Open Letter: Is Street Style Killing Fashion’s Sincerity?

In GQ’s September 2011 issue, writer Will Welch claims street style blogs are creating streets that are more contrived than the runway ever was.

We get GQ every month. We love GQ. But we’ll just come out and say it, reading that article pissed us off.

Maybe we’re a bit biased, since we document some street style. Maybe we’re biased because we’ve been following street style blogs for years now, so much in fact that it’s become a daily habit.

However, since we’re in the position of actually going up to people and snapping their photos, we like to think we have an insider’s experience. We can see the man who doesn’t read fashion blogs looking at the photo examples of street style GQ provides with this article and saying, “Chyeah, these guys are posers.”

All the accidental ‘Who me?’ unselfconsciousness that once made it so fresh was tainted. The streets became the runway.”

Let us set it straight: every single person we’ve ever asked to take their photo was embarrassed.

That’s right. Embarrassed. They’d blush, laugh, tell us they feel awkward. We have the horrible pictures to prove it.

Sure, some are more comfortable than others, but speaking for the whole spectrum, not one of them had the “I knew this was going to happen” shit-grin on their face.

Second, only a handful of fashion blogs in a select few cities have even reached the status where the majority knows of their existence. Coming from NY, the fashion capital of the world, it’s easy for GQ to make these claims because the city beats and pulses with fashion.

Take your pointer finger on a map to neighboring cities like Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, and DC, you’ll be lucky to stop a person on the street who can name a prominent fashion blog in their area. Sure they might know of The Sartorialist, but GQ is saying that these people get dressed in the morning with the prospect of getting photographed in the back of their mind. Besides this being utterly absurd, these cities don’t have street style blogs that have reached the celebrity of the NYC blogging staple, so the chances of getting photographed are lower.

Now, if you draw a circle around each of those cities on the map, it will encompass suburban and rural area in the US that do not follow fashion blogs and wake up with the sole purpose of being featured on these blogs. This will be the MAJORITY of the United States. NYC is the exception, not the rule. So maybe GQ’s examples are correct by saying their are wannabes stalking Scott Schuman. And maybe there are fashion cronies flocking European fashion shows for a chance to be photographed, but even that is an example of people getting dressed up for a chance to be featured. This is different from completely contriving their style for the sake of being featured in street fashion blogs. These claims are like saying all women in Alaska are air heads because Sarah Palin sucks. Come on now.

You’re telling us this girl wore this because of street style blogs?

This whole article made us cringe because it takes a few examples and blankets it across all street style blogs. The people who actually know of fashion blogs in the US, let alone in their city, are a huge minority. To say people are celebrity-craving enough to completely transform their look, to compromise who they are is not only bold, it’s downright insulting.

Why can’t we say that street style made the runway more attainable? It inspired the “street runway.” Why do we have to point fingers, call names, and accuse it of ruining the truth and spontaneity of personal style? That’s a huge target, one we don’t think is fairly placed. All we gotta say is Haters gonna hate.

Wait, are you ready for it?

While it sits on its pedestal of elitist wisdom and hates on us street style bloggers trying to make it in this world, GQ has its own damn street style section. Even more aggravating, its street style section highlights the sartorially savvy men of New York, the VERY SAME streets it pointed out for being filled with “wannabe style icons stalking Sartorialist-favored avenues.”

So go ahead, GQ, write articles about street style blogs killing fashion’s sincerity. Whether you make these claims as a marketing ploy or because you’re truly sick of street fashion blogs, we will not be swayed by your opinion, but will continue to think these bloggers are transforming the fashion world and making it more attainable.

Here are 38 other fashion blogs who would agree with us.