I was contacted by the uber-popular Russian fashion website Look At Me a few weeks ago about running a feature about my street style work in Chicago and during New York Fashion Week. The editor chose the photos she liked best from my website. It’s very difficult for me to choose favorites (like a mother and her children!), so often times I let journalists pick the photos.
The translation from Russian to English is alone worth reading:
City Looks: Chicago and New York
By: Lisa Kologreeva
Chicago Streetstyle Scene – another blog about street style in Chicago heading City Looks to the bows with the New York Fashion Week.
My name is Amy Creyer, I am 25 years old. I’m studying politics and management in the fashion industry.
Street style shoot only eight months, but I can say that during that time I was really grown as a photographer. Fashion has always been my passion, but the pictures I started in June last year, when started a blog of your own. In Chicago, people dress more relaxed. I mean that they are experts in luxury, whose role in the understanding of many very low. Chicagoans are not flashy outfits rather simple. Much attention is paid to good fabric, cut, detail and quality.
On the shootings did not occur to me anything unusual. But once, when I walked through the city, the famous Chicago-based pianist stopped his car and praised my Mongolian fur.*
Among the favorite blogs Mr. Newton, 21 Arrondissement, Street Peeper, The Man Repeller, Latterstyle. I’ve seen of their authors, they are all wonderful people. Browse these sites every day.
*Click here to read about the time Marshall Field’s pianist Roberta Brown (who I had never met before) pulled up alongside me on Rush Street to compliment me on my Yeti coat
Above is the Vimeo version of the street style video about me filmed by NBC’s five-time Emmy award winning entertainment correspondent Marcus Riley. For those of you who live outside of the U.S., I know you were unable to watch the NBC version.
Street style photographers Candace Lake and Adam Sinding have cameos, see if you can spot them.
Follow Marcus Riley on Twitter, @Marcus5000.
Amy Creyer’s Street Savvy Style
By Sarah Terez-Rosenblum
Fashionable people astound me. Whereas others roll out of bed and into the perfect skinny jeans/plaid shirt/mussed cardigan/Converse combo, when assembling an outfit, I apply the sort of concentration normally associated with defusing a bomb, and still wind up realizing hours into my day that what seemed fresh and daring in my early morning mirror actually makes me look like I was styled by an Olson twin and K.D. Lang, each drunk and angry. Plus I almost always forget to brush my hair.
Amy Creyer faces none of these problems. Currently a DePaul graduate student studying the role of public policy in the fashion and apparel industries, Creyer eats sleeps and breathes fashion. As the owner of chicagostreetstyle.com, a website dedicated to providing high quality street style photographs, Creyer captures Chicago’s most fashionable perambulators. A self-taught photographer, Creyer’s influence is two-fold. Not only does she showcase cresting styles, but by virtue of what she chooses to photograph, she also shapes trends.
Our Town First off, what are you wearing right now?
Amy Creyer My Proenza Schouler for J. Brand paint-splattered jeans, Erin Gordon for Sarca bracelets, a Graham & Spencer top, my black leather Chucks, and a Giorgio Brato leather jacket.
OT You grew up in Greenwich. Style-wise, how is NYC different than Chicago?
AC In New York, people are very concerned with wearing the right brands or the hottest designers. You see a lot of clothing straight off the runway. I love to photograph and wear designer clothing, but I find the authenticity in Chicago far more interesting. There is an organic and authentic development of personal style in Chicago that I think is directly related to the absence of a strongly entrenched fashion establishment.
OT Describe your website’s genesis.
AC I was the little girl who always wore dresses to run around the playground. My website is the culmination of my lifelong love of fashion and decade long obsession with street style. Every aspect of being a street style photographer, from stopping random people on the street to using social media to connect with my followers, came naturally to me.
OT How do you choose and reel in potential subjects?
AC I constantly scan my surroundings for anything unusual; perhaps a woman’s unique hairstyle or the way a man tied his scarf. Sometimes there’s skepticism, but I always cut through with my charm. As the art form becomes more popular, individuals are excited about getting stopped for a photo, and I am definitely seeing stronger style on the streets as a result.
OT Do you shoot daily?
AC [Initially] I had too many experiences where, grocery shopping or running errands, I saw someone I would have loved to photograph. Now, I’m always armed with my Olympus PEN and prepared to capture a subject to share with my readers.
OT You study the role of social media in fashion marketing. What role do bloggers play?
AC Bloggers are essentially innovators and trendsetters, early adopters in marketing terminology. These people hold considerable influence over their networks, and social media has dramatically increased that sphere of influence. Before the rise of blogging a trendsetter like Tavi Gevinson would have been limited to influencing people in her local community, but with the Internet she can set trends across the world. Her sway in the fashion industry stems from her authenticity as a consumer, which is extremely valuable to a brand. I’m really interested in how brands build relationships with bloggers and the role of authenticity in those partnerships.
OT What’s trending in fashion now?
AC Before the rise of social media, only the most daring people took fashion risks. Now I’m seeing people of all subcultures and social classes using fashion to define themselves against the world, rather than using clothing to conform. I would say individuality is the dominant fashion movement of the 21st century.
OT What piece do you recommend for spring?
AC Flatforms, seen all over the Spring 2011 runways. Before you write them off as ugly or trendy, think about all those times you got home from a long day of shopping on Rush Street only to see how dirty your feet [were] from wearing sandals on the city streets.
OT What designers inspire you?
AC I am inspired by the American fashion designer partnerships between New York’s Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCullough at Proenza Schouler and Rodarte’s Mulleavy sisters in California. These design duos fascinate me because of the synergy evident in their lines. Both relationships are quite special, as Lazaro and Jack have a romantic past and Laura and Kate Mulleavy are siblings. When I look at the collections, I can see passion and explosive tension expressed in Proenza Schouler’s use of bright colors and graphic prints. In contrast, the sibling dynamism at Rodarte is far gentler. [The] pale shades, delicate fabrics, and endlessly intricate designs reveal a psychic understanding only two close sisters could maintain. Or maybe I’m just a psychology major who reads too much into fashion.
