There’s no doubt about it: street style photographs are popular; it’s the fashion industry’s version of reality TV, only good. And while the likes of Bill Cunningham first pioneered street fashion photography decades ago, with many a photographer subsequently aping it, it’s a style of photography that not only remains popular but also influential. Sadly, however, as an art form it’s long moved from beyond a well curated scarcity to become a mass produced commonality. Some fashion magazines are known to stage their own take on the subject, dressing every day people in clothes from their advertisers. And then there’s the fact that the style has now unabashedly reached advertising campaigns.
Thus it’s fair to question whether or not the popularity of street style photography is coming to an end. After all, most trends (for street style photography is certainly ‘trendy’) soon begin to attract a look of disdain once they reach mass popularity and the mainstream. Is street style destined for the same? Is it dying?
And if so, what comes next?
I have my hunches, hunches spurred on by Freja Beha Erichsen‘s autumn / winter 2011 campaign for Parisian label Mo & Co. They’re not the only ones to play to the style of course; Chloe’s resort 2012 has also touched on it, albeit with less of a feel of being a direct carbon copy.
You can see the street style effect in full swing in Mo & Co’s full campaign by clicking on the thumbnails and browsing through the photos, while you can see the real thing in Fashionising.com’s street style curation.
