picture from dailymotion