The one blog that caused a seismic shift the fashion's power pantheon is The Sartorialist. It was founded in 2005 by photographer Scott Schuman who started taking snaps of guys on street corners, which literally inspired hundreds of copy cat street-style blogs since.
In 2007 Time magazine noted Schuman in the world's top 100 designer influencers. The Sartorialist is as good if not better than any fashion magazine for inspiration on how to dress. Although the likes of Bill Cunningham existed before Schuman, The Sartorialist has captured street-style in a modern, instant way.
His knack for capturing the world's most stylish men is inspiring. He lives in New York with girlfriend and fellow blogger Garance Dore, and the two have become a superpower couple in fashion's new world order.
"I think the biggest difference is that I try to shoot it from the point of view of someone who loves fashion. I don't talk about brands or people but just shoot the people," he tells me by phone from New York. "In the past there was one direction, magazines told you what you thought. There was no way to have a conversation. Fashion writers had a lot of power. When I grew up there was no Style.com, no runway photos, no collection magazines. Just fashion magazines. No video or pictures so you had to take their word for it. The tricky part now for fashion writers is that they have to tell us what they think after we all have already seen live streams with the ability to react and give our opinions already.
We're able to have a discussion [online] about it."
Is the printed magazine dead?
"Magazines will take on a more romantic and crafted feel with the internet being much more commercial. They will have to make the printed document more special and the idea of print will become more romantic. Like Carine's [Roitfeld] new magazine - it's more like a book. They'll become more elevated. The only tricky thing is that looking between a photo printed and online, the vibrancy online is like looking at images on a light box - the images glow."
