I have finally lost (nearly) all faith in The Sartorialist*. Though of course, there is always the possibility of redemption, as of the last several months I've been rather taken with this cat-focussed pisstake on his blog (the most accurate description of it would be Lolcats Meets The Sartorialist), created by a gentleman named Maxwell Krivitzky. Want evidence that it is indeed a pisstake? Have a look at the screenshot below. Better yet, go to the blog itself. Sadly, Mr Krivitzky is a touch on the mysterious side (a google search yielded an artist's site that doesn't seem to have any artwork on it, and a request for an email interview has gone unanswered so far) and updates sporadically. But I do admire the fur in every shot, and PETA would be churlish to begrudge his subjects the wearing of it. Though the ultimate kicker, IMO, is the Feline Apparel ad on the left of the page.
*obviously, I am a nobody whose opinion is inconsequential. Also a nobody who was quite a fan of the blog for four years, bought the book, and can pick up a tabloid if she wants to see pictures of reality-TV D-listers.
Posted by Blue Floppy Hat at 07:28 yui said...

thesart started bugging me around early 2009 and since then my hatred's grown exponentially..dude sounds like such a douche.
this is a comment on your post about streetstyle being planned...japanese streetsnaps like dropsnap definitely arent planned, when you say theyre planned six months in advance im guessing youre talking about blogs like sart and garance dore, or the ones that get published in magazines...a lot of the european streetstyle sites also seem spontaneous to me. maybe your beef with streetstyle has more to do with how a lot of its subjects are editors of big magazines who are so unapologetically decked out in high end stuff that they're impossible to relate to? which defeats the whole purpose of streetstyle?
like you said it's only natural that people who dress well work in fashion, but there's obviously also a big difference between an editor like a.d russo and say, a vintage shop part timer or beauty student (which soo many of japanese streetsnap subjects are!), even though both are technically fashion-related.
it kind of horrifies me when people who clearly had no intention of looking good end up on a streetstyle site. sometimes it works but when thesart uploaded a photo of some old homeless guy in between fashion week shots i was like...!? Clearly the whole thing wasnt actually about style but about ~the sharpness of scott schuman's eye to be able to recognize unexpected beauty~. what sort of unexpected beauty he saw in a homeless dude im really not sure.. not that i have any business talking about moral correctness but if that isnt exploitation, what is?
i briefly skimmed through that neojaponisme post a few weeks back and thought about it then too, but i really couldnt care less whether a sharp dresser is a professor or a creative director of a famous shop chain. Doesn’t change the fact that a person is bringing beauty to the streets and that's all that matters in the end:)

28 February 2010 at 06:33 blue floppy hat said...

Yui- thanks for commenting, I'm honoured that you stopped by!

I didn't care what the guy sounded like, lots of famous artists and creative people whose work we love were complete shits to the people around them, it's the work I want to judge, not the man. He does take good photographs now and then, but frankly, if he's descending to photographing pretty, professionally-styled reality-TV starlets, what's the point of him calling himself a streetstyle photographer? And I honestly don't know what to say about that photograph of the (presumed) homeless man. Or the pretentious, patronising (however unintentionally) text that accompanied it.

About the stagedness of the streetstyle shoots- I definitely wasn't talking about the Dropsnap etc blogs, more about the 'big guns' like Schuman/Dore, where every other shot seems to be of an editor/stylist/other big-time fashion pro. I'm sorry, I should have made that distinction in the post itself and failed to do so.Though I do recognise a fair few faces in consecutive issues of FRUiTS, which is what led me to wonder if these people were being met up with for the shots too, rather than just being run into. But you're right, ADR, Battaglia et al are definitely not in the same league as young shop assistants or students! My beef is not so much with their high-end access as with the fact that some of these streetstyle regulars are beginning to seem like they get dressed with the objective of being snapped (and also, again: six months in advance?Though I do laud Anna Dello Russo for being honest about it). That's just tragic, because in my eyes it takes a lot of the fun and potential creative expression out of the process of getting dressed. If someone really is dressing for themselves, I'm not much bothered whether they're a real-life college professor or the head of a famous clothing company either- like you said, they bring beauty to the streets and that's what matters. The neojaponisme post was just something I linked to because I found it interesting that people were having this discussion- I don't totally agree with everything that's said there, but do feel it's worth reading.
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