21 DAYS OF STREET STYLE STARTS JANUARY 9, 2015

So back in June of last year, I met with the marketing team of Century 21 Department Stores to discuss a possible collaboration between Urban Fieldnotes and them to promote the opening of their Philadelphia location in October. It was not entirely clear what the nature of that collaboration would be—something having to do with Philadelphia street style that managed to brand check C21 at every turn— but they did promise to make me into a "rock star," so that sounded promising. I have an affection, apparently, for marketing hyperbole, and a latent fame-whore tendency that I somehow sublimated into a career in academia. Plus, I figured, this would be a fascinating opportunity to explore the nature of blogger/brand partnerships. So I agreed to do something—however vague—with them. Well, October came and went, and nothing happened. I went to their store opening, got featured in another bloggers' campaign about "Philly's 50-most stylish men" or something (entirely unearned) to that effect, and managed to procure a hefty giftcard to the C21 store, which I greedily blew on Rag & Bone work pants, John Varvatos shoes, and a couple of Ben Sherman sweaters. I contacted the marketing team to see what was up, and found out we were pushing my feature back until January as sort of a second-stage in their social media hype roll-out. 

Well, kids, January is here, and the collaboration is about to ensue. Here's the pitch: 21 Philadelphia street style portraits with 21 accompanying style profiles and stories, 21 days in a row. I post them on my blog and promote them on my social media. C21 re-grams and retweets them. And at the end of that period, C21 does a feature on their website with the whole group of photos compiled. You'll even have the opportunity to "shop the looks" featured. Lucky you! I can't promise you'll want any of the items I feature, but I will promise this: the photos are going to be some of the best I've featured on the blog so far. I've been storing up for the last couple of months. So stay tuned! Visit Urban Fieldnotes everyday from January 9 to January 29. You won't be disappointed. Did that sound like a marketing pitch? Century 21 must be rubbing off on me.