The Sartorialist | thecircleofit

So you all know how much I love The Sartorialist, right? (In case you don’t, this will explain it). Well, on an autumn day in mid-September, I happened to be browsing ‘the’ blog and found out that Scott Schuman, its founder, was doing a book signing for his new book CLOSER, at Harrods, that same evening.

After a quick change of plans (I was originally on my way to the opening of a certain artist’s exhibition, but I decided to go to it, post ‘a meeting’), I got in the queue alongside London’s well-dressed of the style/blog scene. I chatted with some very interesting people, before finally meeting the man behind the lense himself, along with his ‘lady’, Garance Dore, the recently-hired VOGUE Paris columnist.

Both were very warm and gracious and I was surprised that after my introduction, he in fact did remember my submitted comments which had triggered a re-post of one of his entries in response to them.

The very handsome Mr. Schuman

Funky London blogger in the queue

Spotted waiting by Harrrods’ Door 9 entrance, with CLOSER in hand

Schuman and Dore, signing away

And…the wait was worth it

The one-and-only Harrods, where it all took place

I love full-circle moments. And by meeting the man himself and going from The Sartorialist: A Dialogue to The Sartorialist: A Meeting, this one felt like a very ‘it’ one.

All photographs via Me

Something interesting happened in the blogosphere with yours truly, and I thought I would take a moment from my ‘no-blogging-this-diamond-jubilee long weekend’, to report on it. Here it goes:

It all started with some comments I submitted to The Sartorialist regarding this particular photograph of a skateboarder.

For those of you who have not heard about The Sartorialist (no excuses, it’s on my IT Blogs list!), it’s the avant-garde style blog that was started by Scott Schuman in 2005. Whether you are a design blogger, fashion student, photographer in the making, or simply a life lover, The Sartorialist should be on top of your daily blogs list. Out of the gazillion blogs out there, he has nailed it like no other.

With loyal followers in the ‘too many to mention’ and the fashion world at his fingertips (the ‘who’s who’ of the industry checks out his daily photos for inspiration, not to mention bestowing upon him last night’s CFDA accolade), The Sartotialist is in a league of his own.

Knowing all this, I was incredibly surprised and flattered when he took the time to re-post and interpret ‘that’ photograph in response to my very own comments! I thoroughly enjoyed reading his response, and while we may have different points of view, I was excited at the dialogue it created between myself and a blogger I greatly admire, as well as many of his followers.

You can view the entry here to read my paraphrased comments (my original comments were not published), The Sartorialist’s response, my new comment (written whilst half asleep!), and of course, to see the photograph that started it all.

Although I can write a Ph.D. thesis to clarify my original comments (insert wink here)and respond to some of the assumptions made via some readers (and another one here), reading many of the comments makes one thing clear; no matter what we each see in the photograph, its most beautiful aspect is the interpretation it leaves open to us all.

And that kind of a dialogue is an ‘it’ thing.