Fashion & Style
Street Style: Hobo Chic and Dark Ravers
For this week's Street Style, I spent much of the weekend traipsing up and down Yonge Street in the freezing cold. My goal was not to just document any random looks I came across, but to photograph people that looked interesting. I got to meet a lot of friendly people, and it was fun talking to them and hearing the little stories behind the clothes.
Name: Carlyn
Occupation: Student
Location: Yonge/Carlton
My style: Just weird. I like weird stuff. Tacky stuff, too.
Favourite item: I'm wearing these new earrings. I got them in New York. They were on sale for four dollars, so they were a good bargain.
Names: Ricardo and Jessica
Occupation: Students
Location: Yonge/Gerrard
My style (Ricardo): Dark raver.
Favourite item (Ricardo): That would be my Tripp coat. It's pretty much a bondage coat. I just love the style of it, and how the zipper is on an angle - along with all the laces to lock it up. It's kind of unique. It stands out from everybody else.
My style (Jessica): It's different every day. But today, I guess I'm kind of a raver, kind of pirate-like.
Favourite item (Jessica): My leggings, because they're different. They're not just plain, one colour.
Name: Lindsay
Occupation: Theatre costume seamstress
Location: Yonge/Melinda
My style: Hobo chic. I'm wearing one mitten and mismatched socks (laughs). I don't know. I'm a little bit "whatever."
Style influences: I don't follow high fashion that much, but because I'm surrounded by costume design and that kind of thing, I think I get a bit of a theatrical influence.
Name: Morgan
Occupation: Student
Location: Yonge/Queen
My style: Mostly I wear black with a bit of grey. I don't wear bright colours.
Favourite item: Leather jacket, just because it's keeping me warm.
Favourite places to shop: Zara, MANGO, Urban Behavior.
Name: Megan
Occupation: Fashion student
Location: Yonge/Charles
Outfit: I was wearing it last night, because I was at a party, and this is what I woke up in.
Favourite item: Probably my dress. It's my friend's. Or my socks. I got them from H&M. They were on sale for two bucks.
Name: Danica
Occupation: Mechanical engineer
Location: Yonge/Bloor
Favourite item: My boots, because they're really cute - and high. I had been looking for boots for a long time, and I finally found these and they were pretty cheap - 25 bucks, so I got them.
Name: Sam
Occupation: Fashion design student
Location: Yonge/Gould
My style: Messy (laughs). I just throw everything on. Just whatever I like.
Favourite item: Probably my leather jacket, just because I've been obsessed with them since I was little. I feel like a good leather jacket is a good base to any outfit.
Name: Natalie
Occupation: Sales associate at Urban Outfitters
Location: Yonge/Dundas
My style: I like to wear things that are too big for me, and comfy. I like tapered pants, winter boots, big coats - stuff like that.
Favourite item: This batwing hoodie from American Apparel. It's really comfy.
Discussion
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Overall I find that this Street style has more street then style.
Love it!
It seems like there are usually 5-6 cool "different"/stereotypical styles, everyone just picks one and feels different.
It is not different if I walk up Yonge street and count 5 styles and all similar, you keep walking and you keep seeing the same thing over and over.
Of the 6 pictures I count 3 styles. If you want to be different just be yourself.
If I see one more person with HUGE glasses with no lenses in them I think I will puke, and why do they always shop at Value Village and purposely pick the stuff in worse condition possible? Don't get me started on the used shoes from value village, style isn't worth athletes foot.
It is like going out for dinner and ordering off a menu A B or C, not being creative or daring, you are choosing from a predetermined menu that someone else set out for you.
Interesting /= necessarily good, is really the take-away here. Most of these kids look like the faux-trashy kids I went to high school with ten years ago.. although I do like Lindsay's tights with the sage green toque, and love the colour of Sam's bag (thankfully worn with more muted ones).
Oh yeah, and Megan's wearing a t-shirt, not a dress.
They all look the same. What is stylish about that?
Puke
...and Danica is the hottest mechanical engineer I've ever seen.
Just wondering.
if that means a few fashion faux pas throughout the years, who cares! live a little, have fun with what you wear!
value village FTW!
but i have to ask - when are people going to stop wearing huge ugly eyeglasses?? even on the most attractive of people they are a hard look to pull off, and for the rest of us mere mortals - disaster.
Sure the outfits are a little samey. Sure they're plundering from Value Village. Who cares? They're 20 year-old broke ass students! They can wear whatever they want! That's the perk of being a 20 year-old broke ass student!
I say party on, kids! And don't let anyone tell you those glasses need lenses!
You agree to let a blog photograph you for posting online and you open yourself to criticism. Duh. If these people were *not* OK with judgment, they wouldn't have agreed to be published like this.
Who asked us for our opinions? BlogTO did when they decided to make this feature and allow comments.
People, think, please.
If you want to be an individual, you have to look slightly different than the other 1000's of individuals pulling off "YOUR" style. I dare any of you INDIVIDUALS to go and hang out at somewhere that is full of INDIVIDUALS, like say OCAD or Ossington/Parkdale, tell me how many people are copying your style!
KUDOS to Danica, very cute. Lindsay has some taste as well.
I look at all these photos and see nothing but familiarity, if these are all personal choices and styles, why do they all look so familiar?
So if being "different" involves emulating others than I am OK with being a square or what ever I am these days. I prefer to make my own decisions.
The poor student thing is funny, especially when they are trust fund babies trying to fit in with the other "poor students" When I was a student I tried to look presentable, didn't have lots of money either, style isn't expensive, it is taste! The networking you do in college and university lasts long after your schooling. Your fellow students will have an image of you that will last longer than your used shoes!
Look at each picture and think of a celebrity that they look like. I have said this for years that everyone needs to be themselves.
You get the kids in high school who are angry, so they get together and form a group of Goths.
You get a bunch of rich boy jocks, they all dress like frat boys with popped collars.
Yet, even though they have the same shirts on, they are individuals?? I find it hilarious when you see two people hanging out, dressed IDENTICALLY.
Why can't kids today just be themselves? That would stand out more than your grandmas first pair of reading glasses!
I read this as "why do they all look like cutters?" and it made sense.
"Carlyn looks like a young Bob Rae."
Let's compare! <a href="http://www.blogto.com/upload/2009/12/20091205-ricardojessica.jpg";>Carlyn</a> and <a href="http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/2004/November/18/scans/01B%20Bob%20Rae.jpg";>Bob</a>.
Shit is uncanny.
Artist formerly known as IF ONLY and OHLALA
Now find out they make it the streets for HIGH FASHION.
Sounds like another Liberal scandal, lets ask Bob Rae what he has to say about this!
LOL.
if you reduce people to stereotypes so easily then why is it you expect them to then blow your mind by being so "themselves"? How would you even know the difference?
Like what, do you walk around in a patchwork quilt of a page from every book you've ever read?
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/03/09/gal_circus-8.jpg
The only person who deserves to be there is Danica - and who would have figured an engineer was so stylish!
I was so wrong to use an example to try and explain my point.
But yes, all kids are angry, and they all have father issues as well.
how memorable.
zzzz
HAHAHA
Ricardo, where is your drum and flute that goes with the outfit.. it's not college graduation ceremony season yet.. and if it is, you will be the first one invited...you remind of that little kiddie story about this guy playing flute, and all the mice from the village would come out and follow him until they were all drowned in the river..
if everyone dressed like Danica (and in many parts of the city, everyone does) then we would all blend in with the greys and blacks of the city...that's boring.
i suspect many of us providing commentary are pretty boring dressers and toronto has never been a city that appreciates people who try to stand out...we ought to acknowledge our bitterness.
99 cent toile paper are good bargain too.. let's wear them somewhere
nope! no one noticed or cares
"my suggestion is why don't they just wear the slutty dress featured in the American Apparel ads that have been saturating this blog all this time"
i disagree, it's actually kind of interesting for once to see photos of people that do not look like they stepped out of an american apparel ad. thank you for posting something different!!!
Post a picture of your totally original, non-conformist look. Finally, the myth that criticizing is easier than producing will be put to rest!
I agree with AV, to really critique this Street Style would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Theo R must have something skank on today's blogTO editor.
LOL @ the dark raver and the avril lavigne circa 2003 reject.
i do have to say that this street style post is a bit disappointing.
it's amazing that so many of them are fashion students. ... really?
2. Yes, they are FASHION STUDENTS. Look at a fashion blog. They are considered fashionable because they are following a trend while adding their own personal spin on it. One person calls Jessica an 'avril lavigne circa 2003 reject', while others criticize the repetitive (but current) styles of the other girls. MAKE UP YOUR MINDS.
3. They all look like 'cookie cutters' as someone mentioned because THE PHOTOGRAPHER WAS LOOKING FOR HOBO CHIC AND DARK RAVERS. That's two styles. How many variations on a 'style' can you really have?
You negative Nancies suck. These girls rule.
1. the name of the segment is STREET style. not high fashion style. it's what people on the street are wearing
2. because of the area you're bound to get students with no money or don't care how they dress since they live 5 seconds away. and plus who cares if they all look the same. it's what they're comfortable in, and makes them feel good.
3. if you were looking for some real fashion go on the satorialist not blogto.
4. we are living in toronto, not milan,stockholm, or even new york. to fine someone who dresses nicely without being generic is close to impossible people are scared to be different in this city. there is a reason why toronto isn't on the list of places that Scott Schuman stopped for his book tour ;)
And Ricardo's jacket is awesome!.
Check this site out for shopping ideas in Toronto: http://shopsterium.blogspot.com
Yes, I follow fashion blogs, including ones that capture street style such as the sart and garance. As for them being fashion students, yeah, I do wonder that. Nothing was very fashion forward. And it doesn't qualify as stylish either.
I can't say I represent the whole group as I don't bash just for the hell of it, but this post isn't inspiring, imaginative, or stylish in terms of street fashion. It doesn't mean these girls are bad looking or unworthy. But it just doesn't really fit the "Street Style" theme.
I would like to see some older Torontonians on this site at some point. There are many beautifully dressed older individuals with impeccable style roaming about this city. Style's about how you hold yourself + confidence.
good to see some variety!
if you are going to try to be different, isn't that just as bad as trying to be "cool/the same as everyone else"
no one in these snapshots is trying/claiming to be individual. they are just themselves.
clearly, considering i was the one innocently walking home the morning after a party.
i dont care
I liked what Lindsay was wearing, although I wouldn't quite call it "hobo". And I liked Megan's jacket, although I feel like she was probably intensely cold in those leggings. And at the risk of sounding like a grade-A stalker, I think I've seen her on Lookbook? Oh man that's weird.
And cg, Scott Schuman did come to Toronto on his book tour. And c'mon, people aren't scared to be different in Toronto. They're probably only scared of BlogTO commenters being mean to them. ;)
it serves as not only a nightgown, but also a high fashion garment worth arguing over!
how silly.
oh, and i am an individual you guys
and sam is in my class.
we are individuals
right on
i pounced on the photographer and said "hey take my picture i am awesome and individual"
nobody tries to be non-conformist anymore. how everyone else dresses is not taken into account when we dress ourselves in the morning (unless you are me who does not dress themselves in the morning)
please people, you need to buy those slutty american apparel dresses since they spend so much money placing ads on blogto..if you don't, tim is not going to afford to keep this blog up...even if you have to buy some AA shirts and fix them for your pets.. it's still good
Nice to see this still happening!
http://sunnyfong.wordpress.com
When I was a student, I used to wear a mixture of office clothes (because I worked in Admin for one of the faculties), clean casuals (because I also worked in lounge near campus), and sometimes on my days off, long cardigans over sleeveless tops, paired with my boyfriend's pyjama bottoms (which I cut off) and ankle boots. Because it was comfortable, fun, and the sheer silliness of it made me giggle. I knew then that there was only one time in my life that I could serve my purpose (being a student or whatever) and wear whatever I want. This post made me nostalgic for my youth.
What's your problem, jack? Don't like slutty dresses? You like to insinuate a woman is a slut for what she wears (over the internet too, like a real individual)?: "..i hope the night gown eventually comes off to serve its slutty purposes..."
What slutty purposes would those be? Enthusiastic consensual sex? Your mom had sex. Did she have slutty purposes too?
When I was a student, I used to wear a mixture of office clothes (because I worked in Admin for one of the faculties), clean casuals (because I also worked in lounge near campus), and sometimes on my days off, long cardigans over sleeveless tops, paired with my boyfriend's pyjama bottoms (which I cut off) and ankle boots. Because it was comfortable, fun, and the sheer silliness of it made me giggle. I knew then that there was only one time in my life that I could serve my purpose (being a student or whatever) and wear whatever I want. This post made me nostalgic for my youth.
What's your problem, jack? Don't like slutty dresses? You like to insinuate a woman is a slut for what she wears (over the internet too, like a real individual)?: "..i hope the night gown eventually comes off to serve its slutty purposes..."
What slutty purposes would those be? Enthusiastic consensual sex? Your mom had sex. Did she have slutty purposes too?
Danica is hot, and i'd love to bone her.
http://lesgarconsdeglasgow.blogspot.com/
Though, I think I've finally caught on blogTO...this isn't really a style feature, is it? More like a "Toronto: We're Bigger A-Holes than New Yorkers" comments segment, isn't it?
p.s. I'm totally joking about the A-Holes comment; I've yet to actually meet an A-Hole New Yorker.
p.p.s. Please don't stop. These are hilarious!
Also, in case you didn't know, when a photographer comes up to you to take your picture, you can say no. How else did the writer get all the answers from these people? Mind reading?