In praise of people who can style themselves

Stylists are not necessarily bad people, but it is their job to impose their own notion of how one should dress onto others. This might, in principle, be a good thing – many people would indubitably look better after having been gone over by a stylist. But it is nonetheless inevitable that the stylists' work will homogenize how people look. In other words: Make the world a less interesting place.

To make matters worse, stylists tend to be very focussed on what happens to be "in" at the moment. Perhaps they should be called "fashionists" instead of stylisys, as style and fashion (at least according to Lord Bassington-Bassington) are not only different things, but in many ways polar opposites.

Enter photographer Anthony Lycett, who came up with a wonderful idea: To simply photograph a lot of people who know how to dress themselves, and do this far better than any stylist would be able to. The result is Self Styled London, a collection of pictures of people who simply ooze style - and a healthy disregard for the dictates of fashion.

Another interesting theme is how many of these people incorporate stylistic elements that display a sense of pride about their ethnic heritage. Something that often contributes to a personal style in an increasingly globalised world.

Imagine what it would be like to go to a café or club full of people dressed like this, instead of the t-shirts and jeans which everybody wears these days - ironically, to show how individualistic they are...





You can find more pictures at Mr. Lycett's web page and at Self Styled London's Facebook page.