The Southern Sartorialist...

An interesting street fashion blog was brought to my attention the other day. It's based in New York and it's called The Sartorialist. This may be old news to all you trendy fashion followers, but it was something fresh and different to little old me. It's basically fashion snaps, with a raw and edgy urgency. It reminds me of what might happen if Henri Cartier Bresson was working for Glamour Magazine's blog today.

So, it looks easy enough. I've done similar stuff for publications like FD Luxe and Quick. I've had to attend events and get snaps of people for the "who's who" type pages. However, the Sartorialist blog takes it a step further. It's like a mini, impromptu fashion shoot in the middle of the street, all done in a few frames or less.

Well, I decided to try it out for myself, doing a sort of Southern version of The Sartorialist. I decided to capture a slice of Dallas' Mockingbird Station on a recent Friday evening. I knew it would be a place where a mixture of styles would converge and mingle, and this is what I caught...

I liked this simple, yet trendy look. Of course, being a guy, I'm going to gravitate towards simple and comfortable clothing. It was hard to just press the shutter button and not turn this project into full-blown "photo shoot". I had to resist, though, as The Sartorialist style seems to be very spur of the moment. It appears like there is little to no art direction and the whole shoot happens in a matter of seconds.

This guy was dressed right! He was dressed up, but nothing looked constrictive or uncomfortable. His girlfriend was in perfect summertime clothing, too. I think you need to balance high style with comfort during Dallas' hottest days.

This is retro rockabilly perfected. I think he looks cool! Maybe I'm biased, since I love styles based around music.

This feels very Austin to me. Or maybe Denton. Both cities seem to lead Dallas on the newest indie-hipster trends, so expect to see this style more and more in Big D.

Classic punk pop look. I've shot a lot of bands at the Warped Tour dressed like this. I bet he's a musician. Or, at least someone cooler than me.

Anyone who sports a good metal t-shirt is OK in my book!

I want to find out more about that little pouch attached to his leg. I haven't seen those before (well, except for the drop leg bags that military and police use), and I'm sensing a new trend!

OK, so my stuff is nowhere near the quality of The Sartorialist yet. Of course, he's been perfecting this type of shooting for five years now. Maybe my street fashion pics would be as good or better after five years of doing it?!? Either way, it was fun to capture a slice of the city's real life fashion. I might just try this again. Watch out Sartorialist, you might just have some southern competition!