Reacting To London Street Style

The best and worst of London street style from the men’s shows

The fall 2019 men’s fashion show circuit just kicked of in London and with the menswear shows happening, you know your going to be seeing a lot of street style. In this video, I’m reacting to some of the London street style as presented in a slideshow from Vogue.com.

I touch on this in the video, but just want to say a quick word about street style and how it has evolved over the years into something very different than it used to be. I’d say about a decade ago, before the ubiquity of social media and the saturation of it we have today, that street style was a very genuine thing. There were a handful of publications that you looked at to give you the picture of what was happening, trends to look out for, and there was a certain mystique and elevated nature to the whole thing.

Nowadays, we are living in a very different time. And with the rise of what I like to call “look at me” culture, thanks in large part to Instagram, street style has morphed into something that resembles a carnival sideshow and, I would also say, has become a lot less interesting. Let me try to explain.

In the past, the people who were going to the shows were the people who were supposed to, or needed to, be there. Fashion editors. Buyers. Designers. Now, there are a bunch of people showing up dressed in costumes trying to get their photo taken so they can feel famous if they happen to end up in a big publication’s photo roundup. It’s pretty sad and just one of the many reason I try to avoid the whole fashion week “scene” at all costs.

That’s not to say that there still isn’t some great street style and inspiration out there during these events. There certainly is a lot still to celebrate, as you’ll see in this roundup I choose to react to from Vogue.

I don’t know where to assign the most blame for what has become of fashion week street style. There is Instagram, for sure, which has bred a generation of narcissists hungry for fame, likes, and outside approval. However, the photographers are also to blame. The photographers are the on-the-ground editors. They’re choosing who to shoot. And, of course, they want to make their mark as well. Interesting shots of sometimes questionably interesting people get noticed.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. I’d love to continue the conversation in the comments.