Oyster Words: Susie Bubble on Street Style
"It's likely you'll be on a never-ending trail of trying to impress others with your sartorial prowess."
Susie Bubble is clearly rather adept at both fashion and the internet, so we asked her to write about both for our new issue, Let's Get Digital. Below is an excerpt from her 'Playing the Game' article. For the full story pick up a copy of Oyster #101!
Inevitably we've all come a long way from impressing that one girl at school who you thought was so much cooler than you. You've found your self, your style and what makes you tick. In my case that involved hanging out far too much at Topshop, rifling through the racks at vintage stores in Camden Town, and destroying my mother's silk dresses in dip-dyeing disasters. Fast-forward to the present and the picture is a whole lot less innocent than those teenage style experiments: if you're an editor, a stylist, a blogger or even an ambitious hanger-on and you partake in the fashion circus of going to shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris twice, sometimes four times, a year, then it's likely you'll be on a never-ending trail of trying to impress others with your sartorial prowess.
It began with a few stray photographers at shows — people like Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist, Phil Oh of Street Peeper, and Tommy Ton of Jak and Jil [who also contrbiuted to Oyster #101] — stalking the Tuileries in Paris, approaching editors who would look surprised that anyone would want to take their picture. Now street-style photographers (some better than others) run into the hundreds and hail from every part of the globe, but all are vying for shots of the usual suspects: Taylor Tomasi Hill, Anna Dello Russo, Miroslava Duma, and the countless personal-style bloggers and fashion luminaries that come to sudden prominence with a snap or two from Ton.
The street-style gamut has become a game that many now partake in — whether consciously or not — and it has emerged that certain subjects always get photographed because of a few tricks they have up their perfectly rolled sleeves. The primary tactic is to wear collections straight off the runway, an almost unattainable feat achievable only by a privileged few — new-season duds from Balenciaga, Proenza Schouler and Christopher Kane always gets a photographer foaming at the mouth. Certain things are worn to catch a photographer's eye, such as an extravagant hat, a chunky set of bracelets, or a shot of neon. A high-street heavyweight such as Topshop helps to facilitate these microcosmic trends, and they spread like wildfire during the course of fashion week.
Susie Bubble is a long-time friend and fan of Topshop. Having opened their long-awaited first Australian store in Melbourne in December 2011, Topshop/Topman opened their first Sydney store on 4 October 2012.
Follow Susie on Twitter and Instagram and Like her on Facebook.
