Mens Outerwear A/W 2015/16 Trend Project - Street Style

This week saw my group searching the streets of Nottingham for individuals who were dressed in our chosen trends to photograph. We then presented our images during yesterdays seminar and discussed how we felt the trends had been translated onto the streets compared to what we had found in our initial research task and retail task. Just to remind you, the mens outerwear trends my group are looking into are as follows.

Styles - Bomber Jacket, Duster Coat, Parka

Colours - Camel, Black 

Materials - Fur, Quilting

The street style task within this project was the activity I had been looking forward to the most and it definitely lived up to my expectations. My group got off to a slightly rocky start as we had underestimated how difficult it was to catch the attention of those we wished to photograph, but once we got going we had much more confidence!

Below are my two favourite images from the street style task, which interestingly were the first two images I took. This particular example of outerwear fell into our 'Fur' category. This guy was so comfortable and relaxed with being photographed, which I feel contributed to the success of these images, as they are not at all awkward or forced. My group soon found that the images we took of those who were slightly uncomfortable with being photographed, were the least successful.

If only I had a pound for every time I heard 'Does this mean I'm fashionable then?'... 

After having spent a few days on the streets of central Nottingham searching for our chosen outerwear trends and taking photographs of those sporting these trends, my group and I began to create the presentation we presented to the rest our seminar group and a couple of our lecturers yesterday. As we looked back through the images we had taken throughout the beginning of this week, it became clear which of our chosen trends had filtered down and been adopted by the consumer and which trends people hadn't taken to so well. Our street style task supported some of our initial predictions but also went against some. We found that the duster coat was not as popular as we originally anticipated. However I came to the conclusion that this particular coat is likely to be a popular choice of outerwear amongst business men, who would obviously be at work on a Monday and Tuesday rather than out on Nottingham's High Street, which could explain why we saw just one example of the duster coat. My group were surprised at the lack of camel coloured outerwear we came across during the street style task. During last weeks retail analysis task, we saw a huge amount of camel coloured outerwear, so clearly this is a colour trend that isn't translating so well from retail to consumer.

My group and I found it really interesting at how the different areas we visited in Nottingham affected the trends we came across. For example when visiting the Hockley area of Nottingham, we saw many sporting the the bomber jacket and the one duster coat we came across we photographed just off of Bridlesmith Gate, where many of Nottingham's higher end stores are located.

I really enjoyed this street style task so hopefully street style photography will be something I have the opportunity to do again! If street style is something that interests you, I recently watched a really inspiring and insightful film which may be of interest based on the professional life of Bill Cunningham, a street style photographer from New York, I will link the trailer below.

Bill Cunningham New York Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYqiLJBXbss

Love, Isabella x

Photo Credits: All Own Images