Take It to the Street

I spend at least hour a day looking at online photos of complete strangers. I know, major creeper activity. But I freaking love my street style Web sites.

Photographing stylish pedestrians is nothing new-- fashionable New Yorkers have been gracing the Style section of the Sunday New York Times for over a decade. But after the Sartorialist, imitators were suddenly, and literally, everywhere. To see the clothes horses tromping around Helsinki, you have Hel Looks; for London, London Street Fashion; Berlin, Stil in Berlin; Prague, Made on Street; Tokyo, Tokyo Street Style, and the list of cities and sites goes on. Google, and you shall receive.

And now, the Sartorial middleman is cut out with the proliferation of online communities where users post photos of their daily outfits. Big names in the game are: Lookbook.nu, Chictopia and What I Wore Today. Here, photos are more camerawhore than candid, yet come off much more personal-- instead of an anonymous fashionista standing on a Milanese street corner, you have Karolina F. from Poland or Wen L. from Guangzhou. You have a face and a name, explanations of where they wore the outfit to, the pretentious indie song lyrics they use as post titles, their apologies for "looking like poo-- i have the flu :( :( ."

So go on now-- Open a new browser window to begin your world adventure, and start clicking away. But remember: There's no place like home.