The rise of the digital age in the last decade has pushed the practice of street style photography to become an important part of the fashion industry. The democratic environment of the internet allows street imagery to be shared and viewed on a large scale, which has resulted in this becoming a global phenomenon. The idea of capturing and viewing the styles of real people living day-to-day life on the streets of metropolitan cities is at the core of this phenomenon. In the last few years, voices doubting that contemporary street images any longer represent the real and authentic have started to rise within the industry.
Why is the street style phenomenon so prominent and what is its relation to reality, city culture and society today?
Street Style is an academic exploration of the contemporary street phenomenon, which is seen widely in fashion media and has opened many debates within in the fashion industry. The extensive research behind the paper and the ideas examined throughout the chapters provide a new point-of-view within these debates as well as add to the currently limited amount of research available the subject.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Street: The City and the Real Street
2 Style: Fashion Identity and the Ordinary
3 Image: Staged Style and the Fashion Insider
Conclusion
Research Objectives and Themes
This dissertation investigates the contemporary phenomenon of street style, exploring its current meaning, its position within the fashion industry, and how the practice relates to modern city culture and social identity. By analyzing the shift from traditional subcultural street photography to contemporary digital imagery, the study addresses how this phenomenon reflects postmodern societal attitudes toward authenticity, self-display, and the construction of identity.
- The evolution of "street style" from authentic subculture to orchestrated "event style."
- The relationship between the metropolitan environment, the body, and fashion as a cultural object.
- The role of "fashion insiders" and the creation of personal identity through digital platforms.
- Theoretical analysis using concepts of hyperreality, simulacra, and social performance.
Excerpt from the Book
The Real Street Style: Streets vs Events
The physical properties and identity of the street can be forgotten when it comes to contemporary street style. Rocamora and O’Neill suggest the term ’street’ in contemporary media has had a shift in meaning and no longer is a synonym for the real and authentic, but is instead ”haunted by a prior vision of fashionable street culture as credible, actual and real” (Rocamora and O’Neill, 2008:197). They refer to the physical street as a non-space as it has been detached from any actual referent and the term has come to speak for itself (Rocamora and O’Neill, 2008:197). Sophie Woodward also refers to the street as a sort of ’non-place’ as it is ”firmly tied to the people who frequent it, and as such is a set of social relations” (Woodward, 2009:87). She suggests that it is not just a physical concrete structure, but is instead ’informed by wider myths’ and can be seen to have ”a temporal existence, as the same street on a Monday morning can be very different from a Saturday evening” (Woodward, 2009:87).
By taking away meaning and authenticity from the physical street, what we are left with the new craze of capturing style at fashion events. Taking photographs during industry events and outside of fashion shows has become so popular that this hype has even been compared to the red carpet. In addition to many others, fashion critic Suzy Menkes has commented on this with an article in Times Magazine titled ’The Circus of Fashion’ (Menkes, 2013). She names the individuals posing for cameras outside of fashion shows ’peacocks’ and suggests, referring to the practice of street photography outside of the shows, ”The fuss around the shows now seems as important as what goes on inside the carefully guarded tents” (Menkes, 2013). Streets are public and open spaces, therefore inclusive, and the fashion show is a closed event which makes it exclusive. There is now a mixture of inclusivity and exclusivity brought to the fashion show atmosphere as focus shifs to the outside spaces of the public. This makes it more of something that could be referred to as ’event style’ rather than street style.
Summary of Chapters
Introduction: Provides an overview of the rise of digital street style photography and defines the dissertation's focus on the contemporary meaning and industry position of this phenomenon.
1 Street: The City and the Real Street: Examines the theoretical relationship between the city, the street, and the fashionable individual, highlighting the transition from physical space to constructed media non-space.
2 Style: Fashion Identity and the Ordinary: Analyzes the psychological motivations behind street style participation and the shift in authenticity from modern subcultures to postmodern, fragmented identity play.
3 Image: Staged Style and the Fashion Insider: Investigates the construction of hyperreal identities and the celebrity status of fashion insiders, using Baudrillard's theory of the simulacrum to explain modern street imagery.
Conclusion: Synthesizes the findings to argue that current street style is an exaggerated copy of reality, serving as a postmodern mirror of society rather than an authentic representation of the street.
Keywords
Street style, Fashion industry, Authenticity, Postmodernity, City culture, Fashion insider, Hyperreality, Simulacra, Self-display, Social identity, Digital media, Urbanism, Consumer culture, Branding, Performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this dissertation?
The work examines the contemporary concept of "street style," investigating how it has evolved from documenting authentic subcultures to a highly constructed digital phenomenon influenced by fashion industry events.
What are the primary thematic fields covered?
The main themes include the relationship between fashion and the city, the evolution of social identity, the construction of personal image in digital spaces, and the shift from modernity to postmodernity in fashion photography.
What is the core research objective?
The research aims to discover the current meaning and position of street style within the fashion industry and to understand how this photography practice relates to contemporary society and culture.
Which scientific methods or theories are employed?
The paper utilizes a qualitative approach, drawing on sociologists and cultural theorists such as Georg Simmel, Jean Baudrillard, Daniel Boorstin, and Joanne Entwistle to analyze street style as a socio-cultural performance.
What content is addressed in the main chapters?
The chapters detail the importance of the urban environment (the city as a brand/backdrop), the psychology of self-display (the "ordinary" vs. the "insider"), and the impact of hyperreal image creation on street imagery.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include Street style, Postmodernity, Authenticity, Hyperreality, Simulacra, Fashion insider, Social performance, and Urban identity.
How does the author define the "street" in a contemporary context?
The author argues that the "street" in modern street style is no longer a physical, inclusive space, but a constructed, temporal, and exclusive space dictated by media, bloggers, and industry representatives.
What is the "Three-way Exchange" described in the final chapter?
This refers to the interplay between the "star" (the person being photographed), the "viewer" (the consumer), and the "photographer," who all collaborate to maintain the status and visibility of the street style phenomenon.
Does the dissertation consider street style to be "unrealistic"?
The author concludes that street style is neither purely realistic nor unrealistic, but rather an "exaggerated copy" of reality, functioning as a simulation that reflects modern society's obsession with images and self-display.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Uniqua Hardy (Autor:in), 2015, Street Style. Behind the surface of the ordinary, the insider and the city, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/304076
