The Sartorialist in Sydney

SMH

SYDNEY STYLE: 22-year-old shop assistant Tiffany Hague is the only person to catch the eye of the New York fashion blogger, real name Scott Schuman.

Relevant offers

The man who has made it his job to hunt down and photograph the world's most stylish people for his eponymous blog is unrelenting in his search for suitable subjects.

At Bondi on Sunday, 22-year-old shop assistant Tiffany Hague is the only person to catch the eye of the New York fashion blogger, real name Scott Schuman.

Yesterday, her picture had pride of place on the front of his website, below the caption ''On the Beach ... Red on Red ...''

Schuman leaps into a taxi and heads for the Oxford Street retail strip, camera at the ready.

''You do immediately think of the sexy Bondi beach girl when you come to Sydney, but I want to explore more than just that,'' says the 42-year-old, who is in Sydney to launch his new book The Sartorialist.

''When I was running through the city I saw all these professional girls looking very crisp. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. But there is a chic-ness in Sydney that hasn't been captured yet so it is something I want to focus on.''

Schuman might be called a social anthropologist. He is also a pop culture phenomenon and a powerful force within the international fashion industry. Time named him as one of the top 100 design influences in 2007 and The New York Times fashion editor, Cathy Horyn, once said that being photographed by Schuman is ''a kind of validation''.

Schuman's blog has become an inspiration for fashion designers looking for the latest trends on the street. Its success has led Schuman to design and shoot campaigns for DKNY, Burberry, Gap and the Australian fashion label, Saba.

''The photographs speak for themselves so even if you can't read English you can still enjoy the blog,'' he says. ''People in China can still look at it and understand.''

Schuman doesn't claim to be a pioneer of street-style photography, citing The New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham and Diane Arbus as people he admires.

''I just really understood how that format could be used right now and the historical importance. I can put up a photo [on the internet] of someone wearing flip-flops and there will be hundreds of comments about how much people love or hate them. Or I will photograph someone smoking and all these anti-smoking comments will come back. A hundred years from now who knows how we will feel about smoking?

''The blog is so much more than just about fashion and we probably won't know [its] real importance until years from now.''

- © Fairfax NZ News