Street style
[3] Given 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.
The increase in the standardization of life after World War II (suburbanization, mass marketing, the spread of television) may be linked to the appeal of "alternative" lifestyles for individuals in search of "identity".
These were also tastes that originated among economically disfavored, marginal groups, the whole range of metropolitan tribes, that are able to trigger new fashion production and diffusion processes.
Since the close of World War II, Western culture has seen a dramatic decline in the significance of the traditional sociocultural divisions such as race, religion, ethnicity, regionalism, nationalism, in defining and limiting personal identity.
The tribe groupings, such as bikers, beats, and teddy boys in the 1950s; mods, hippies, and skinheads in the 1960s; headbangers, punks, and b-boys in the 1970s; and goths, new age travelers and ravers in the 1980s got dressed and unusual body decoration as an expression to create a sense of identity.
It was not until the post-war period, with the emergence of style-conscious magazines aimed at men, that the image of the flaneur, somewhat melded with the more modern notion of the "man about town", began to be visualized in fashion photography.
This is illustrated by Terence Donovan's grainy black-and-white photographs of sharply suited men in "Spy Drama" for the October 1962 issue of Town which became famous as the visual influence for the filmic interpretation of James Bond.
Paris is an example of creating the 'city look', a collective image – certain fashion garments, specifics and lifestyles embody definite urbanity in a city's context.
For instance, an image of 'La Parisienne', – the typical Parisian woman – consists not only of clothing but of certain manners, values and behavioural patterns associated with the country and its citizens.
It does not come from the famous professional Japanese designers, but is led by high school girls who have become extremely influential in controlling fashion trends.
Other important aspects of London's peculiar image is a recent collaboration between the Duchess of Cambridge and Alexander McQueen fashion brand.
This speaks about a certain democratization of the brand, that becomes more affordable for common consumers and perceived as a street style item rather than high fashion royal attribute.
[citation needed] The practice of photo shooting models, still in runway makeup, in front of open warehouse spaces and garages or just on the street came from the fashion capital of the United States.
[11] Starting with the Gibson Girl of the 1890s, the free-spirited Flapper fashions of the 1920s, and the rugged, masculine work-wear of the 1930s and 40s, American culture has been especially influential in the creation of street style, with music movements like jazz, rock, disco, and hip hop, American sports and recreational pursuits like basketball, baseball, motorcycle riding, surfing and skateboarding, countercultural movements like the hippy movement, punk, grunge and associated "anti-fashion", and image-based cultural industries like Hollywood all having exerted a significant amount of influence on New York's fashion and design.
Social media channels have become an efficient way in fashion practices to keep in touch with the consumer base as well as increase it through brand exposure.
Yet these sites also include images of women that are raced or gendered, which does present an alternative view, as well as male bodies (not common in mainstream fashion editorials for the female subscriber).
It gave life to a specific Instagram-based community of street style photographers and models, who also work as an additional channel of communication from fashion providers and consumers.
