Fashion Tribes: Global Street Style Hardcover – October 13, 2015

This hardbound Abrams imprint of approx. 6.875 x 9.5 x 1.25 inches, and 291 lavishly illustrated pages was bound and printed in Singapore. The pages, nearly all of which have full color reproductions are glossy and acceptably well-made. Having said that, I am not impressed by the quality nor, particularly, by the photography. It is all okay, which pretty much sums up the entire book.I think it is safe to say that this is a book that emulates or channels that most famous Japanese publication 'Fruits' which put out two English language trade paperbacks titled 'Fruits' and 'Fresh Fruits' which were jam-packed with photos taken of the habitues of Shinjuku's automobile-free days in which streets were blocked off for the exclusive use of pedestrians who would come to pose and play there. Check out those books right here on Amazon to see what I mean.Tamagni who is described as an 'Art Historian' on his website, which was last updated in 2013 takes the concept and attempts to expand it to the third world by going to various African countries, as well as to Cuba, Bolivia, and Burma. Unfortunately the project falls down because of the essential difference between a cultural phenomenon that has seeped into the everyday vernacular of life as in Shinjuku (I think particularly of one of the shots in 'Fresh Fruits' where a little old lady standing in the background attending to her bicycle is unwittingly dressed in a pattern that is every bit as wild as those of the young couple who are actually the subjects of the shot.), and the tiny subcultures that the author was able to unearth.In other words, the photos and accompanying articles in this book attempt to link the strange manner of dress to a kind of politics, whether it is feminism or a dialectical reaction to 'western imperialism' I suppose. This is a problem. It's a problem because the essays are of the kind one immediately skims over because loaded with tired political chestnuts about various forms of oppression or oppressive cultural norms because we've seen and heard it all before, ad nauseum.Whereas 'Fruits' is strictly non-ideological and really captures the zeitgeist of a spontaneous street fashion (also played out in the form of tribes, lolita, gothic, etc.) movement, this book labors to somehow connect the dots between people across the globe who are not expressing a similar aesthetic, either politically or sartorially.The Burmese punks could be street punks anywhere, the Peruvian Cholitas can be Cholitas only in Bolivia.Not to say that some of the images aren't interesting, some of them are. Also, not to say that Tamagni completely misses the mark because his Sapeurs of the Congo almost certainly could appear on the streets of Shinjuku (the area is no longer closed to traffic on Sundays and so the Fruits are all but gone now) and fit right in.No, the problem is that, with the exception of the Sapeurs and possibly the Cholitas Tamagni's subject groups are just tiny groups of like-minded people who dress up for effect but whose 'culture' does not exist outside of the imaginations of the players themselves....I must say too that the photography is surprisingly amateurish to my eye.This book tries to treat a whimsical subject too seriously and the politics of the book is simply too whimsical to be taken seriously.

Excellent!!!

“very good service product as expected will recommend"

Xmas prezzie for niece

è un libro di fotografia che passerà alla storia. Daniele Tamagni è morto giovane ma era già un grande fotografo affamato di immagini e sempre curioso.Questo è un libro da avere. E' un must che non dovrebbe mancare in tutte le librerie.

Tutto perfetto.Pacco e spedizione.