When Bill Cunningham and Scott Schuman first started shooting street style, it was just about people with an innate sense of fashion. Just people with great style. It’s been 15 years since Schuman launched his blog The Sartorialist and spawned an obsession with street style. Now, it’s a more complicated business. With the rise of bloggers in 2009, influencers first began monetizing their followings, forging brand partnerships that landed them in the front rows of fashion shows and on every street style slideshow on the internet, dressed in the brands and designers who were writing the checks and hosting their Fashion Week experiences.
Overnight, it seemed that part of the industry exploded, exalting influencers to celebrity status and making them — not the runways or the industry’s old guard — the stars of the show. Street style was no longer about style-savvy magazine editors or showgoers getting snapped spontaneously, and no longer about original style.
