Hyperkult

Tom Ford's Dreamy Cherry Heels for YSL; Photo credit: Jak & Jill

Tommy Ton of Jak & Jill recently replaced The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman as Style.com’s Fashion Week street style photographer. I’ve been mulling over that phrase lately—”street style”—which used to connote subversiveness; the alt-culture to fashion’s mainstream; “real” women and their punky, sassy, couldn’t-care-less outfits that designers might steal from for inspiration. But with the rise of blogs like The Sartorialist in recent years, Carine Roitfeld, bless her heart, society women, and MODs (Models Off Duty) are the streetwalkers of choice—in the non-courtesan sense. I hardly think that Average Jane Fashion Lover can afford the Balenciaga booties or the Christopher Kane gorilla dress* that we’re seeing so much of these days. You might say “street” now means Bergdorf Goodman, or Opening Ceremony if we’re lucky.

Then there are the independent style blogs, which do capture anonymous tastemakers at their best. It’s those I’m attracted to a little more, though there’s definitely a trend continuum and sometimes an unshakeable sameness that makes it difficult to differentiate Iekeliene from random-girl-with-amazing-taste. I guess that’s why they call them “trends.”

But as much as I muse about the changing nature of fashion these days, how the avant garde has been dwarfed by editrixes and other on-and-off the runway insiders, I still love the work of Schuman and his cohorts. The pictures are fun and aspirational, though if I see one more pair of black gladiator platforms I might impale myself with my own Givenchy knockoffs. You see, I fall prey to what the magazines are pushing as much as anyone else.

Daria Werbowy is SO street, yo. Photo credit: Jak & Jill

And who exactly is Tommy Ton? Am I so horribly out of touch that I just discovered his blog a few weeks ago? Is that his real name, and why am I picturing him as a slim, skinny jean wearing, long lost member of the Misshapes?

Wait, I just Googled him. It could be true.

More of Ton’s photography on Jak & Jil and Style.com.

*Kane does have a high street facsimile of said dress in his collection for Topshop, which is already sold out online. I’m not gonna lie: it looks pretty cool, and the fact that the gigantic crocodile’s mouth strategically lies over a woman’s, uh, nether regions, made me laugh.