More than 200 people filled an upstairs portion of the Barnes & Noble across from NorthPark Center Tuesday evening to meet Schuman, well-known photographer and creator of the blog, TheSartorialist.com. Fashion savvy Dallasites waited anxiously in line for hours to get an autographed copy of the new book.
The popular blog features snapshots of everyday people doing everyday things – in creative, stylish and unique outfits.
In 2005, after 15 years in the fashion industry, Schuman left his job at a New York City designer showroom to be a stay-at-home dad. As a hobby, the self-taught photographer started snapping pictures of trendsetters on the streets of Manhattan and uploading them to his blog. Schuman said he didn’t have big plans for his blog, but wanted to merge the disconnect he saw between the runway and fashion magazines with what people were actually wearing.
“I was just going to shoot people in a way that was honest to me,” Shuman said in an interview after the event. “If I could do it that way, I thought people could relate to it.”
Four years later, the blog still operates on the simple blog publishing system: Blog Spot. The blog gets more than 100,000 hits daily from around the globe. As a result of the blog’s success, Schuman now shoots for publications such as French Vogue, American GQ and Elle, and was listed as one of the top 100 design influencers by Time Magazine.
The photographer published his online posts to his first paperback “The Sartorialist,” published by Penguin in August 2009. The 507-page book features high-quality color prints of people strolling down the city streets of New York, Milan, Paris, London, Moscow, Florence and Stockholm.
SMU senior Hester Hodde is a devout “Sartorialist” follower and has owned the book since it was first released.
“I literally check his blog every single day,” Hodde said. “It’s part of my routine when I wake up in the morning.”
Richard Ross, a freshman at Baylor University, drove from Waco, Texas to get a signed copy of the book.
“I love his blog so I thought an hour and half is not too bad to come down here,” Ross said.
Pam Scrima, owner of Parkerhawn Vintage in Dallas, has been following the blog for more than two years.
“When I heard he was coming, I put it on Twitter, Facebook and my Web page,” Scrima said. “I told everyone I knew to get the word around.”
Schuman’s stop in Dallas is just one of the many book signings in the works. The photographer was in Washington, D.C. the evening prior and was headed to San Francisco Wednesday. The blog, and now the book, has provided Schuman with opportunities to travel anywhere in the world to snap pictures.
“I’m supposed to go back to South America,” Schuman said. “Someone wants me to go to Singapore and Mexico, and I will probably do book signings in Madrid.”
Schuman’s schedule might seem packed, but he said his lifestyle is perfect.
“I get up, walk around and take pictures,” Schuman said. “If you take some pictures that’s great, if you don’t it’s not bad.”
Despite continuous job offers to do editorial and advertising photography, Schuman said the release of the book is the perfect time to get back to work on his blog.
“All of these people keep saying: As everything gets bigger with the book and editorials, are you going to lose the blog?” Schuman said. “If anything, I am doing this to get back to the blog.”
Schuman said the blog is much less pressure than his monthly page in GQ magazine and his contributions to additional publications.
“With the blog, I didn’t have to turn it around as fast, and I got to think about exactly what I wanted to do,” Schuman said.
Schuman said the key to blogging is actually having something to say.
“You can communicate through an illustration, through a photograph or through writing,” Schuman said. “But, if you don’t have something to communicate, then don’t do it.”
Fans of the blog read it for all types of reasons. Scrima looks at the pictures on the blog for fashion inspiration for her personal wardrobe, as well as her store.
“I see things that are cute and new color combinations on the blog and then pass it onto my customers, suggesting street style like ‘The Sartorialist’,” Scrima said.
Ross follows the blog because of Schuman’s innovative style of photography.
“I love that the pictures that fill the pages are just of people and you can focus on their clothes,” Ross said.
Hodde said she appreciates Schuman’s interpretation of fashion through street style.
“I particularly like street style because I feel like it’s a much more organic process,” Hodde said. “He documents people in their everyday lives, verses what you see on the runway.”
