Whether a street-style blog features photographs of London club kids (Face Hunter), H&M-clad Swedes (Copenhagen Street Style) or secondhand shop-loving Finns (Hel-Looks), the appeal tends to be the same: the wearers have not only incredibly honed senses of personal style, but their looks tend to be 100%, in-this-lifetime attainable. The Sartorialist, however, offers a completely new aspect to the voyeurism that is the street style blog: aspiration. The fashion editors, buyers, models, and photographers he so often features are real people on real streets, yes - but they’re often wearing the same shoes shown in the current issue of French Vogue (and certainly the handbag), and the streets tend to be of the sort found outside the tents at Bryant Park or Milan Fashion Week. But this is why I look at it everyday, and also why Svetlana can only look at it once a month (”I just get so upset that those people aren’t my friends.”). The real trick of the site, though, is how seamlessly Scott Schuman can feature the innate style of an Italian housepainter or random, well-dressed passerby alongside photos of Carine Roitfeld, and how he never-endingly seeks out that high-low “mix,” even amongst company that is undeniably the most upper of the fashion eschelon. This past January saw the first print exhibition of Shuman’s street-style fashion photography at NYC’s Danziger Project, and this weekend Sart-style gets all the more attainable when the show opens at DC’s very own Adamson Gallery.

Schuman had long been involved with fashion before picking up a camera - in college he majored in costume design; he did marketing and PR for the Valentino label; he eventually owned a designer showroom that fostered young New York talent. A long-time contributor to Style.com, Schuman began posting as The Sartorialist in September of 2005 with the intent of showcasing the individual (and impeccable) style of his fashion industry acquaintances in New York. The site has since evolved to include hundreds of “On the Street” photos, a jet-lagging amount of far-flung locations, and a growingly-comprehensive “SartoriaList” of recommendations for tailors/ barbers/shoe repair/nail salons in New York, Paris, and Milan - as referred by style heavyweights like Emmanuelle Alt, Michael Macko, and Schuman himself.

A single photo can elicit well over a hundred comments, all of which Schuman seems well aware - at times he’ll defend, explain, or expound upon his photo choices and subjects. The most oft-commented posts tend to feature fashion world celebs, but an amazingly constructed coat, a controversial style, or a brilliantly composed shot can garner the same attention. Dissenting comments aside, the man’s eye is impeccable, and it’s only gotten better since the inception of the blog. An early 2006 post finds Schuman contemplating up-and-coming menswear deisgners, and in it he states that “…vision, real vision, for a unique product cannot be faked, either you’ve got one or you don’t.” His vision of style is what sets The Sartorialist apart from most street style blogs - his photos, truly, are art.
See them for yourself at Adamson Gallery (1515 14th St NW) starting Saturday. The opening is on Satruday, 6:30-8:30; with a reception for Scot on Wednesday, same time; the show runs through April 26th.

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