Stylish people on the streets of Italy and Paris

[John Ellis]

Originally Posted by academe

Keep the photos coming! I'm really enjoying how your candids capture the mood and colour of daily life.

Please keep posting! This has been one of the most enjoyable recent threads.

The key difference, in my experience (having lived on both sides of the Atlantic), is that more Britons and Europeans wear casual clothes that actually fit, whereas there is a substantial proportion of Americans who buy casual clothes that fit poorly. Young men, especially are more fashion conscious (and this may be a bad thing by SF standards

) and are more willing to take risks. There are a higher proportion of young men here that will buy clothes that flatter how they look, and a greater tendency to wear clothes that would be considered "dressy" or "formal" by US standards. Much fewer youth wearing baggy, oversized jeans and t-shirts...Whether they necessarily have better taste in clothes or different taste is a matter of opinion.

Not to be a contrarian, but I believe that with the exception perhaps of New York/Chicago/Boston/etc. British & European men's work attire is substantially better than your average American. Suit & tie are de rigueur (much fewer "business casual" offices), and the suits actually fit! When living in America I was often surprised by how many business men wore suits a size too large, loose/baggy pants, etc. Less common to see these sartorial faux pas if you're wandering around the financial districts of Edinburgh or London.

Broadly speaking having lived and worked in Europe and US I agree with you. The Brits though are much scruffier to use their word than scruffy people in most of Europe where scruffy is done with more style somehow. Suit and tie is de rigeur in most of Europe. In Britain clothes are such a class thing. It's immediately possible to tell people's social class by their clothes. Even in a wealthy environment like a city office you can tell the difference between the public school(ie. private school) product and say a smart working class kid whose made it. The smart achievers are into toning shirts and ties and suits that are a notch or two off in fit while the older money types have it more together even when they're the slob type with gravy stains on ties and lapels. Oh the nuances of the English class system.

 

[SoCal2NYC]

Better than the Sartorialist.

 

[Eustace Tilley]

Originally Posted by SoCal2NYC

Better than the Sartorialist.

+1 - Agree

 

[acidboy]

Good set. I also agree on SoCal's comment. I'd rather see your everyday people looking stylish or at least "passable". Not to criticize Sartoriaist's blog, but it has gone the road of style as defined or rather shoved by what Vogue and the rest feels they should dictate.

 

[TheHoff]

Two from Florence yesterday; If I lived in a city that had a decent style, I'd do this more often... as it is, my street shooting in Vancouver tends to be grittier. See my Flickr if you're interested.

Originally Posted by Zegnamtl

Nice pix, seem to be all shot with a wide zoom, 16 or 17mm?? Did you only bring a wide zoom? No long glass?
Good eye; most in the thread have been with the 16-35/2.8 zoom. I also brought a 24, a 35, and an 85... nothing longer. (Yea, three lenses covering a similar range, but that is how I shoot and the primes are fast.) I'm glad I didn't bring anything else; it probably wouldn't have been used. I've shot one thing with the 85 so far, everything else has been wide. I think shooting street like this with a long lens misses some of the environment, so I tend to shoot mostly between 16 and 24 and then clean up the crop in post. The camera is a Canon 5D for those curious.

 

[dkzzzz]

Your photos are great. That whistling guy in a hat, precious! And the picture of two bikes with young riders side by side with an old guy on a bicycle in trad. should be submitted for competition. The photo is great plus it has such a nice cultural layer of references: new/old, changing times etc.

 

[acidboy]

guy on the left: he just made walking with a cheap plastic bag in hand a cool thing to do.

 

[nioh]

Originally Posted by Dewey

When I lived in Europe and the UK, I was amazed by how small was the average living space. I was blown away by the high cost of low-end clothing. And I was dumbfounded by the inefficiency of the all-in-one washer-dryers that everyone had in their flat.

Compared to America, I saw this: Limited storage space (tiny closet) + more expensive basics + more trouble caring for clothes = more careful selection of wardrobe items. Not everyone had great style, but everyone did seem to have fewer things that they wore on a regular basis.

But I was last over there 15 years ago, so maybe times have changed.

Thanks for the pictures Hoff.

No, it hasn't.

 

[LARon]

The photos are a nice travel essay, and temporarily transport viewers away from their work-a-day lives. But, I have yet to see a single person I'd say exemplified any type of recognizable "style." Keep 'em coming.

 

[TheHoff]

Unfortunately it only got worse in Pisa... sorry for this And even more off the topic of style, here is the Leaning Tower. My wife adamantly refused to do one of the "look at me pushing up the tower" shots so I decided to shoot other people's photos, only slightly off... I thought it was amusing. Apologies for the off-topic but I thought some here might enjoy the images. I will try and get back to actual style here in London... but on the long weekend, I'm not sure what I'll be able to find.

 

[Roikins]

Hahaha, I love those misaligned photos... it reminds me of a comic that was talking about how if you remove the music, people dancing around would look like they were mentally ill.

 

[Zegnamtl]

Originally Posted by TheHoff

.......

Good eye; most in the thread have been with the 16-35/2.8 zoom. I also brought a 24, a 35, and an 85... nothing longer. (Yea, three lenses covering a similar range, but that is how I shoot and the primes are fast.) I'm glad I didn't bring anything else; it probably wouldn't have been used. I've shot one thing with the 85 so far, everything else has been wide.

The camera is a Canon 5D for those curious.

Nice pix,
I like your wife for refusing to do the Pisa pix! I found Pisa to be a huge disappointment, did you wander in the city much? Are you hitting Lucca??

5d is a really nice light weight camera, great choice.
I go through phases with what lenses I bring, sometimes only a 14 and 70-200, other times only a 24-105 etc.

Now I have to ask, did you drag along the 35 1.4, the 24 1.4 and the 85 1.2??
Great glass!! But too heavy for me, the 85 1.8 has to do for travel!!
You are way braver than I if trucked the ultra fast glass al over the country.

Looking forward to seeing more pix from the trip.

Z

 

[Holdfast]

The Pisa photos are hilarious. Everyone looks like a bunch of twonks. Sweet but daft.

 

[TheHoff]

Thanks, HF and Roikins

Originally Posted by Zegnamtl

Now I have to ask, did you drag along the 35 1.4, the 24 1.4 and the 85 1.2??
Great glass!! But too heavy for me, the 85 1.8 has to do for travel!!

Thanks, Z. It is the 1.8. I don't have the 1.2... not much use for it here. I've not tried it out but I'd probably look at an old manual focus portrait lens if I were aiming for that sort of look.. rather than shell out the $1.6k for a slower focusing 85. You're right on the others (they are the 1.4Ls)... I probably would've only brought the 24 but I had just received the 35 before I left so I had to bring it as well. Most of the days I just head out with the zoom but I did use the prime wides a bit. They make for a stealthier package if you remove the lens hood and battery grip.

 

[TheHoff]

Originally Posted by Zegnamtl

I like your wife for refusing to do the Pisa pix! I found Pisa to be a huge disappointment, did you wander in the city much? Are you hitting Lucca??
I missed this part of the post the first time-- Pisa was a total disappointment. We found a decent restaurant but that was it. The tower was good for a few hours of entertainment with the pushers but there wasn't much else to the town. The only reason we went there at all was the airport was our way through to London. We intended to do Siena and Lucca as day-trips from Firenze but we didn't get to it. My wife is pregnant so doing the train for an hour + another hour of prep and travel time just made them unreasonable when she needs to nap sometime during the day. We did stay in Parma for a week and that was a lovely taste of the "real" country with very few tourists. Would you recommend Lucca and have you been to Parma to compare?