WHEN WE MET THE SARTORIALIST

30 Oct 2012
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In between trawling the streets of Jo’burg in search of stylish South Africans to photograph, patiently posing for pictures with local fans and attending the shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Africa, Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist held a brief, intimate press conference. Our ELLE Belles cracked an invite and here they dish on the best bits from the gathering.

You have travelled all over the world taking pictures for your blog. How does South African style differ from other countries and what makes it unique?

‘All cities are different and it can take a while to find out what makes them unique. Sometimes what is unique about a city is subtle. I can’t say much about the rest of South Africa because I haven’t seen it, but I find Johannesburg very interesting. I think, like other places I’ve been to that are a bit isolated from other countries and continents, the style isn’t too influenced by the rest of the world. I’ve found that there are people who create their own charming and enduring style based on what they have and what they are surrounded by.’

You haven’t taken or posted a lot of pictures of people in Jo’burg. Who and what catch your eye?

‘I’ve only met a few people who I wanted to take pictures of. But sometimes I go to New York and only find one or two people to shoot on that day. But a lot of the people I see in Jo’burg are covered in a film of perfection. They are draped in designer brands and it comes across as a very aggressive look. But there are also some youngsters who have charm and look approachable and beautiful because their look isn’t hard. I’m not saying wearing designer clothing is bad, I think its cool to wear Versace, but it must fit well and have personality. The first picture I took was of a lady in downtown Jo’burg. She has an office job and is in no way involved in fashion; I don’t even think she knew who I was. I took a picture of her because she was well put together and she had a great presence. She looked strong and beautiful, but still had some fragility to her, a feminine charm and grace. It wasn’t just her outfit that was interesting but how she carried herself in it.’

Your blog gets about 14 million page views a month. How did you do it and do you have any advice to share with bloggers who want their websites to gain popularity?

‘You need to study like crazy and have an opinion. I hate to be harsh but I don’t have any gentleness for kids who can’t go on a site like style.com and look through all the pictures and critique them. If you say you love fashion then you need to be able to have an intelligent conversation about it. Blogging is free and it’s easy to start your own blog but what you put on it, your opinions and how you communicate it will determine how well you do. I think the level of ease that comes with creating a blog makes a lot of people forget about quality. If you had to pay to set up a blog or design the blog as opposed to choosing a template, a lot less people would do it and the rest would think more about what they put up.’

Some bloggers have moved away from having a ‘comments’ section or moved to sites like Tumblr that aren’t conducive to comments. You still have one. Why is that and do you read all of the comments?

‘I love reading the comments but I don’t read all of them anymore. People from all over the world follow my blog so I get a lot of insight from reading them. They help me understand how people live and think in different parts of the world, different cultures, etc. For instance, I took a picture of a man looking out of his window once, and most Americans thought it was disrespectful and an invasion of privacy. But commenters from Europe and places where there is a culture of living outside didn’t see anything wrong with it. I’ve also been fortunate enough to generally have people who are respectful and considerate follow my blog.’

Images: The Sartorialist