When it comes to worldwide fashion and for those wanting to gain inspiration through photos of men or women’s street style, Sydney-based photographer Giuseppe Santamaria has numerous books covering street fashion.
From his 2014 book “Men in This Town: London, Tokyo, Sydney, Milan and New York”, his 2015 book “Women in this Town: New York, Paris, Melbourne, Tokyo, Madrid and London” and his 2017 book, “Men in this Town: Alone in a Crowd”, and also through his photos featured in the “Robb Report” and “MITT Magazine”, Santamaria has no doubt been a solid source for showcasing international fashion and also books that works just great for the coffee table and is a conversation starter.
I review this book as a person who is a photographer, who shoots street fashion in US and Japan but also a guy who loves sartorial books in general.
The concept of street fashion is subjective to individuals. For me, I am an avid fan of purchasing fashion magazines outside of the US and street fashion is a big part of fashion publications.
Where in America, fashion tends to feature a celebrity or model, fashion magazines in other countries such as Japan and Italy, while they do focus on models and celebrities, they also feature heavy content of street photography and interviewing normal people (from their own country and different countries). Afterall, their demographic is showcasing what people wear and why and for me, I find that more interesting because it’s real, it’s part of life and that is what is captured.
And for Giuseppe Santamaria, this is passion, traveling to different countries to take photos of street fashion and with the 2021 release of “Men in this Town: A Decade of Men’s Street Style” (published by Smith Street Books), this book is collection of his photos shot in Florence, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.
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This is a book that features men of various ages, various styles in different chapters such as Sartorial Inclinations, The New Bohemia, Working Men, Printed Matter, Flamboyant Flock, Future Nostalgia, Normcore Velour, Elevated Streetwear, Modern-Day Dandy and I think this is a great resource for one to pick up ideas.
Also, the reason why I like this book is that it’s not geographically focused.
You have your American styles, Parisian styles, Italian styles, etc. But there is so much out there in this world, that I appreciate Santamaria’s latest book because his work is global.
Some may ask if its coffee table appropriate, my answer is yes. It’s a 9.9 x 1.18 x 10.77 hardcover book at 280 pages. The book is orange and black, so if you can’t rock the orange/black book on your coffee table, then it’s all good! There is no slip cover and the hardcover, is a balance between using bookcloth for the orange and gloss on the photo area.
I do like the book and it’s appropriately priced at under $30. Do I find anything negative? Not really. But if you are looking for all-Sartorial or all-Bohemian, this is not that type of book. This is a mix of street fashion styles, and for those who are open to seeing men’s street style from various countries, then Giuseppe Santamaria’s “Men in this Town: A Decade of Men’s Street Style” is worth checking out!
