The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman hits Vancouver’s Secret Location: 26 photos of the man with his fans, plus our awesome Q&A!
See the party photos from Secret Location’s The Sartorialist event »
A day late—the event got bumped from Monday to Tuesday—but not short on fans, The Sartorialist Scott Schuman wielded a Sharpie for more than three hours to sign prints and copies of Closer, his second street style tome, at Secret Location.
Dressed in Johnny-Cash-all-black, he moved to the adjoining restaurant afterwards for cocktails, more book signings and photos with a VIP crowd, including PR maven Shannon Heth (he told her he liked her hair), man about town Fred Lee, Style Quotient’s Paul Melo and a flock of Wilhelmina models. When it wrapped, he bounded back to the airport to board a return flight to New York.
Speaking of airports, prior to the event we spoke to the busy photog-author while he was waiting to catch a plane and discussed the book, his style and how fashion is similar to sports. Commence Q&A:
You’re on your whirlwind book tour right now, which author would you want to meet?
“Helen Levitt. She was just a great street photographer in New York and spent so many years doing it. Where we probably live a very similar life in terms of going out and shooting, she shot a very different kind of photograph. It would be cool to talk to someone like her.”
Closer includes a lot more locales, some very distant and rural, what inspired that expansion?
“That was another reason why I called it Closer, because I’m getting much closer to the mix of shots I want to do. That’s one of the reasons why I’m doing a tour like this now. In the last couple days, I’ve been in Tennessee, Chicago, Cincinnati—all those places, they’re not totally different, but the people are different, and I like that. Shooting at fashion weeks offers you one kind of shot and a particular kind of person. Going into the rest of the country and rest of the world gives you an endless variety of fascinating subjects. That’s what I’m much more interested in, than just journalistically covering what’s happening in fashion.”
With the web, fashion has become is more readily consumable and accessible. From your travels, do you think that’s had an effect on style globally?
“I think more people are interested in fashion, they feel closer to it. Before fashion was kind of elitist, ‘over here’ and accessible to a small few. It’s almost like sports. They can watch their favourite designers, they can relate to their players. Editors are like the players, the teams are like the big fashion brands, the shows are like the game, so I think it’s great. I love both sports and fashion, so I see the similarities. We recently starting offering posters of some of my favourite photographs. The store [Secret Location] is already on their third order of these. I knew as somebody growing up loving fashion, that young boys and girls look at people like Anna Della Russo as a star to them. She’s a fashion star, like Michael Jordan is a sports star to somebody else. I would’ve loved a poster of Armani when I was a kid, they just didn’t have them.”
Street style photography has exploded since you started. Do you think it’s oversaturated?
“No. It’s like Italian restaurants. They always say, ‘Oh, we could never have another Italian restaurant in this town,’ until the next really great Italian restaurant comes in and it’s like ‘How could we live without that.’ It’s only as good as the quality of the people that are doing it.”
Since starting the site, would you say your personal style has evolved? Have photographing subjects inspired you to wear anything differently?
“Yeah, I think it’s helped me realize how to look at my own life and dress the way that works for my own life. When you see the people who are really chic, it’s usually because they know how to chose clothes to help them live their life the best. I’m not nearly as dressed up as I used to be, I don’t wear as many suits, because that’s just not my life. I buy more outerwear now, different kinds of shoes.”
You’ve seen the meme that went around awhile ago, “How to Get Shot By The Sartorialist,” what did you think of that? Does their equation add up?
“You know, I mean, it’s cute… what am I going to say? It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s whatever. Like anything, when you’re able to make something that people relate to or whatever… it’s a nice compliment that they would take the time to do that.”
, man about town Fred Lee, Style Quotient’s Paul Melo and a flock of Wilhelmina models. When it wrapped, he bounded back to the airport to board a return flight to New York.
Speaking of airports, prior to the event we spoke to the busy photog-author while he was waiting to catch a plane and discussed the book, his style and how fashion is similar to sports. Commence Q&A:
You’re on your whirlwind book tour right now, which author would you want to meet?
“Helen Levitt. She was just a great street photographer in New York and spent so many years doing it. Where we probably live a very similar life in terms of going out and shooting, she shot a very different kind of photograph. It would be cool to talk to someone like her."
Closer includes a lot more locales, some very distant and rural, what inspired that expansion?
“That was another reason why I called it Closer, because I’m getting much closer to the mix of shots I want to do. That’s one of the reasons why I’m doing a tour like this now. In the last couple days, I’ve been in Tennessee, Chicago, Cincinnati—all those places, they’re not totally different, but the people are different, and I like that. Shooting at fashion weeks offers you one kind of shot and a particular kind of person. Going into the rest of the country and rest of the world gives you an endless variety of fascinating subjects. That’s what I’m much more interested in, than just journalistically covering what’s happening in fashion.”
With the web, fashion has become is more readily consumable and accessible. From your travels, do you think that’s had an effect on style globally?
“I think more people are interested in fashion, they feel closer to it. Before fashion was kind of elitist, ‘over here’ and accessible to a small few. It’s almost like sports. They can watch their favourite designers, they can relate to their players. Editors are like the players, the teams are like the big fashion brands, the shows are like the game, so I think it’s great. I love both sports and fashion, so I see the similarities. We recently starting offering posters of some of my favourite photographs. The store [Secret Location] is already on their third order of these. I knew as somebody growing up loving fashion, that young boys and girls look at people like Anna Della Russo as a star to them. She’s a fashion star, like Michael Jordan is a sports star to somebody else. I would’ve loved a poster of Armani when I was a kid, they just didn’t have them.”
Street style photography has exploded since you started. Do you think it’s oversaturated?
“No. It’s like Italian restaurants. They always say, ‘Oh, we could never have another Italian restaurant in this town,’ until the next really great Italian restaurant comes in and it’s like ‘How could we live without that.’ It’s only as good as the quality of the people that are doing it.”
Since starting the site, would you say your personal style has evolved? Have photographing subjects inspired you to wear anything differently?
“Yeah, I think it’s helped me realize how to look at my own life and dress the way that works for my own life. When you see the people who are really chic, it’s usually because they know how to chose clothes to help them live their life the best. I’m not nearly as dressed up as I used to be, I don’t wear as many suits, because that’s just not my life. I buy more outerwear now, different kinds of shoes.”
You’ve seen the meme that went around awhile ago, “How to Get Shot By The Sartorialist,” what did you think of that? Does their equation add up?
“You know, I mean, it’s cute… what am I going to say? It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s whatever. Like anything, when you’re able to make something that people relate to or whatever… it’s a nice compliment that they would take the time to do that.”
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