The Myth of. Street Style. Abstract. Sophie Woodward

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1 Fashion Theory, Volume 13, Issue 1, pp DOI: / X Reprints available directly from the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by licence only Berg. Sophie Woodward Sophie Woodward is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University in the School of Art and Design. She is the author of Why Women Wear What They Wear (Berg, November 2007), which is based upon an ethnography of women's clothing choices in the bedroom. sophierose.woodward@ntu.ac.uk The Myth of Street Style Abstract The phrase "street style" is present in multiple sites, ranging from magazines, exhibitions, blogs, academic texts, and in popular parlance; its association with quirky individuality is one that arises out of its own mythologized and popularized histories. This article aims to interrogate what the current myth of street style is and the relationship this has to the everyday practices of assemblage. It is based upon an ongoing mass fashion observation (MFO) of young people in Nottingham which, through photographs and interviews, aims to document what the various style groupings are, and how these change over time. By

2 84 Sophie Woodward taking the approach of documenting street style as an everyday practice, this article makes a case for considering "street style" not solely in terms of the histories of street style, but also considering fashion magazines, clothing sold on the high street, localized style groupings, and how individuals assemble their own outfits. The article points to a shift in street style towards subtly differentiated style groupings which incorporate mainstream, high street fashions. In looking at how styles change over time, it also challenges the use of "fast fashion" in relation to the purchasing and wearing of clothing, as this conceals the complexities of practice. KEYWORDS: street style, mass observation, everyday fashion, high street, fast fashion We should... be living in an age in which the way in which people dress stands as a testament to the individualism celebrated in our era... an era of remarkable sartorial expressiveness, richness and heterogeneity. Something is wrong though. This doesn't seem to have happened (Hill 2005: 67). Adopting the role of fldneur, Andrew Hill (2005) wandered through the streets of London, eclectically observing the clothing that people were wearing; his observations were framed by the expectation that people's clothing styles ought to be visibly differentiated as a reflection of the current emphasis upon individualism. Instead, he is disappointed by how "boringly" people dress (Hill 2005); this article will argue that this same sense of disappointment in what people are wearing is also framed by the cultural expectations of what street style ought to be. The associations of street style with quirkiness and "sartorial expressiveness" (Hill 2005: 67) channel how Hill, amongst others, observes people in the multiple streets and micro-sites within locations such as London. This article aims to outline what the myth of street style is, how it emerged, and to reconsider the relationship that this myth has to the practice of street style, that is, fashions and styles not as they are produced by designers or seen on the catwalk, but as they are observed on the street. Street style as an idea, phrase, practice, and image can be located in numerous sites: as part of popular parlance, within media representations of fashion in the street style sections of magazines, in outfits that are assembled, in exhibitions and academics' accounts. These multiple sites and discourses are interconnected in producing meanings surrounding street style. This mirrors Evans (1997) discussion of subcultures more specifically, as she highlights that the different discourses surrounding subcultural style, whether it is the categorizations of marketers or the seemingly innocuous accounts of academics, can impact upon both the self-perception and practices of members of such groups. So too, in the case of street style, these multiple discourses impact upon

3 The Myth of Street Style as both the practices of assemblage, as they come together to produce the "myth of street style," which is the focus of this article. The word "myth" is not being employed in the popular sense, as an untruth (Armstrong 2005), which would imply that notions of street style are opposed to what people "really" wear. Nor in this case is myth seen to be empty of its historical context (as in Barthes' discussion of myth 1973: 137), as it is heavily influenced by both popular and academically constructed histories. As will be discussed, the well-documented histories of street style chart the transition from more clearly defined subcultures (Muggleton 2000) through to less clearly differentiated style groupings, which elude clear categorization (Evans 1997). Street style is linked to specific music scenes and locations, such as Camden in London (Breward 2004), as its associations with creativity and innovation have become a pivotal means through which British style has been imagined and constructed (Gilbert 2000). Running alongside these academically sourced accounts of the shifting nuances in street style, are the more popular accounts, such as Polhemus (1994), linked to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) exhibition which serves to simplify these shifting transitions into a set of mutually exclusive groupings. This account has been criticized for being overly reductionist, and imposing external categorization which may not concord with the participants own selfdefinition (Evans 1997). Nonetheless, this same act of simplifying these histories, is part of how the current myth of street style emerges. Even if the Goths and punks are historically recorded figures, as their images are disseminated into different media, exhibitions, magazines, T-shirts, and television, they become part of a mythologized past. As the myth of street style evolves, it simultaneously fixes these characters in the narrative. In discussing the differences and convergences between history and myth, Levi-Strauss points out that when we try to write history we remain "astride our own mythology" (1978: 35), as interpretation is imbued with schools of thought and ideological positions. For the academic, as much as the lay person, 'myths think in men' (Levi-Strauss 1964: 20), as they come to appear naturalized. When Andrew Hill looked at the practice of street style he did so through the flineur's eyes (2005), and so when the observed clothing styles are seen from the point of view of the myth of quirkiness, they inevitably come to appear "boring." In contrast, the contention of this article is that street style does not just emerge out of its own narratives. Instead, "street style" is documented and understood as the intersection of several domains: the high street, fashion magazines, and the background, relationships, and preferences of the consumer and their social milieu. This claim is based upon a mass fashion observation (MFO) of street fashion in Nottingham, which took place in conjunction with a documentation of high street fashions, and magazine "street style pages" of the same period. The aim is to arrive at an understanding of street style that

4 Sophie Woodward 86 Sophie Woodward neither champions it as the locus of fashion innovation, nor reduces it to the workings of "fast fashion" and the fickle consumer that implies. Given the current emphasis upon the multiple, overlapping domains of fashion (Crewe and Beaverstock 1998: 295), an understanding of how different sectors of fashion articulate together is particularly pertinent. It serves to redress empirical research which focuses solely upon a single domain of fashion, such as magazines, in the production of styles and discourses of fashion. Methodology: Capturing the Street This article is based upon Fashionmap, an empirical research project at Nottingham Trent University, which documents fashion as it is produced by the high street, and as worn and assembled by consumers. The first strand of the research centers on high street fashion and documents the fashions and styles as they are presented in high street shops. The majority of research into the high street analyzes the retail environment in detail (Wrigley and Lowe 1996: 8), focusing upon the spatial layout or image advertising. There is a notable absence of research into the high street as a mediator of new fashion styles, which forms a crucial backdrop to understanding and locating street style, as there are clear continuities in the fashions and styles between the two domains. The second strand of this research, which is the main data upon which this article is based, is an MFO: individuals are photographed by trained student researchers in various locations, on the street, in bars. A total of over 700 images have now been collected, over a four year period. It aims to offer a year on year documentation of "street styles," both in terms of the common trends of the moment, and the potential areas of innovation (Keen 2005). As such, most of the photographs are of young people in the age group The observations took place in Nottingham, a city which is both typical, through the presence of a high street of fashion multiples like the rest of Britain, and atypical given that the styles and fashion that emerge are an intersection of the mass-market and the particularities of location (Crewe and Beaverstock 1998; Gilbert 2000). The data collected are both a visual record of styles, and also include brief interviews with individuals, in order to account for where items of clothing are from and when they were bought. Hill's observations (2005) of street style in London are based instead upon the tradition of flinerie, as he notes observations from the fleeting images of people passing in the street. This research is more comprehensive, as it involves gathering data on what people are wearing in several different "street" locations, in order to see how particular localized style convergences emerge. One of the problems this research encountered was how to pin down and carry out concrete research on "the street;" as street style has become part of popular discourse, its meaning and substance become

5 87 The Myth of Street Style 87 elusive. The street is both a physical location, yet as McRobbie (1994) rightly points out, "the street" is also firmly tied to the people who frequent it, and as such is a set of social relations. Given that the street is not just a physical concrete structure it is therefore changing, and has a temporal existence as the same street on a Monday morning may be very different from a Saturday evening. These social relations include the ways in which people interact with each other, including the clothing they wear, and how appearance is presented and interpreted (Sennett 1971). The street is therefore both specific and localized, yet at the same time is informed by wider myths and understandings of "the street." As such, the practices of photographing took place in a several locations on Nottingham streets, in both the daytime and the evening, in order to attempt to capture these fluctuating notions of "street style." At the same time, if street style emerges out of people "hanging out," then restricting research to the actual "street" would be insufficient given that the street is more a location to pass through than a place to display the sartorial self. The data collected also include observations of places where people did "hang out," such as bars. Creating the Myth of the Street Fashion myths are often constructed as a-temporal, such as the idea of "Italian timeless elegance;" however, as Breward (2004) has demonstrated, the notion of street style is something that has mutated and shifted over time. The street has been written about as pivotal to the evolution of fashion and key to the project of modernity in the nineteenth century (Baudelaire 1995; Benjamin 2002). Polhemus's (1994) taxonomy of clearly defined style groupings begins in the 1940s, starting from the "Zooties" in Harlem, through a subsequent range of styles in Paris, New York, the West Coast of the USA, and London in the 1990s. Polhemus's account, linked to the V&A exhibition Street Style, has served to fix the history of street styles, as it is understood as a progression of visually exciting, colorful, outrageous clothing from the David-Bowie-influenced Glam look of chunky platforms, showers of glitter, and makeup creating a unisex look, through to the Mohican and the sartorial anarchy of punks. These looks have now become a familiar part of widely accepted popular understanding of the history of street style. Styles such as punk have become shorthand for, and icons and heroes of, street style in the popular imagination, with its do-it-yourself aesthetic, as a reaction against established mainstream fashion design. In the current fashion climate, even as coherent, reactionary subcultures lose their boundaries as identities are more fluid, contradictory, and dissipated (Muggleton 2000), these histories of subcultural style still have an enduring legacy. Current street style is still conceptualized in terms of the same core duality: the innovations of subcultures (which

6 as Sophie Woodward is now alleged to have given way to the creativity of individuals) is defined in opposition to the mainstream, which is seen as sterile and conformist, frequented by unimaginative fashion victims. In Polhemus's account, creativity is elided with authenticity, as he argues for the pre- 1990s subcultural groupings, the street is the domain of "genuine innovation" (1994: 10). This perceived authenticity has become a pivotal part of how street style is mythologized, and as such is still present in the current myth of street style, as it offers an antidote to the lack of authenticity that is alleged to characterize the late-modern world (Baudrillard 1994). This association is seen clearly in the interviews carried out for this research project, where young people interviewed were keen to state that they shopped in "alternative" sources, such as second-hand shops, markets, and jumble sales with 78% of the people interviewed stating that they regularly shopped in charity or second-hand shops. As Crewe and Beaverstock's analysis of the cultural quarter of the Lace Market in Nottingham makes clear, the dominance of "individualised consumption outlets" (Crewe and Beaverstock 1998: 299) in the area is in explicit contrast to the mainstream high street. The presence of this area in Nottingham is telling, and the comments of many interviewed in our project make clear the widespread perception that the high street is homogenized and inauthentic, leaving no space for individuality. As part of the myth's "social geography" (Barthes 1973: 150), the notion of "street style" seeps into popular discourse, as part of the consumption identities of many of those we interviewed. Rather than having a single author, the myth is an "organic growth" (Pollard 1927: xxx) as it both mutates, and becomes fixed in its meaning, through popular discourse and indeed fashion magazines. There is a convergence within Polhemus's (and others) account and fashion magazines in terms of what the current formulation of "street style" actually is. Street style is seen as innovative, as these styles, in Polhemus's terms, "bubble-up" (1994: 8) into the mainstream, becoming sanitized and losing their subversive edge. In the 1980s magazines such as The Face and i-d positioned themselves as offering an "authenticity" lacking in the mainstream, photographing "ordinary" people, who were by implication more "real." The styling of the shoots was soon found in mainstream fashion magazines such as Elle and Vogue, with the difference being that rather than using ordinary people, it is models wearing a "fantasised imitation of The Real Thing" (Polhemus 1994: 12). In current mainstream fashion magazines, such as Grazia and Elle, the "street style" pages now in fact do show "ordinary" people plucked off the street, an ordinariness underlined by their inevitable comment that the outfit was sourced from charity shops (or "vintage"), and a high street shop perceived to be "cool," such as Topshop. There is nothing wacky or out of the ordinary, as the person selected is wearing whatever the current fashion is. The mediated version of street style, present in fashion magazines, has mutated: the subversive has become

7 89 The Myth of Street Style 89 the ordinary. This also raises key issues for the rate of change of street styles. Polhemus has suggested that the long-term identities offered by subcultures, as they are bounded by sartorial differentiation, have given way to "stylistic promiscuity" (Polhemus 1994: 131) and frequently changing styles. A key research aim for this MFO, as it aims to develop into a long-term study, is to see whether fashion as it is assembled by ordinary people does in fact change this rapidly. For Polhemus, this rapid change of styles is permitted as young people ransack the archives of former street styles. However, this research project aims to expand the understanding of street style, where this promiscuity involves the sourcing of clothing from the mainstream and the high street. The relationship street style has to the mainstream is pivotal to how it is understood. However, this relationship is not straightforward as current street style is in a paradoxical position. In many of the interviews carried out, it was perceived as being in opposition to the mainstream high street, yet it is simultaneously part of the mainstream through fashion magazines, where the street style section includes people wearing the current "trends" and high street clothing. When we consider what people actually wear, it is evident how pivotal the high street is. Fifty one percent of people interviewed were only wearing high street clothing, and only 5% of people interviewed were wearing absolutely nothing from the high street. The high street is therefore crucial in understanding how fashion is assembled. High "Street:" Flexible and Specialized Homogeneity Like the street, the high street is a location and physical space, yet is also a set of practices, consisting of the economic and social relationships negotiated between designers, manufacturers and retailers (Wrigley and Lowe 1996) and retail workers. It is also an imagined construct and identity, and is relational as it is frequently constructed in opposition to other domains of fashion. The high street is defined by the possession of at least one fashion multiple, whether this is a department store, or a standard chain retailer (such as Zara and Topshop). The UK has a unique retail structure when compared to its European counterparts, for clothing, the largest shops and chains control around 75% of the market (Keynote 2004: 16). There are no significant regional variations in terms of the kinds of shops you find on the high street in any city or town in the UK as they are all dominated by large national chains. The uniformity of the high street is therefore pronounced when compared with other European locations. In 2003, 38% of clothes were bought in clothing multiples and chains, 9% in department stores, 8% in clothing in dependents, and 8% in supermarkets (Keynote 2004: 20). If one looks at the content of these high street shops, this dominance is even more marked, as the high street has cornered much of what was

8 Sophie Woodward 90 Sophie Woodward classified as "alternative;" with many high street stores such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge, and Oasis having a "Vintage" section, which is either genuinely second-hand or newly produced in the style of vintage clothing. The high street has therefore even monopolized the "alternative shopping locations" by offering it in the mainstream; the distinction between different domains is even less defined. Even though each shop occupies a particular "niche" in order to be successful, what is evident from looking at items in high street shops is the ways in which there is still a striking uniformity in terms of the contents of these shops. For example, in Spring 2006 it was possible to buy a pair of ballet shoes in almost any high street shop, so too a wide belt, or a pair of skinny gray jeans. In fact so dominant were these skinny gray jeans that it became nigh on impossible to find a pair of wide leg, or high-rise jeans in any youth-oriented high street shop. Despite this apparent uniformity across the high street, this is happening in the context of supposed specialization and flexible consumerdriven retailing strategies. In light of current consumer-centered retail strategies, the notion that the high street is uniform would seem to be something of a paradox. A defining feature of retail in the flexible post- Fordist economy is the technological developments (Wrigley and Lowe 1996), such as electronic point of sale, which enables rapid response and flexible manufacturing relations in order to be responsive to consumer demands. As such, clothing is no longer bulk bought prior to each season, but rather the quantity and frequency with which each item is manufactured and delivered to the store are dependent upon sales figures, recorded at the point of purchase. No longer are there two predetermined seasonal collections, but new styles and fashions are delivered with ever increasing speed, in some cases, garments can go from designer to hanging in the shop in fourteen days. The market is therefore apparently led by consumer demand, and through the widespread introduction of electronic data processing techniques, retail outlets are able to offer "mass-produced individualities" (Du Gay 1996: 98). Given that consumption is recognized as a simultaneously cultural and economic act, and as a key factor in the constitution of identities, retail has to offer and allow diverse ways for consumers to forge their identities. Despite this flexibility and consumer led strategies, the high street is notably uniform in the styles it presents. There is a clear convergence in the high street, and "street" fashion: there are constant styles that keep reappearing, and a rapid turnover of styles that are only subtly differentiated. Assembling the High Street: Fast Fashion and Slow-Burners This research explicitly aimed to look at both current trends and at innovatory styles yet what is striking about the images collected of "street

9 91 The Myth of Street Style 91 style" in Nottingham, and photographs taken in particular bars, is the absence of any sartorially unusual styles, which in many ways mirrors Hill's observations. The documenting of what the current trends, styles and key items are, was straightforward, as there is an overall uniformity in what is worn, with items such as converse trainers, ballet pumps, skinny jeans, high-waisted belts, and military-style jackets cropping up regularly within the photographs. These styles were as evident in photographs taken on the main high street as they were in the bars in the evening, many of which are part of the "alternative indie scene." Therefore, as I will discuss later, even in the creation of a separate alternative "look" the resources and styles being drawn on are, in part, those of the mainstream. The markers of difference are more subtle and at times not even comprehensible from looking at the outfit alone. An initial conclusion therefore might be, like Hill's observations of London, that everyone looks the same, and is sourcing clothing from similar locations (the high street). However, even if the social style groupings of 2006 are less evidently innovative and outrageous in the style than the subcultures of the 1970s and 1980s, this does not mean that the fashion system has reverted to a Veblenesque "trickle-down" of fashions and looks. The young people we photographed and interviewed do not simply passively consume fashions that are dictated to them. For example, the young woman in Figure 1, who was photographed and interviewed in one of Nottingham's main shopping precincts on a Saturday afternoon in February 2006, shows the complexities within an apparent lack of visible differentiation. In many ways she is typical of those we photographed. At an initial glance, her outfit is not striking it its unusualness; indeed she is wearing many of the classic fashion items that prevail in Nottingham at the time: skinny jeans (albeit frayed, as a marker of a long-term relationship to her clothing), a low-slung belt, and slouchy leather boots. However, like many of the people we interviewed she stresses a desire to look "different." This difference comes not from wearing an outrageous or novel style, but through how the items are combined, and most importantly where they are sourced from. The outfit is sourced from a range of high street shops (Office, Levis, Primark, H and M, Paul Smith), an item that is second-hand, and the jacket is borrowed from her boyfriend. Within this she is combining items that are new "fashion" items (such as the Topshop boots and the Primark belt), with items she has owned for a while (such as the top and scarf). This young woman is typical of the people we interviewed in the sense that she does not look strikingly different or unusual but equally manages to differentiate herself in a subtle manner through sourcing her clothing from a range of places, situated in her preexisting wardrobe, and family networks (Woodward 2007). The apparent ordinariness of the images collected, with the emphasis upon how items are sourced, and combined, clearly resonates with the "street style" sections of fashion magazines. This myth of fashionability,

10 Sophie Woodward 92 Sophie Woodward Figure 1 Young woman photographed in the Broadmarsh shopping center in Nottingham, February 2006; part of the Fashionmap archive, Nottingham Trent University. involving sourcing from charity shops, and the mix-and-match aesthetic, is perpetuated through fashion magazines as stylists "style tips" or in the street style pages. The "street style page" has photographs of ordinary people plucked off the street. As mentioned earlier, "street style" in this formulation forms a stark contrast to the history of street style Polhemus outlines, as it is now characterized by the ordinary person that manages to set themselves slightly apart, in an act of "marginal differentiation" (Lipovetsky 1994: 131). These young people internalize this new "myth of fashionability," and invariably even if their outfit is from the high street, talk of their love of vintage. The possession, or the wearing, or second-hand items along with high street ones, has become a key marker of fashionability, with the emphasis falling upon how the items are sourced, and not just on the look.

11 93 The Myth of Street Style 93 The ways in which items are sourced, and combined, carries key implications for the rate at which new styles and trends emerge. If a history of changing styles was to be outlined through mainstream fashion magazines, each new season is predicated upon a new fashion "look" (or multiple "looks"), which would result in a history of clearly demarcated styles. However, these "looks" often fail to translate to fashions as they are actually worn; an example of this is the return of "60s style," touted by Vogue as one of the new trends of Winter In the same season, in Topshop, the trend is present in a Courreges-style mini-dress, in monochrome bold prints. However, the MFO of the same season, and the subsequent one, shows that there are barely any instances of anyone actually wearing the 1960s style in its entirety. Where it is present, it is more through particular colors or fashion details. Both the high street and fashion magazines present fashion in terms of "looks," which is in opposition to the fashion that is appropriated and that emerges from ordinary peoples assemblages. Fashion here is best understood as a creative act of assemblage by people from the resources (both physical and informational) presented to them in magazines and in the shops. When shifts in fashion are considered through the clothing that is worn and assembled by individuals, it is apparent that very rarely is there a seasonal rupture and shift to a totally new style. The high street and fashion magazines are based upon the imperative of constantly having to renew styles, yet what this makes clear is that fashion is appropriated by consumers and always situated in clothing already owned. This more gradual appropriation of new styles arises out of the ways in which these young people source from the high street: buying individual items from different shops which are in turn combined with borrowed or gifted items. We now live in a world where allegedly fashion is faster than ever, as lead times shorten, and the process of renewal of styles in the high street happens at an ever increasing rate. Despite this, when the results from the MFOs year on year are considered, what is striking is the ways in which many styles and fashions evolve far more gradually. The comparison from October to February is not one of a striking seasonal contrast, but rather a more subtle shift, with the graduation of the belts slightly higher, hemlines shifting gradually, and different processes of layering taking place. Throughout the course of the whole observation there have been certain items that are present throughout, such as converse trainers, wide belts (albeit positioned differently), the military-style jacket. What is different is the ways in which these items are combined. A classic example of this is the case of the ripped denim mini-skirt; this item has been present throughout the MFOs, as it peaked in 2004, as worn with cowboy boots or flat brightly colored pointy shoes. However, although it reached saturation point, it is still present in more recent observations as it is recombined in different ways. For example, in one recent observation (February 2006) it was worn on a night out, over black leggings, flat black ballet pumps, a black top, and

12 Sophie Woodward 94 Sophie Woodward a low wide belt over the skirt, with a sparkly silver and black bolero. Therefore it is clear that the ways in which fashion changes at the level of the street and as worn, is far slower than that as dictated by the official face of fashion. A. L. Kroeber (1957) has argued that as fashion is defined by changing incessantly, focus tends to fall upon the "fleeting" (1957: 8), at the expense of looking at "long term drifts" (1957: 9). Along with Richardson (Kroeber and Richardson 1940) he carried out a series of quantitative measurements of the changes in women's dress fashions between 1787 and 1936; the research measured the changes in six dimensions of dress: skirt length, skirt width, waist length, waist width, d&olletage depth, and d&olletage width. What Kroeber notes over the period he looked at was alternating periods of high variability in changes and low variability (when fashions changed very little). Of relevance here are the dual trends he observed between the constant state of "surface fluctuation" and the "long-term drifts" of the structure of a dress (in terms of the six dimensions he measured). Although the period of time he is discussing is vastly different from the current day, his observation of the co-presence of the fast-moving fashion trends, and the more gradual shifts in things like silhouette, still has resonance. When this is considered in light of the observations in Nottingham it is clear that there are several coexisting temporal cycles of change: a surface level of constant change, the more gradual fluctuations in belt height and length of skirt, and indeed the items that are "slow- burners" enduring over time. This raises the question as to whether "fast fashion" is sufficient to characterize how fashions are assembled and in turn how styles change. Whilst the phenomenon of "fast fashion" is documented at the level of improved production processes, and links to retail outlets, the relationship this has to fashion from the point of view of consumption is often assumed. The rapid turnover of clothing in shops like Zara, in tandem with low-price, fast-moving fashion of shops like Primark, has lead to endless speculations over the fickle consumer and their constantly changing fashion tastes. Polhemus and McRobbie have both noted that the long-term affiliation to a particular look within subcultural styles has given way to the eclectic sourcing of different styles as there is a far more fast-moving trend in the generation of styles. The alleged speeding up of fashion makes it the perfect exemplar of the wider shifts in social life in the West more broadly as we live in the "tyranny of the moment" (Hyland-Erikson 2001). Innovations in technology allow for the instantaneousness of communication and information retrieval. However, the capabilities of technology should not be conflated with actual practice; so too in the case of fashion, the improved communications between retail, production, and distribution centers allows for the increased turnover of styles. By implication, consumers are able to buy new styles more frequently than ever before; however, when we actually look at fashion from the

13 95 The Myth of Street Style 95 perspective of everyday practice, and the rate of change of styles "fast fashion" is a too wide-ranging and all-encompassing term that fails to account for the multiple temporal cycles. There is neither a stasis in styles that cohere around a defined grouping, nor is there a rapid shifting change of styles, rather street styles tend to emerge more slowly at the intersection between new looks and older styles. Hanging Out in Bars Assuming fashion, as it arises out of everyday assemblages and purchases, moves at the same rate as the turnover of clothing in the high street would seem to suggest that the primary motivation behind an individual changing their fashion and styles is the clothing presented in the high street. Instead, I would emphasize the situated-ness of clothing choices, as they are influenced by social networks. Writing about subcultural styles, primarily in London, McRobbie argued that one of the ways in which it becomes a domain for the creation of new subcultural innovations, was that it was a place to hang out, to "see" and "be seen" (McRobbie 1994: 32). Similarly Breward (2004) reinforces this as he argues that Camden was as famous for the crowds that frequented it as the actual clothes on sale. As such, it is hard to talk about "the street" in Nottingham in the same way, given that "the street" is primarily a means to get from one site to another. In order to access the ways in which styles may change through social interactions (namely through observing other people and presenting the sartorial self), it is necessary to look at the places that this does happen. The MFOs also therefore involved taking photographs in bars in Nottingham, with a particular focus upon the young trendy ones, some are concentrated in an area called Hockley (outlined by Crewe and Beaverstock 1998), as a domain associated with the culture industries. I will focus here upon the observations from a bar that is seen as an "alternative" place to go out, renowned for its music, frequented in part by art and design students and others who work in the culture industries, described by one of our interviewees as "everyone's a real individual here, you have to really think about what you are going to wear." From the photographs taken, and observations done, there is very clearly "a look," which at the time of the observation being done (February 2006) for men was the mullet hair cut, a cardigan, granddad trousers, retro ties, and thick glasses. For women "the look" was feminine vintage dresses, neck ties, skinny jeans, vintage coats, lots of accessories, and brightly colored shoes. Even though this "look" is identifiable to this particular bar, there is still a continuity of styles from this bar and other more "mainstream" bars, and indeed the types of items that we found when we photographed people on the streets, such as the patterns on tops and dresses of horizontal stripes, spots, and the presence of items such as skinny trousers

14 Sophie Woodward 96 Sophie Woodward and waist belts. The complexities of differentiation of style groupings is discussed by Evans in her reassessment of ravers' tactics in the 1980s; she argues that they dressed to make "themselves invisible" (1997: 170). They are not marked in explicit contrast to the mainstream, but their difference is harder to read. So too, in my example, the particularity of this bar's "look" is more subtly differentiated. Figures 2 and 3 demonstrate this, as they are typical of the styles and people found in such venues. In each case the young women are wearing what is characterized as the style of the place. However, each of the women is wearing items that could well have been found on a person in a more mainstream bar: the young woman in Figure 3 is wearing gray drainpipe jeans (from Topshop), flat ballet-style shoes (bought from Peacocks), and a wide belt (vintage). The young woman in Figure 2 Figure 2 Young woman photographed in "alternative" bar in Nottingham, February 2006; part of the Fashionmap archive, Nottingham Trent University.

15 The Myth of Street Style 97 Figure 3 Young woman photographed in "alternative" bar in Nottingham, February 2006; part of the Fashionmap archive, Nottingham Trent University. is wearing a mustard-colored open top (Primark) and a spotty dress (belonged to her grandmother). Each of the girls is therefore wearing items from a high street shop; the girl in the red dress states that she loves the style and fashion of the high street, and thinks it is "as good as designer," but "as it's mass produced you know everyone will have it." Therefore here the high street is rejected not in terms of the styles or looks, but rather the fact that it is mass-produced. Similarly, the girl in the spotty dress states that the reason she loves vintage is that it is "not stuff that everyone's got," and is "unique." So too, she is wearing her grandmother's dress, and loves to wear it because it looks "cool... it's my style." When pressed whether she wore it out of a close relationship to her grandmother, she states that she never really knew her grandmother. The items are valued due to how they look, and also

16 98 Sophie Woodward as she knows that it is a unique item. What these two examples make clear is that these women value items that they know no one else has. In contrast to the conventional understanding of subcultures (Gelder and Thornton 1997), these new forms of style groupings do not emphasize wanting to completely repudiate the styles of the mainstream. The narratives behind items and outfits are particular to individuals, however, there is still a clear "look," a "taste constellation" (Crewe and Beaverstock 1998: 301) that characterizes the bar, which does not involve a complete rejection of mainstream styles. In Maffesoli's (1996) discussion of identity and forms of connectivity in contemporary latemodern society, he has argued that with the decline of prescribed identities and status through traditional sociological parameters such as class, identity is not characterized by individualism. Rather he looks at the more subtle aggregations of identity, which are far more shifting and subtle than traditional subcultures and collective identities. When considered in terms of clothing, Maffesoli's arguments clearly link in to Polhemus's notion of the "supermarket of style," where individuals are far more eclectic in choosing from a range of cultural referents. As such, it is harder to distinguish between the styles of individuals and groups. What this research shows is that the range of referents that people are drawing from is wider that just subcultural pasts, and indeed now includes the mainstream high street. Current "street style" is informed not only by its past, but into this eclectic mix is introduced the mainstream, and the history and present of street style as it is told to us by fashion magazines. What emerges from this is not that the "signifying power of clothing has been eroded" (Hill 2005: 72); in fact it is more a question that it is simply more complex, as sartorial codes have become harder to read. What matters is a more subtle understanding of the nuanced ways in which style groupings are differentiated; from the common ground of the high street, style magazines, there is a more understated way in which new looks emerge. As Maffesoli argues in the discussion of the nature of "neo-tribes," they are better understood as "aggregations" (1996: 72). Therefore the act of hanging around with particular people, in a particular location results in style convergences, the markers of difference are often so subtle they are only readable by those on the inside. The emphasis instead is upon where the items are from and how they are combined. Conclusions In considering the word "myth" in the context of street style, it is apparent that it cannot be reduced to being a falsehood, which would imply that somehow the concept of street style as quirky individuality is untrue when seen in the context of what people are "really" wearing. By

17 The Myth of Street Style Style not wearing original or unusual clothing, it is as if people are betraying our sense of what street style actually is. However, this understanding of street style arises out of a mythologized history of street style and by positioning current clothing styles as the culmination of such a historical trajectory inevitably impoverishes them. Instead, this article argues against the notion of opposing "myth" to reality, and instead aimed to address street style as the articulation of different areas. This conclusion aims to look at the implications for looking at street style as the intersection of different arenas. Firstly, what this highlights is that "the myth" of street style does not reside in one domain, such as fashion magazines, which can be seen in opposition to "real" clothing choices. In as much as classical mythology cannot be understood in isolation from storytelling (such as, Homer) or dramatic reenactments (such as, Sophocles) nor can the myth of street style be seen as somehow separate to what people wear, how they talk about fashion, or what is in the high street. Indeed when the relationship between what people wear and the street style sections of magazines is considered, the convergence between the two is immediately apparent. This is not to suggest that there is a direct causal relationship between the two, with either magazine images, or the fashions people choose to wear being seen as the determinant in current street styles. This convergence between the fashion media and "ordinary" people, where the photographed images in magazines are people plucked off the street, is symptomatic of the ways in which popular mythologies operate in a wider British context. Armstrong (2005: 135) has argued that what current myths of Western society lack (in opposition to classical mythology) is the notion that myths are something to aspire to, to be imitated, as the images or ideas tap into the ordinary persons "vein of heroism." Instead, mythologized figures have become icons to be passively admired. In the case of street style, it is apparent that in fact there is no longer the same distance between icon and the hero, and the ordinary person. As is symptomatic of the current practice of demystifying the celebrity, in this example the ordinary person is the mythologized figure. Secondly, carrying out research that looks at the intersection of separate domains of fashion is essential in addressing the complexities of fashion practices. In Barthes' polemic, myths reduce and sanitize the complexity of actual practices as myth is "de-politicised" (1973: 143). When applied to the myth of street style, it is reduced to empty phrases such as "mix and match" or "being individual." The myth is therefore not an untruth, but is rather a simplification that is reductive of the complexity of practice. This can be applied to the myth of the street, as much to an understanding of "fast fashion." "Fast fashion" has rapidly become a catch-all phrase which encompasses both the speed with which new items can arrive in the shops, and the alacrity with which consumers are able to replace their clothing. However, what this

18 lug Sophie Woodward 100 Sophie Woodward research project makes clear is that Kroeber's observations (1957) of the rate of change in fashion for the late nineteenth century are still applicable to the twenty-first-century world of fast fashion. The infatuation fashion has with constantly changing styles is now matched by the increased capacity to produce and retail fashions at a more rapid pace. This does not, however, determine the rate at which people replace their clothing. And so, we cannot "read off" the rate of fashions change merely by looking at new developments in distribution, retail, and production. It is only through the long-term study of these changes, and understanding how these changes are situated in personal, social, and economic contexts, that terms such as "fast fashion" or indeed myths of street style can be fully understood, as these terms are, in Barthes' sense, re-politicized. Acknowledgments Full acknowledgment must go to Sue Keen for the initial concept behind the Fashionmap archive, and her continued role in the management of it. References Armstrong, K A Short History of Myth. Edinburgh: Cannongate. Barthes, R Mythologies. St Albans: Paladin. Baudelaire, C The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. London: Phaidon Press. Baudrillard, J Simulations and Simulacra. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Benjamin, W The Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Breward, C Fashioning London: Clothing and the Modern Metropolis. Oxford: Berg. Crewe, L. and J. Beaverstock, "Fashioning the City: Cultures of Consumption in Contemporary Urban Spaces." Geoforum 29: Du Gay, P Consumption and Identity at Work. London: Sage. Evans, C "Dreams That Only Money Can Buy... or, the Shy Tribe in Flight from Discourse." Fashion Theory 1(2): Gelder, K. and S. Thornton (eds) The Subcultures Reader. London: Routledge. Gilbert, D "Urban Outfitting: The City and the Spaces of Fashion Culture." In S. Bruzzi and P. Church Gibson (eds) Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations and Analysis, pp London: Routledge.

19 101 The Myth of Street Style 101 Hill, A "People Dress So Badly Nowadays: Fashion and Late Modernity." In C. Breward and C. Evans (eds) Fashion and Modernity, pp Oxford: Berg. Hyland-Eriksen, T Tyranny of the Moment: Fast and Slow Time in the Information Age. London: Pluto. Keen, S "No Time Like the Future: FashionMap a Fashion Education Case Study." IFTI Annual Conference, Tokyo, Japan (unpublished). Keynote Clothing Retailing, September. London: Keynote Market Report. Kroeber, A. L Ethnographic Interpretations, 1-6. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Kroeber, A. L. and J. Richardson, Three Centuries of Women's Dress Fashions: A Quantitative Analysis. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Levi-Strauss, C The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Levi-Strauss, C Myth and Meaning. London: Routledge. Lipovetsky, G The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Maffesoli, M The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society. London: Sage. McRobbie, A Post-modernism and Popular Culture. London: Routledge. Muggleton, D Inside Sub-culture: The Post-modern Meaning of Style. Oxford: Berg. Polhemus, T Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk. London: Thames & Hudson. Pollard, A. W English Miracle Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sennett, R The Fall of Public Man. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Woodward, S Why Women Wear What They Wear. Oxford: Berg. Wrigley, N. and M. Lowe Retailing, Consumption and Capital: Towards the New Retail Geography. London: Longman.

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