The Sartorialist Shoots Toronto

When word got around that world-famous style photographer The Sartorialist was coming to town, Toronto's fashion fiends dared not step out of the house in anything less than full-on fierceness lest they be snapped by the master of street style.

Holt Renfrew held a cocktail reception on Wednesday to welcome Scott Schuman, the man with one of the most-trafficked fashion blogs in the world, with 120,000 visits a day and dozens and dozens of comments on every post.

(I went with a ridiculous pair of vintage green suede shorts and a vintage sequined top, along with an old Peter Bettley hat and sky-high heels. I was interviewed for Fashion Television, but whether it would've been Sartorialist-worthy on the street, I'll never know!)

Teeny-tiny and impeccably dressed, the dapper Schuman bounded to the mic to answer a few questions. Some of the fashion faithful leaned forward to hear what he had to say, although those by the bar were causing enough of a din that someone kept utter piecing whistles to get them to shut up and actually listen to what the revered style-spotter was sayin'.

A little tipsy and charming as hell, the Sartorialist said this:

On Toronto:

"I've already been to Toronto, and have seen the coolness, the chicness of it, so I'm not surprised by what I see--the genuineness, the subtleness, the sexiness of it."

On a challenge that goes with the job:

"It can be difficult to stay in that moment and articulate how I felt at that moment, after I have colour-corrected and cropped. If there's anything I feel bad about, it's not being able to write about certain photos the way I felt at that moment."

On blogging:

"I don't consider myself a blogger, but instead more of a fashion photographer and fashion editor. Blogging was just a medium that was easy to do and that I could maintain myself and not expensive.

On beauty:

"The girl on the cover of my book, people always comment on how beautiful she is--she's not perfect, but she knows how to make what she has work for her. She's physically flawed--she walks with a limp, one side of her face is a little different than the other, and one arm is slimmer than the other--but I don't see them as physical imperfections. I like that she seems perfect, but she's not. You don't have to be perfect to be beautiful."

Photos by Stefania Yarhi.