Street style is an amorphous concept with a long and rich history, a term that applies to everything from Manet ‘s fin-de-siècle flâneurs to Bill Cunningham ‘s early subjects in 1980s New York (working women strolling through Midtown in Burberry trench coats and Nike Killshots, a customer rollerblading through the revolving doors of Barneys New York, a heather gray sweatshirt casually tied around her waist). For its part, Vogue has been publishing candid shots of high society since the Edwardian era, whether they’re strolling at Ascot or swimming in Biarritz.
It wasn’t until the 21st century, however, that “street style” emerged. The term no longer vaguely referred to the fashion tribes associated with different neighborhoods in a city (in London ‘s case , think of Mary Quant ‘s mods on Carnaby Street, or Vivienne Westwood ‘s punks on King’s Road), but more precisely to the ostentation of those peacocks who gathered twice a year near Lincoln Center and in the Tuileries Garden, hoping to attract the attention of figures such as Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist , or Phil Oh of Mr Street Peeper , whose presence outside the show venues was a novelty well into the 2000s. “My first Fashion Week was in September 2006,” recalled Yvan Rodic of Face Hunter in 2016. “People were almost surprised to be photographed. It was something much more discreet, and [there was] less commotion around.”
All that changed with the arrival of Instagram in 2010, when most fashion editors were still staggering to their front-row seats in Louboutin stilettos , a BlackBerry in one hand and a Marlboro in the other. “The hype surrounding the shows now seems as important as what goes on inside the carefully guarded tents,” wrote Suzy Menkes , who considers herself more of a “crow” than a peacock, in a controversial 2013 New York Times piece . “Cameras are trained on their prey with as much frenzy as the early paparazzi in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. But today, subjects are ready and willing to become objects; they are not so much hunted by the paparazzi as they crave their attention.”
