Reverse Trend Forecasting Issue #38

How street fashionistas are shaking up the fashion biz

By Stephanie Niedospial
Published: December 1st, 2008 | 12:00am

Nowadays, trends aren’t found in the pages of Vogue or Elle — but by clicking through style blogs maintained by the real fashionistas of the world. Street-level influencers with digital followings have turned the fashion industry on its head — consumers, along with fashion designers and magazine editors, are now taking their inspiration from the streets.

How did this happen? When did the trendsetters stop listening to Anna Wintour and instead turn to the 16-year-old blogging from her home computer?

“While street influence has always had its place in society, within the past year people have become even more exposed to, and aware of, what the public is wearing,” says Melissa Moylan, Global Managing Editor of Fashion Snoops, a trend forecasting service that provides critical analysis for the fashion industry.

Just as Myspace has influenced the music business, fashion blogs today reveal the next big designers, photographers, writers, and models of the fashion world. Take, for example, Scott Shuman (aka the Sartorialist), who made his mark by photographing everyday people on New York City streets and posting the photos to his blog — which attracts roughly 70,000 hits a day.

“Reverse trend forecasting isn’t a trend as much as it’s a clear window into what people have always been doing: Seeing fashions, reinterpreting them, and wearing it for themselves,” says Daniel Saynt, President of Fashion Indie (fashionindie.com), a website, blog, and social network targeted to the emerging fashion lover. “These people aren’t necessarily trendsetters as much as they are stylish people.”

As the emergence of street style blogs continues to change the way we discover fashion talent, it also exposes us to many more sources of fashion, providing the global reach that only the Internet can offer. “You have people from opposite sides of the globe finding inspiration from each other rather than the pages of glossy magazines,” says Yuri Lee, creator of lookbook.nu, a site with content generated from fashion-forward members posting photographs of their daily outfits.

These sites show industry professionals how “real people’’ put themselves together instead of turning to celebrity stylists and designer labels, bringing an emphasis on individuality to the fashion world. “I see it every day,” Saynt says. “We spot something cool on the street, and a few months later we see it on the runway. Like Alexander Wang, who built an entire collection off of what he saw his friends wearing.”