What does the future of streetwear look like?

Fashion Weeks continued to be held in the fall despite all the rumours and anxieties, even if they consisted of a mixture of online presentations, films, and displays where attendees had to keep social distance. However, in recent years, street style, a key component of fashion shows, has come under fire. Hundreds of photographers, bloggers, influencers, and fashion enthusiasts would have travelled to four fashion capitals in the hopes of being featured on the pages of street news if it weren't for certain circumstances. Vogue consulted specialists.

Possibility of setting the proper vector

How long have these changes been in the works, and what will they result in? These are two questions that many members of the street-style community are asking. "It's all so hazy right now," writes Milan-based photographer and editor Tamu McPherson, who runs the blog All the Pretty Birds. However, it was crucial for photographers to form bonds with the subjects they photographed when I first started out because street style wasn't yet such a major industry. Our current predicament has made the personal approach once again pertinent. So perhaps now is the time to change course and begin capturing real street style.

Remember that the concept behind street style is to capture the attire of common people as they go along the street. Although street style had roots in Parisian society at the start of the 20th and 19th centuries, it wasn't until the 1960s that it became a major fashion trend. Then, rather than what status designers displayed in their salons and on the catwalks, miniskirts and extremely short dresses made by Mary Quant, which young girls flaunted along London's Carnaby Street, had a considerably greater impact on the general public. In the late 1970s, Bill Cunningham—known as the "father of street style"—rose to prominence, capturing the fashionable Manhattanites for The New York Times. He was responsible for the creation of a brand-new photographic subgenre and the emergence of the idea of street style.

Self-sufficient icons

Street-style photographers started visiting significant Fashion Weeks on a regular basis in the middle of the 2000s. Tommy Thon, Phil O, and Scott Schumann, who runs the blog The Sartorialist, were pioneers in this field. After Instagram was introduced in 2010, the street style gained even more traction and finally developed into a lucrative sector that ran concurrently with and independently from the fashion industry. The celebrity influencer market was mostly established by street style stars, who amassed millions of likes on social media, publicised and outpaced runway trends, and finally became style idols in their own right. They are currently content to bask in the success that they achieved during the street fashion renaissance.

Nevertheless, as McPherson notes, today's most striking street-style photography comes from shots that weren't captured during Fashion Week. Many professionals in this industry started taking pictures of their immediate surroundings while they were in quarantine, signalling a return to their roots. According to McPherson, "The modern street style movement started with people like Scott Shuman holding a camera." "We are currently experiencing an unusual period, so it's important to pay attention to what is happening on the streets as well as, of course, to bystanders' clothing. It's crucial to depict this historical period from a psychological perspective.

Street style as a profitable business

The designer and street style icon Michelle Elie, well-known for her passionate admiration of Comme des Garçons runway designs, asserts that "fashion must constantly move forward and be relevant." "I don't believe the culture of presentations and shows will vanish overnight."

Eli claims that the importance of street style is largely due to the democratisation of the previously exclusive realm of fashion shows. This pattern started in the middle of the 2000s, which annoyed several "old-timers" of the business, namely magazine editors and purchasers. Hundreds of photographers from all around the world will welcome you as you exit the exhibition, says Eli. When you record everything that happens on its own, you don't feel as excited. Fashion Week now attracts a wide range of people, from Kanye and Rihanna fans hoping to get their idols' autographs to others who just want to observe the fashion scene. It is no longer just about business representatives. Street style will continue to be popular because it impacts both influencers and regular people who want to come together and flaunt their attire.

However, street style continues to be one of the primary marketing strategies used by brands because of influencers. And although they are no longer required to attend every Fashion Week and pose for pictures, they are nonetheless responsible for the growth of the street style scene.

Jonathan Daniel Price, a photographer well known for his blog Garçon Jon, believes that the current changes have been in the works for a very long time. Street style, according to the author, is "becoming more of a niche, and it ties directly into the theme of sustainability and the environmental impact of fashion weeks." "A coronavirus caused this fire to start." However, as Price notes, street style can be among the healthiest and greenest forms of fashion expression on a smaller scale: "You just stand in the middle of the road with a camera in your hand."

Adaptation to the situation

The simple and recognizable aesthetics of photos draw a lot of individuals to street style. The topic of street style appeared to have peaked about five years ago and was no longer generating the same level of excitement among viewers, Price says. Everyone had grown weary of it and started to wonder when this phenomenon would end. However, this sounds to me the same as stating runway images are out of date. Simply put, street fashion started to appear in the exhibitions. Yes, there was a moment when he sparked real attention, but even now, I don't believe his appeal will ever fade.

In agreement with his colleague, McPherson states: "The pandemic has made it more difficult for street photographers to work: they have to bend over backward to adapt to new conditions, but it is unlikely that we will see the death of street style anytime soon." And even though the future is still a little hazy, the best thing that photographers can do right now is to keep taking pictures of how people dress and interact with one another through their clothing, not only during Fashion Week. In the end, this is the reason we developed a love for street-style photography.