Thursday, January 31, 2013
Bandung Street Style: Rinanta and Rininta, Paris Van Java
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Bandung Street Style: Firmansyah, Jl Trunojoyo
Firmansyah is an employee for Began, an indie clothing company in Bandung. His clothes, minus the pair of Adidas, are all from Began as well.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Bandung Street Style: Ali, Jl. Trunojoyo
Bandung is the kind of town where people know how to make stuff, especially when it comes to clothes. Ali made this pair of chinos himself. His T-shirt, on the other hand, is Kizaru. The shoes are Vans. The cap is from local brand Oink!, for whom Ali works. This is the complex on Jl Trunojoyo where their store is located.
Labels:
Bandung,
chinos,
fashion,
indie,
Indonesia,
Kizaru,
Oink,
street style,
streetstyle,
Trunojoyo,
Vans
Friday, January 25, 2013
Bandung Street Style: Ghea, Ai, and Gendis
I could see Ghea, Ai, and Gendis eyeing me for some time before finally coming up to me and asking me to take a picture with them. I then returned the favor.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Bandung Street Style: Rudi, Bandung Indah Plaza
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Bandung Street Style: Siro, Paris Van Java
Bandung is about a two-hour drive or three-hour train ride from Jakarta. It's at a higher altitude than the capital city and is usually a few degrees cooler. It's also cooler in the other sense of the word, with a reputation as something like the San Francisco or Portland of Indonesia. Bandung is home to some of the most prestigious universities in the country, and feels a bit like a college town. It's also the center of the indie music and fashion scenes, with more hipsters per square mile than anywhere else in Indonesia. That said, it has nothing on Portland in that regard. They still constitute a small minority. But Bandung no doubt boasts more metalheads and gutter punks than even the Pacific Northwest can muster. In the Dutch colonial days (lasting from roughly the 15th Century to 1942), Bandung was known as "Paris Van Java," or the Paris of Java, for its lush gardens and European architecture. These days, that comparison is a bit of a stretch. The European architecture is still there, but its competes with ramshackle huts with tin roofs, plastic tarp food stalls (angkringan), and gaudy new construction factory outlets of various fashion brands made in the city. Bandung is ground zero for outsourced garment manufacturing in Indonesia. Ralph Lauren has stuff made here, as does Hugo Boss, and The Gap. Chances are, you have something made here too. It is this garment-manufacturing infrastructure that has made Bandung the nation's hotspot for new and exciting local clothing brands. I'll be featuring some of them in the coming week or two.
I took these shots of Siro at the "Paris Van Java" shopping center in the Sukajadi neighborhood of Bandung. It's a California-style outdoor mall, replete with fake Parisian buildings. This is NOT what most of Bandung looks like. It's more of a hyper-real monument to what Bandung residents imagine it used to be.
I love the way Siro combines Muslim modesty with an urban edge in these shots. She had no idea (or interest) in what brands she was wearing, but she clearly knows how to pull a look together.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Jakarta Street Scenes
I left Jakarta in the midst of the worst flood the city has seen since 2007. Rivers overflowed. Barriers broke. Motorists waded through several feet of water to escape the gridlocked traffic on major streets. Two dozen Jakartans have now died from drowning or electrocution. I was never in any danger, but still felt like I had managed to get out under the wire, after being stuck in a cab for two hours on the way to the train station — which turned out to be closed anyway. I ended up taking a shuttle from a travel bureau. In Indonesia, there is always a back door. You just have to know where to look for it.
Here are some pictures from happier times in the capital city. Stay-tuned for shots from Bandung, the indie fashion capital of Indonesia.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Jakarta Style Blogger Profile: Putri Soe
Name: Putri Soe
Blogs: Jakarta Style Journal, Supernice
Age: 20
Hometown: East Jakarta
Day Job: Student at the University of Indonesia (Media Studies)
Fashion Inspirations: Pinterest, Jak and Jil
Blogger Inspirations: Evita Nuh, Diana Rikasari, Sonia Eryka, June Paski
How She Describes Her Own Style: Experimental and simple. Consists of many different things and moods.
What She's Listening to These Days: Blink 182, Rhianna, Nicki Minaj, "everything but jazz," or, apparently, Indonesian music. She tends to find it syrupy and sentimental.
What Inspired Her to Start Her Blogs: She's always enjoyed writing and photography, and with a blog, you can publish your stuff in seconds. She's also blogging to build a portfolio of her work, build a name for herself, and something of a personal brand. Plus, she sees blogging as an opportunity to get feedback from a supportive community, so that she can get better at all of those things.
What She Sees Going on in Indonesian Fashion: More and more people are getting interested, and Indonesian fashion is evolving rapidly, in part because of government support, prominent international events like Jakarta Fashion Week, Indonesia Fashion Week, and Next Level, and promotional groups like LocalBrand.co.id. The independent (or "indie") fashion scene is particularly big at the moment. To learn more about it, read my book DIY Style.
Favorite Indonesian Brands: Nikico, Danjyo Hiyoji, and Cotton Ink.
Her Own Brand: Spend enough time hanging out with Indonesian indie kids and fashionistas and it starts to seem like everyone's got their own brand these days. Putri's is called Blancteria, and she describes as "casual ready-to-wear for women." Putri designs the clothes and brings them to a local tailor, the same on who does the work of famous Indonesian couturier Sebastian Gunawan, to execute.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Jakarta Street Style: Zikra, Plaza Senayan
Friday, January 18, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Jakarta Street Style: Lea, Jl Kemang Raya
Lea is an art director based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and does a lot of work for Malaysian television. I caught her on a shopping expedition in Kemang, arguably Jakarta's hippest neighborhood. She's wearing a dress by H&M, a bag by Marc Jacobs, a pair of Doc Martens boots, and a scarf she picked up in a market in Bombay. For the record, this is not a Muslim headscarf, or jilbab as they're called here, like those worn by the last two women I photographed. She just happened to be wearing it to protect her hair from the rain. It's the rainy season here. And it rains a lot.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Jakarta Street Style: Ragil, Mal Pondok Indah
Ragil works at the Lee Cooper store in the Pondok Indah Mall. He is, unsurprisingly, dressed head to toe in Lee Cooper. His co-workers were busting up during this whole shoot. These are two of a very few shots I got where he wasn't laughing himself. As a street style blogger, I'm not used to being quite such a novelty. But as an anthropologist in Indonesia, well, I guess I am.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Jakarta Street Style: Dicka, Mal Pondok Indah
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Jakarta Street Style: Indah, Mal Pondok Indah
This is Indah, looking bright and chic in a hijab and modest (though colorful) Muslim dress. Her name means "beautiful" in Indonesian, and the mall I shot these in, appropriately, is the mall of Pondok Indah, a neighborhood in South Jakarta, Indonesia, that translates to "Beautiful Corner."
For the next three weeks, I will be shooting street style in Jakarta and Bandung, two of the cities in Indonesia, for those of you keeping track, where I have previously done ethnographic fieldwork. As always, it's surreal to be back here.I get this strange sensation of continuity between my trips, like I've never actually left in the first place. Meanwhile, Jakarta keeps changing around me.
Shooting street style in Jakarta is a funny thing, though. In fact shooting on the streets themselves is a virtual impossibility. Why? You ask. Because they look like this.
And this.
And the sidewalks look like this.
There is nowhere to walk. The streets barely move. There is, frankly, no place for style to conceivably take place on them. So style happens at malls instead, where the middle class can escape the noise and particulate matter that saturates the air. Jakarta's developers were unable to fix the streets. So they built an alternative city indoors.
Shooting in malls makes for a very different street style experience than I'm used to. It's not my favorite, I have to admit. But I had fun anyway. The three people I photographed today were incredibly kind and gracious, if a little uncomfortable with the whole thing, some white dude with long hair, a beard, and a beanie walking up to them carrying a big ass camera. I can speak Indonesian, so that helps, and they had no trouble understanding the concept of what I was doing. Indonesia has more bloggers per capita than just about anywhere. One in four Indonesians with Internet access has their own blog. And that's not counting the number of Indonesians who microblog. Indonesia is now something like number two in the world for Twitter users and fifth for Facebook.
For those of you who know nothing else about Indonesia, here's a (very) brief primer: It's the world's fourth largest nation, with a population of some 230 million people spread out across 17,000 islands in Southeast Asia. I'm only going to be on Java for the duration of my trip. Java, however, accounts for half the country's population. Most of you have probably drunk coffee from here. Most of you probably have at least one item of clothing manufactured here. Indonesia is also an incredibly diverse place, with some 300 hundred ethnic groups speaking hundreds of different languages. There are dozens of religions practiced, though most Indonesians (around 90%) claim Islam on their identification cards. That would make it the country with the world's biggest Muslim population. It's got beautiful beaches and some of the densest rainforests, oil and minerals, orangutans and tigers. Most Americans, however, know it for two other things, if they know it at all: tsunamis and terrorism. Hopefully over the next few weeks of my style survey, your impression will have expanded.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Capturing the Zeitgeist of Style, One Click at a Time : My Conversation with Alkistis Tsitouri of Streetgeist
Alkistis Tsitouri is the photographer behind Streetgeist, a popular
street style blog that originated in Athens, Greece in 2008, before moving to
Los Angeles, California in 2010. The following is a condensed and edited
version of our conversation via Skype on 12/18/2012, when we talked about the
difference between fashion in Greece and California, her feelings about
advertising and the commercialization of the style blogosphere, and her love of
portrait photography, among other topics. It was, I should add for the purposes
of full disclosure, our second conversation. I’d spoken with her the week prior
in the midst of finals, article deadlines, and general end of school term
insanity, and had somehow neglected to record the conversation. She was
gracious enough to give me a second chance.
Brent: How would
you define street style photography as a genre? What makes it different from
other genres of photography?
Alkistis: The focus, first of all, because the focus is
fashion. Everything revolves around fashion. Fashion photography, of course is
different from street style, [in that] it’s directed. It’s directed by the photographer, the stylist and the art director. Everything
is set up in advance. It’s staged. But [with]
street style photography it’s very much a matter of [going] out into the world
and hunt[ing] for the right person, the right moment, the right light, and then
convincing [that person] to pose for you.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Los Angeles, California. |
Brent: Should
street style photography have a particular look about it?
Alkistis: No. It
shouldn’t. It probably will be [conventionalized] or canonized in the future.
But for now, [I don’t think] street style photographers should have in their
minds anything [specific] to do or not do. That’s the beauty of it, actually.
Because every blog is different. Or some blogs [in any case].
Brent: So what
got you into street style photography then?
Alkistis: I didn’t think about it too much when I started. It’s just
that Aris [the co-founder of Streetgeist and its website administrator] and I enjoyed
looking at other blogs, and decided that we could do that with Athens. Nobody
was doing that. We thought there were many interesting stylish people out
there, and we felt that we could do it nicely. So we did it.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Santa Monica, California. |
Brent: What was
it like the first time you went out?
Alkistis: It was
very stressful. I was trying to convince myself to go up to people I didn’t
know, and I was afraid I would get rejected and that I wouldn’t get any
pictures. But I did it, and it was successful, even though [the first pictures
I took] have nothing to do with what Streetgeist is now. I got some
satisfaction out of it, so I continued to do it.
The first pictures were in a nightclub, which is weird,
because I don’t do indoor shoots now. But I [think] it was a good choice,
because people [at nightclubs] expect other people [whom they don’t yet know]
to talk to them. They meet new people there. And the alcohol involved helped as
well. [I didn’t drink] though. I cannot
shoot and drink, especially in low light conditions.
![]() |
Alkistis Tsitouri's first post on Streetgeist back in 2008, Athens, Greece. |
Brent: I can
understand. That’s a lot of thinking to have to do when you’re intoxicated. So
you said that those early images don’t have a lot to do with what Streetgeist
looks like visually now. So, I’m wondering how you would describe the look of
Streetgeist?
Alkistis: Well,
it’s very clean. I’m very strict with the composition of the images and the way
my subjects are [posed] in the picture. I think of it [as adhering to a
specific] typology.
Brent: I notice
that there’s a real minimum of text on the site, and I’m curious why you made
that choice.
Alikistis: Because we want the pictures to be inspirational, and we
don’t care if their clothes are this [brand] or another. You see pictures. You
like it. You get inspiration out of it. And maybe [what they’re wearing] finds
[its] way into your closet.
The other important thing is we want the pictures to be very
strong. We don’t want to take away from the pictures with any text. And that’s
why, we [also] keep the design clean on the blog.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Los Angeles, California. |
Brent: So back in
2010 you moved to LA, and I’m imagining that moving to LA you become very aware
of what style was like in Athens. Maybe when you’re in Athens it’s less clear
than it is when you move away from it. So I’m curious, looking back now how would
you describe the Athens style?
Alkistis: That’s a very good question, because I didn’t
have any [sense of that back then], but once I moved out [here], and time
passed, and I looked back, I [started thinking], “Hey, that’s different!”
First of all, Athens has good taste. The people I
photograph, the ones who are actually making the effort, are very
[well-dressed].
Brent: It’s
always a small minority.
Alkistis: Exactly. [But] there is also this thing that
makes [style in Athens] is different [from LA style]. I don’t know how to
describe it, [but now] I can recognize it from miles away. And [perhaps] by me
photographing it, the viewer can recognize it [as well].
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Athens, Greece. |
Brent: Now let’s
switch things around a bit. What is it that you noticed about style in LA,
after living in Athens?
Alkistis: Well, the first shock I had was in how people
can wear the same type (summer or spring) of clothes all year round. At the
beginning I did’t like that. I was surprised by how casual everyone dresses.
Here in LA, it’s very very very casual. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s
just how it is. Looking back now I have learned to appreciate the nice weather
of Los Angeles and begin to actually notice differences in the style from one
season to the other.The other thing [I notice] sometimes is the lack of layering,
due to the warm weather. I miss layering, because layering is an opportunity to
play with and be more creative with clothes.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Los Angeles, California. |
Brent: So what
other bloggers or photographers have been most influential on your work?
Alkistis: The Sartorialist, Hel Looks, and Facehunter. With Facehunter
we have also participated in a project called “Vienna Fashion Observatory” but
unfortunately we did not coincide, he was there a few weeks before us.They invited us [and other artists, designers, and bloggers]
to do what we do [as a way to capture the look of Vienna]. We observed the city
from a fashion focus point. But it was more like a survey.
Brent: Was it sort
of like a social study? A social study of style.
Alkistis: Yes.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri for the Vienna Fashion Observatory, Vienna, Austria. |
Brent: This
brings up one of the things I’ve been thinking about lately, while doing street
style myself: It’s not really that different from what I do as an
anthropologist.
Alkistis: Exactly. And that’s what is so interesting [about it]. So we
[Aris and I] were there for two weeks. It was the first time that I was so
close to other bloggers like me.
Brent: Do you
think that in the blogosphere these days those kinds of in-person personal
relationships still matters in terms of networking and getting your blogs out
there and getting recognition?
Alkistis: Of
course. It’s all based —[whether] street style, fashion photography, [or] the
blog we have — on relationships. First of all, the people on the street have to
trust you, so that they let you take the picture, and sign the release. I don’t
know if you’re doing releases?
Brent: I am. You
do them as well?
Alkistis: Of
course.
Brent: So few of
the people I’ve talked to seem to.
Alkistis: While it is not really required to obtain a
release, I like to be upfront about the use of the photos.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Brooklyn, New York. |
Brent: Yeah, that
makes sense. I’ve always wondered about that. And yet, I’ve heard so few
stories of street style bloggers using releases. I assume that people who are
writing books must be doing releases, but I don’t know.
Alkistis: I don’t
know either. It would be a great question for others.
Brent: Well if I
can get Scott Schuman to let me interview him I’ll ask him.
Alkistis: How
about with Facehunter? Because he did a book, and he’s taking millions of
pictures all the time. That would be interesting [to know too].
Brent: It’s sort
of hard to imagine he gets releases for all of them.
Alkistis: Probably not.
Brent: So aside
from getting photo releases and whatnot, is there anything that you do to establish
trust between you and the people you take pictures of? What’s your routine when
you go up to somebody?
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Athens, Greece. |
Alkistis: I stop them and say “Sorry, I’m a fashion
blogger.” It’s easier nowadays because I [just] say I’m a fashion blogger, and
they’re like, “Oh. Yeah. [Okay].” I say,
“Hey, I’m a fashion blogger or a street style blogger.” It depends on the
situation, [though] usually I say I’m a fashion blogger. “And I take pictures
of people I find on the street and I like their style like you. Can I take your
picture?” And then I introduce myself and ask for their name and continue with
casual chitchat.
Brent: Right. And
how often do people turn you down?
Alkistis: It’s a
small percentage, but it is consistently there. Some people are shy, and you
can’t do anything about it. And some people just run away from you. I don’t
know if you have that (same thing happen to you). It’s pretty rare, [though].
Brent: It’s
pretty rare for me as well. And what I find is that I usually know instantly
that they are going to turn me down, once I ask them.
Alkistis: Yes,
exactly. And I don’t even push.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Athens, Greece. |
Brent: How do you
determine whether you [even] want to photograph somebody?
Alkistis: Sometimes
I instantly know. I mean, it doesn’t even go through my brain. My body just runs
up to them, and I start talking to them, and then I realize, “Oh! I just did
that!” Sometimes I think twice and I follow them and double check the clothes
and the style [they’re wearing]. So, I don’t know. There’s something that
attracts me. Sometimes it’s just the clothes. Sometimes it’s the face.
Sometimes it’s all [of it] together. There’s something about some people. I
don’t know how to say what it is.
Brent: Do you
ever regret the choice [of subject for your photographs]?
Alkistis: Not really. Mostly I regret mistakes I make in
taking the picture. That’s what I regret. When the picture is not good enough, I
did something wrong, not the people [I photograph].
Brent: And do you
do anything to get people to relax when you take their pictures?
Alkistis: Sometimes I don’t want them to relax, so I’m
very strict with them. [Only] sometimes, though. It’s easier for me to get them
to pose the way I want them to pose [when they’re not too relaxed]. Sometimes,
[however], if they’re too stressed, then I need to relax them, because they
look very tense posing the way I want them to pose. So, I talk to them more,
and I talk to them while I shoot them, which really helps. Otherwise [they] feel
very vulnerable there, and it makes sense since they’re in the middle of the
street and there’s a person [they] don’t know and have seen for the first time
directing them and taking their picture. So, the more you talk to them the
easier [it is]. They don’t think about what they’re doing [that way].
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Athens, Greece. |
Brent: How many
pictures on average would you say you take of someone?
Alkistis: On average it’s about twenty clicks. It doesn’t
feel that much for them, [though]. Usually the first ones are the best.
Brent: Yeah, I
notice that for myself too. I feel like I use one of my first pictures the
majority of the time. I probably do about the same number of shots as you do.
Alkistis: Because
actually they don’t feel comfortable after too many clicks. They think maybe
something is wrong with them. Which is not true.
Brent: So I
notice on your blog [that you] currently have ShopBop as a sponsor, and I’m
wondering what your personal thoughts are on paid content, advertising, sponsored
posts and whatnot on blogs.
Alkistis: Well,
when it happens, basically, it’s a very good thing, because it gives you the
opportunity to keep on doing what you’re doing without having to worry about
having another job. I appreciate it actually. It means you’re doing something
good. And it gives you the means to work more on what you’re already doing.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Los Angeles, California. |
Brent: So have
advertisements that you’ve had on your blog been enough to make a living off of
for you, or have you had to supplement your income in other ways?
Alkistis: Well, we only have one ad, so, no it’s not
enough. But it’s very helpful. The rest of my income comes from projects that
come from the blog. Companies, or [potential] clients who like the blog, contact
me to do Street Style or other Fashion photoshoots. So the blog is my job, I
guess. And it brings jobs as well.
Brent: Streetgeist
serves as a kind of online portfolio for you. It provides people a way of
finding out what kind of work you do and contacting you because of it.
Alkistis:
Yes, it’s something like that. I don’t know how
people would [find me] otherwise. [And I still think it’s sort of] amazing that
people contact me for work because they like our blog.
Brent: I think a
lot of people would love to be in that position.
Alkistis: Exactly.
And that’s because of the blog. This is a totally new age thing.
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Brooklyn, New York. |
Brent: So in your
professional fashion work do you maintain the same basic aesthetic, or do you
have to gear it around what the client wants?
Alkistis: The second, of course. And it’s nice, because
imagine only taking pictures like [those on my blog] for the rest of my life! It’s
great for Streetgeist, but it’s good that I can do other stuff as well. And
it’s great for me that I’m able to switch and do whatever the client needs.
Brent: I love the
name Streetgeist. It’s one of the more clever names for a street style blog
I’ve heard. How did that come about?
Alkistis: Thank
you for saying that. [The name is] actually the baby of Aris, the other Streetgeist
founder. We were trying to come up with a nice name, “street blah blah blah
blah blah,” and he had this epiphany, “Streetgeist.” Geist in German means
“ghost” or “spirit,” and when he came up with the name I was like “I think that’s
the one!”
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Athens, Greece. |
Brent: And you were
fortunate that it was available as a URL.
Alkistis: That’s
true.
Brent: It feels
like it’s getting more and more difficult to come up with a name that’s not
taken.
Alkistis: And
because of that we found [the name Streetgeist]. We had other ideas before
Streetgeist, but we checked on them and they weren’t available. It [forced us
to] be more creative.
Brent: Is there anything
else you would like my readers to know about you or Streetgeist?
Alkistis: Well, I don’t know if it’s important, but I was thinking
before when we were talking about Facehunter, that what allowed me to overcome
my fears in the beginning when we started the blog was that I was looking at
Facehunter’s blog, and I went back and back and back [through his posts], until
I came to his first pictures in 2006.
The first pictures were just not as nice as his work now, or were then
in 2008, and that allowed me to see that he had [in fact] evolved. [He had
become] such a good blogger and such a good photographer, and by 2008
everything he was doing was just so amazing. So I realized, I can start [my own
blog] as well, even if it isn’t perfect [at first]. And I can hope that I can
evolve too]. And that thought allowed me to start [the blog in the first place].
![]() |
Image by Alkistis Tsitouri, Long Beach, California. |
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