I like other street fashion photographers who capture more alternative, unique looks rather than haute couture in-the-box styles. Hel Looks is always fun, especially since people explain their style inspirations. Sometimes I like Face Hunter. I recently discovered garance dore’s blog, which I adore, although she seems to profile more high-class fashionable ladies than “regular” folks.

basically, i feel he focuses too much on individuals that are insiders (models, designers, fashion industry insiders), who can *of course* afford the latest threads from the top designers. of course people are going to gobble that up, think it’s the best. he has a hard time articulating himself on many occasions. he’s snobbish and classist when he does speak, as well as contradictory. for starters, he does not consider himself to be a “street fashion photographer”, though that is exactly what he does, by definition. he’s shocked when he shoots people who wear cheap clothes that look expensive…like, omg, she bought that at h&m? things like that.

and i think who and what he shoots just don’t appeal to my personal taste (see the latest trends), so i prefer other photographers, who seek out people who have a bit more quirk factor. i don’t think fashion is just for insiders and models…i think fashion and style are far more democratic than that.

I think we’ve been seeing the upswing in DIY among more mainstream folks for a while now. There is always the element of people who try crafts simply because it is trendy (i.e. the girls in my high school who knit scarfs and nothing else) and those who are more into the spirit of the craft.

I’m curious to hear your reasons for strongly dislike the Satorialist. I rarely see anything on his blog that I would wear, but what about him provokes your reaction? Sorry if I’ve missed previous posts about him where you explained your reasoning, but I’m curious to hear why.

My mum made a comment the other day “I stopped sewing when it became more expensive to make things than it was to buy them” and certainly for the previous generation, that was probably the mindset. I just think that now, people are maybe looking to be more creative. Some may not want the same things as someone else and I think handmade is creating it’s niche that way. Certainly with the economic climate right now, maybe the 40s slogan of “make do and mend” is becoming more appropriate. Admittedly, it can still be more expensive to make something, but I think the pure novelty of being able to say “hey, I made this all by myself” is what draws people in and there are of course times where it can cost less to refashion or hand-make something.

For me personally, I’ve always been interested in creating stuff, if only because I’ve always known I wanted to go into a creative field in the future. I have a tendency to try and encourage other people to craft because I find it fun and think everyone should do it too! I guess most crafty sorts are like that – it strikes me as a very inclusive thing to do, which I guess is part of the reason it is becoming more “mainstream”.

Also about your DIY becoming mainstream discussion, I was very surprised to see a Target commercial recently where they positioned themselves as the place to go if you want to save money by doing it yourself (not only are the items themselves cheap, but doing yourself is free-ish): a guy saves money by going to target to buy a razor to cut his kids’ hair and so on and so forth. Very interesting!