Photo: Rodnae Productions
With the growth of mass media, social networks, and apps, and the spread of consumerism and logomania, people are often divided into different social and cultural groups. Some of these people go with the flow and accept the rules, while others search for their own path. Still, everyone seeks authenticity — a quality of being honest, and true in all your actions. Street fashion, just like many other "alternative" ways to live your life, is all about this quality. Thus, let's find out what is street fashion style, how it was born, and how it looks today. And the online store Prestarrs is going to help in our fashion quest.
What is Street Fashion?
Generally, street fashion is considered to emerge not from the offices of world fashion brands, or editorial studios, but from the streets. It became a global movement in the 90s thanks to the New York hip hop and surf cultural movements. Some say, street fashion emerged in Britain, but I believe it existed throughout the whole 20th century. Street fashion is a part of our life, yet it never had a particular name up until its influence grew and overtook the fashion industry itself.
Nowadays the street style is usually associated with youth and can be spotted in the large urban centers of cities. Photos of the street style icons, who aren't professional models, but regular fashion lovers, are featured in various magazines like Vogue, Elle, i-D, and many others. There are a whole bunch of independent fashion and jewelry brands, which inspire and be inspired by street fashion. They are well-received by critics and get support from influencers and celebrities.
How to Describe Street Fashion Style?
A peculiar phenomenon about the street style is that you can't put it under one particular label. Unlike high fashion, street fashion has no rules or canon, it is all about comfort, independence, and self-expression. Street fashion lovers are never afraid of provocative slogans, they aren't shy of bright colors, or see-through fabrics. They are all about experimentation and personal identity, and can easily turn cute dresses for women into a whole new concept of street style look.
Another interesting aspect of street style is how people use fashion to reflect their own views on traditional socio-cultural divisions such as class, race, religion, ethnicity, regionalism, or nationalism. Due to the worldwide pandemic and, as a result, the lockdown, fashionistas tend to shop for women's clothes online. These particular reasons create a unique view of streetwear and add rarely-worn, but important personal hygiene accessories such as gloves, face masks, sanitizers, and other post-pandemic details.
Asian Street Style Fashion
Korean, Japanese, and Chinese streetwear deserve very special attention, as it serves if not the main, still the leading inspiration for the rest of the world, especially in recent years. Let's use a team of Asian street fashion to describe the fundamental idea behind the style, but, of course, there is much more to every particular country and urban center in terms of fashion.
Asian streetwear became particularly famous with the development of Kpop music, video-streaming, and cinematography. However, let’s not forget the continuing influence of anime series and manga on growing minds. It can sustain diverse fashion movements, combining them into one ultimate, distinctive streetwear style. You can easily witness the kawaii element of Lolita style combined with the darkness of Visual Kei, and some traditional ethnic clothing on one person.
Street Fashion Trends 2021
Mainstream fashion always appropriates street fashion trends through influencers. It is getting more and more popular each and every year, slowly washing out the boundaries between certain subcultures, high fashion, and counties. Despite being very different around the world, street fashion is always centered around the big urban hubs, where fashionistas borrow, take and reflect the style. The street fashion trends may vary from season to season, and from the big city to city, but it is always about the original look.
The Takeaway
It is hard to separate individual streetwear trends of 2021, as the lockdown stays relevant almost in every county of the world. Still, it is possible to catch a glimpse of stylishly dressed attendees of Fashion Weeks, and Instagram bloggers. It looks like they tend to wear a lot of monochrome pink looks, completing them with similar in-shade accessories. Plaid and layers are still trending, together with oversized tote bags, and heavy-duty boots. Spring and summer seasons welcomed dark florals and bright geometric prints. But the biggest trend stays unchanged — a face mask, which, luckily, we all can personalize.
Lots of love,
Liz