Young and older

Here's Astrid, mentioned in my last blog as recipient of the age-inappropriate red skirt. She was photographed on Cuba Street in January by New Zealand's equivalent of The Sartorialist.
Street and City Photos is worth checking out for its images, mainly of stylish younger women.
What I love about The Sartorialist, though, is his wide-ranging eye for men and women of all ages. Here, for instance, is a lovely counterpoint to the picture of Astrid.

This garnered 197 positive comments. One of them was, "[T]his looks like a woman who has lived life." I know Anon meant well but did it not cross his or her mind that this woman still is living life, that she doesn't exist entirely in the past tense?

The Sartorialist in the frame

Since millions more know of The Sartorialist than know of Plain Jane it's rather bumptious of me to be introducing him. But for those who don't know him, he's a New York-based photographer who travels widely photographing people on the street whose mode of dress catches his eye. His blog is a gallery of arresting shots, and a must for anyone interested in style.
If you want to know more about him, go here, but in any case this short, nicely shot doco is worth a few minutes of your time.



I particularly enjoy his lack of analysis and pretension about what does catch his eye. He doesn't care if it's "in" or "hot"; he simply walks the streets waiting to be seduced.
What a great defence of stylishness this suggests (and oh yes, it does need defending, but I'll get to that another day) - that to present a stylish appearance is to provide a small aesthetic treat for the hundreds who will see it in the course of a day. Or the millions, in the case of The Sartorialist.

With this photograph, taken in Paris in December, I rest my case. At least for the time being.