Written by Casey Milano

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different” - Coco Chanel

“oh, wow I love your coat where did you get it from!?” this was me walking up to stranger on the street after her blue and grey check coat caught my eye. This is not the first time I’ve done this, just the day before it was a girl in mango trousers (you had to see them). Women on the street inspire me, maybe not that I would wear something myself but just that they look so fabulous wearing it. The outfit you wear or an Instagram picture of you in all your fashion glory can now get you noticed, and if seen by the right person – famous. No longer needing qualifications or luxe fashion experience to call yourself a stylist, fashion blogger/writer, it seems all you need is an opinion and a good (or completely wacky) fashion sense. But can an outfit really make you famous? Look at some in demand bloggers who’ve made it big from a fashion blog/Insta account (Julia Engel – Gal meets glam, Gabi Gregg Gabifresh) and it looks like it can.  

The clothes we wear express who we are but with fast fashion becoming bigger than ever we can end up looking quite similar, so you can see how being a bit different or rather unique, can make a woman on the street a bit of a style icon. Bloggers and the Insta famous may be the darlings of the fashion world (for) now but the woman who dresses for herself rather than x number of likes is the real inspiration. Street style is a runway, it’s what ‘regular people’ wear every day and the thing I love about it is that it looks so different from the designer’s runway – it’s on everybody type, shape and colour and everyone adds their own twist, it shows their passion, their uniqueness and proves that you don’t need thousands of pounds to put a style icon worthy outfit together. These everyday fashionistas could be on a magazine cover and yes indeed are fashion page worthy.

“Trendy is the last stage before tacky” - Karl Lagerfeld.

In writing and researching this article I got to thinking about where the obsession of nameless fashion blogs and Instagram famous ‘stars’ came from. Perhaps it was social media making it possible for anyone to post a picture or create a blog, fast fashion making it even easier and cheaper to keep on top of trends or was it the photographer Scott Schuman who in 2007 decided to photograph people walking outside of the London fashion week shows rather than the people going inside. It’s something that has stuck – how many magazine pages are dedicated to the fashion worn outside of London fashion week than inside this year? What Schuman created was an idea that if you had good taste and were at the right place at the right time you could become famous - if only for a while. It also set in motion that if you could dress to get noticed and talk about it well, then you could become a fashion blogger.

That’s not to say it’s easy – you need passion (not a passion to get famous) and an unwavering amount of patience. But what does that have to do with girls on the street? well as fashion writer myself nothing inspires me more than the way women dress in their everyday lives and if I’m going to be relatable and able to engage with readers then I need to know what they’re wearing and why. To be a popular - and not just famous - blogger/Instagramer with staying power you need to think rather much the same.

“Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak” - Rachel Zoe.