Sartorialist: and example of intuitive research?

from the front page:

"The first thing I do after I go through my morning pile of email, is check out http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com . Those that know me would never call me a fashionista, I think “Geek Chic” was the closest I ever got to a compliment on my “look”, but the work of Scott Schumann aka The Sartorialist has always fascinated me. The way he captures a culture through a moment. Possibly it connects to the very intuitive way I do my research. Not the official stuff with rigor, but the real stuff that inspires emotive and non conventional solutions. We don’t tend to talk about it, because, well, its messy, non-linear, and it misses more than it hits, but the seed of the most wonderful things tends to come from that kind of ether.

I think Intel captured that perfectly with their piece on Scott. It is worth celebrating this type of approach so we can start to build it in to our process, allow ourselves to wonder, to seek and discover, not as scientists, but as designers."

Thought it might provoke some discussion.

I’ve been reading The Sartorialist for quite some time now, normally daily or every other day. I find it very inspiring, especially since I’m so deep into the softgoods world. The way the fabrics interact with each other, how they are joined together, patterns/textures. I especially like the detail shots, there are some amazing gems down in there.

In fact, occasionally if I ever get stumped, I’ll click over to The Sartorialist blog for some immediate inspiration… and it generally seems to work.

I’ve been told I dress nice, but generally its super simple, jeans, a no-name solid color Tshirt, etc. Far from fashion. I like how the blog really focuses on super simple yet high end fashion, walking that balance between trying / not trying, spending a fortune / finding ways to do it on a budget. It gives me some hope I suppose.

I’m still trying to develop my sense of observation, but at the same time I find the inconvenience of carrying a camera to be limiting. Also it feels socially unacceptable / creepy to take pictures of other people without running a famous site.

I still do it with objects, but my iPod camera is really not the best. Can’t wait to get a smartphone with a good camera…

I like the Sartorialist, but my aim in looking at it was to find inspiration to dress better… then I realized for an unemployed college student the budget’s kind of impossible. I have it on my iPad’s flipboard, so I still glance at it once in a while.

Love the sartolialist. Been following for about 6 years now I think. A great fashion resource and I think back to the op a good inspiration for research practices. When traveling I normally take a lot of similar shot of people on the street, things in windows, etc. Think I probably have about 80,000 pics so far on my hd for reference of shots I’ve taken, pulled from the web, etc. I would highly recommend this kind of “filing for later” practice for all designers. I’ve been doing it now for about 8 years and can always count on some pics at the ready for inspiration, Image boards. Etc.

It’s not about quality of pics but rather something to jog your memory.

I suggest light room as a good tool to help manage each project and pull pics accordingly.



R

How do you organize your pictures? I’ve been pulling a lot images from CES recently but they’re just sprawled on my desktop. Do you organize by date? Type of design?

This is why I still praise the Sony K800i. It is a great pointandshoot
camera disguised as a phone. (needs good lighting, though)


The pictures get organised by date and some of them copied into themed folders.

Awesome. Been following him a while as well…
Love his Chef analogy for only needing a few key components to make something great!
The chick questioning his motives until she realized who he was was pretty priceless as well…

Fashion has always befuddled me a little. Your style is made up of lots of different things that have been individually designed by someone, your own body included, but you yourself have to assemble them into whatever statement you’re trying to make. His blog is intriguing.

Tarn, I just keep a massive folder with everything that catches my eye. When I’m building a mood board or something, it’s easier to see everything when it’s in the context of everything else.

Random fact, my girlfriend was shot by him after being spotted by his wife Garance Doré!

http://www.garancedore.fr/2009/07/17/girl-crush/

It’s definitely great primary research that has actually grown into a culture. People go down to Brick Lane on Sundays hoping to be blogged, I’m sure of it. And of course it is met by bloggers as eager to take pictures of said people. Seeing how others use things creates avenues for improvement, and clothing is no exception, whether it’s providing a functional or emotional response.