Hindsight: A Street Style View from Haiku

Last week 303 gave Denver its first annual fashion week, featuring two runway shows and some smashing parties. Friday night, the team hosted some big names in Denver high fashion, boutiques like Alicia the Boutique, Garbarini, Goldyn, PJ’s Boutique and Violet that carry such designers as Helmet Lang.

Saturday’s street style event boasted an even more local flare, meant to capture the pulse of Denver fashions as interpreted by local shops Unity, Common Era, Jiberish Clothing, Division West, and Family Affair.

Both shows drew local fashion celebrity Zoe Cullie, author of Haiku Ambulance, a daily street style blog. With her fine-tuned eye on the street style phenomenon, Zoe had much to say about the first Denver Fashion Week and the important move to include a street style show.

How are street style and blogging changing the fashion world?
I think that street style and bloggers are changing everything about the fashion world. Nearly everything in mainstream stores like Urban Outfitters, Forever21, Anthropologie, and so on is immediately reflective of what bloggers have just shown us- and usually the bloggers’ items are thrifted. It’s the way they put their looks together that the retailers are trying to imitate and recreate for the masses. And since bloggers have such a serious finger on the pulse of high fashion, they can take clues from the runways and upcoming seasons in their day-to-day lives. And the cycle continues.

What does street style mean for Denver?
I think more so than “good style”, people in Denver are very tuned into the idea of “personal style”. There is a wonderful quirkiness to the people and style here that I think is really unique to our city. We aren’t overly concerned with trends here it seems, we really just want to make a personal, individual statement.

How does it look different here compared to other cities?
Just like I was saying before, our style doesn’t follow the typical trends like it bags and other things that fade quickly from the fashion world. We are certainly less flashy than other cities, but I think our subtleties bring an elevated level of class to Denver that other cities (maybe with more money) are lacking.

How is street style inspiration best accessed?
In the streets! Seriously, people-watching in Denver is one of the best pastimes we have to offer. Go to any coffee shop, bookstore, or bar and park your butt down for an hour. You will be inspired, I promise.

Any trends you see coming to our streets?
I have been seeing some really incredible color combinations about town lately. I think that we are heading out of the winter doldrums with much more force than recent years. It seems like people have been bored and want to experiment with exciting brights and it couldn’t look more awesome.