Catching the Eye of the Sartorialist
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Forget high-end brands: the subtleties of excellent posture, exquisite tailoring, and 80 year-old Milanese men will do the trick.
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Scott Schuman:

After launching the now famous "Sartorialist" blog in 2005, Scott Schuman has emerged as an influential force in the world of fashion. A self-taught photographer, Schuman shoots for publications including French Vogue, American GQ, Fantastic Man and Elle, and a growing list of advertising clients. He has also shown his work at the New York photo gallery The Danziger Projects and appeared in the GAP Style Icon campaign in the fall of 2008. He has been named the number one fashion photography trend by American Photo magazine, as well as one of Time magazine’s top 100 design influencers. Penguin published an anthology of his favorite photographs in 2009. The hardcover collection is aptly entitled, "The Sartorialist."
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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What do you look for in your subjects?

Scott Schuman: You know I was in the business for 15 years. My ex wife was a designer. I had a showroom where I worked with young designers, so I was very familiar with what designers look for when they’re going out to look for inspiration and they’re not looking for trends. If it’s something that’s already out on the street now that’s a trend now it’s not going to be something they’re going to design for a year from now. It’s usually much more abstract and it might be a detail. It might be color combination. It could be even the way the posture of a girl. I think one of the things that a lot of designers look at my site is not specifically the pieces that I’m shooting, but I think they maybe look at a girl and think I love the way that girl looks, but I would never dress her like that. That girl inspires me, but I love the idea of a long dress. Maybe she is wearing a long dress and they’re thinking it’s been a long time since I’ve designed a long dress, but I would never put it in a floral print. I would do it this way. So I don’t think they’re looking at my site for specific inspiration. I think they’re looking at it in a abstract way to get them thinking about that customer and that girl and that kind of girl they would like to dress and how they would do it a little bit differently and so I think that’s probably the most realistic. Or even the guys. I know a lot of the designers take a lot of those old guy pictures I take, these kind of really stylish old guys and I know it’s not because of the specific clothes that they’re wearing, but it’s the posture and it’s the attitude and it’s the elegance of these guys that is attracting them that inspires them and it’s the same thing for me. I’m totally inspired. It’s not that I want to dress like an 80 year-old Milanese guy, but the fact that they can still carry themselves with such an elegance, even at that age I think is very inspiring and whether it’s Milan or Harlem or wherever I think that’s something that guys really key on, a lot of the designers really key in on.

Question: What do you think about when you’re shooting?

Scott Schuman: When I’m shooting I try and keep it just very easy, very unplanned. I’m just walking around on the street looking for somebody that I think looks cool and I might be able to get a good shot. Today I was at Jamba Juice and there was a very cool girl, a very cool young college girl and she had a great coat and little cardigan with a fur trim and another print dress and nothing that she was wearing was expensive. It was all kind of thrown together, but thrown together just right, the color combination, how cute she looked. She was very kind of charming. Even though she was a tall girl she had a very kind of small persona, a very kind of shy persona and all of that is important. I mean to me the persona that she is creating whether it’s a big dramatic one or a quiet shy one, the way they stand, all of that is something that you want to try and capture in some way, at least my perception of who that person is in the photograph and so that’s you know you never know where you’re going to meet these people. That is why it’s fun. That’s why I enjoy going out and getting lost hopefully everyday or every other day and just seeing what is out there because by the end of the day I usually get back to my office and think I never would have thought I’d run into that kind of person there doing that thing and by constantly challenging myself that’s what I think keeps the integrity and the sincerity of the blog.


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