Glamour Girl
Glamour Girl loves a good joke, and jokes there are aplenty in the world of fashion.
(The cheeky, of course, would claim that the whole enterprise is a joke, but GG grows weary of explaining aesthetics and so will leave the philistines behind for the time being.)
For some years now, a once-obscure blog called The Sartorialist has been entertaining voyeurs all over the world. No, not that kind of voyeur. It’s not a peep show, unless you consider looking at pictures of the terminally chic in New York, Paris, Milan, etc. peeping.
It’s simply a photographic record of people on the street and what they’re wearing. Creator Scott Schuman started the blog in 2005 as a lark, and in a few years it took off, vaulting him to international fashionista prominence, paying gigs, and a book deal. Here’s the kind of thing you’ll see at The Sartorialist (photos by Scott Schuman):
After he posts such pictures, people chime in with their comments, usually gushing, and so the record continues, on streets all over the world, with both the unsuspecting and the in-the-know acting as subjects for Schuman’s camera.
Although it can be fun and even inspiring to see men and women with a sense of flair, just as often it’s kind of ridiculous, with Schuman and his followers waxing rhapsodic about a stripe or a necktie or a skirt the same way oenophiles go on and on about “nose” or “bouquet” or “notes of peach and tobacco on the palate.”
And he clearly has his preferences. He’s partial to very young, very skinny waifs (especially if they adopt the pigeon-toed stance of a five-year-old), though he does occasionally feature older women, particularly the rich and powerful, such as French Vogue Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld, about whom he posts relentlessly.
But woe betide those who don’t agree with his assessment of the supposedly uber-chic. Usually, their comments simply get deleted. (For instance, if you, unlike apparently le tout Sart, don’t think the band-aid on the knee is “daring” and “elegant” and “throws everything else into sharp relief,” you just don’t get it.)
Well, finally, The Sartorialist has met his match. And he doesn’t like it.
As outlined in this article in the New York Times, several parody sites have sprung up that mimic and skewer Sart’s sensibilities to a T.
The Catorialist and The Fake Sartorialist are just two of them. But instead of understanding that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Schuman has apparently taken umbrage. To such an extent that—it boggles the mind—he’s actually asked The Fake Sartorialist, Eduardo Cachucho, to cease and desist.
I guess if there were a tailored equivalent to a restraining order, Schuman would apply for one. In the meantime, the rest of us can have fun with The Sartorialist and its spin-offs.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/10/10 at 09:31 AM
