The Case of Trinidad Lookbook + Lookbook.nu

One of these things looks just like the other...
TrinidadLookbook.com and the original, Lookbook.nu

Seems like someone might have taken me up on my challenge - fantastic!

I've been eagerly waiting to see what sort of street fashion pics would be featured on a Caribbean style-spotting blog, but now that I've found such a site, I must say I'm quite ambivalent on the entire thing.

On the one hand, it's about time someone began showcasing the personal style and fashion choices of the extremely creative people within the diaspora. Major, major kudos for that.

Case in point: Trinidad Lookbook. The relatively new site culls together images of well-dressed party folk, collected from other, popular entertainment websites.

But on the other hand, it's one thing to use another site's watermarked, credited images within your posts - I do it all the time, as do other bloggers - but it's something else to directly pinch a popular site's name, and brand.

Maybe the blogger behind Trinidad Lookbook didn't know that the original Lookbook.nu even existed, but seeing that the latter is a highly publicized, personal-style trove, I doubt it very much. By extension, the former missed the entire point of street-style hunting.

The idea is become a fashion voyeur: to showcase your own shots and selections of outfits as worn by everyday people. Street-style is the antithesis of highly edited, gussied-up editorial fashion, and it champions the creativity of ordinary people in ordinary situations.

It means actually keeping your own eye open for stylish folk on the streets, in the grocery, in the rain, at the beach, wherever you are on a day to day basis, and documenting your photo findings on your blog. Which would then showcase your personal style aesthetic, and not the random, posed party shots from Trinipulse and LizzardBlizzard.

To TrinidadLookbook: You're on the right track, but I suggest investing in a decent camera, doing your own legwork, and maybe rebranding your site so that it's truly original. I hope you keep at it; I'd love to see more!

LMN Harris

NB. Image courtesy TrinidadLookbook/Lookbook.nu

I Dare You, I Dare You!

Casual-chic, and rocking an 'of the moment' bold print blouse.
Brazil; Rio Carnival 08

In the immortal words of the Soca singer, Ms. Destra Garcia - I Dare You! But to do what, exactly? To arm yourselves with pro. cameras, and to take to the streets, cool island locales, bars, and fetes, and REALLY get some hot shots of uber-stylish Caribbean folk.

To someone (anyone!) out there who loves Island style as much as I do, I dare you: why not become a Caribbean Street Style Photographer?

I'm not talking about getting random shots of folks who are posing up in random Fetes across the region, vogueing for the pic because they're at a party that Machel Montano, or Beenie Man performed at, and they want to be seen on some random party site, saying, "Cheese!"

No, no, no. I'm talking about snapping everyday people doing their daily thing - people who clearly rock an impeccable sense of personal style. One of the best things to happen within the turbulent fashion publishing world, has been the rise of intrepid style savants who independently go beyond reporting on 'which Celeb. wore what.' In an almost similar fashion, I say it's time we celebrate individual style in the Caribbean, too.

Want some inspiration? Check out one of the leading Street Style blogs/Photograpers, The Satorialist, and one of the lesser known - but equally cool - sites, Chicktopia. Now, don't just go out there and be a carbon copy of Scott Schuman!

There are certain fashion-y things about dressing in the Caribbean that makes the look unique - go find those things, and the people who rock those fantastical looks, and snap that. And let me know how it goes, ok?

And maybe, just maybe, I'll feature your shots on the pages of Au Courant Magazine - the debut issue hits this week!

L.M.N. Harris