Inside Style - Street Style Paps

Hermes girl en rue

Inside Style by Annmarie O'Connor - as featured in The Dubliner magazine - April 8th 2010 

Street style paps - they're everywhere. They've even infiltrated the rarefied Gallic style sanctum of Hermes. That's right. Enshrined in the Brown Thomas window display are two campaign posters of an Hermes girl and woman shot 'en rue'. A candid camera ploy designed to edge up the brand? Perhaps and how very clever. If the recent Face Hunter (www.facehunter.blogspot.com) book signing at Noble and Beggerman was anything to go by, hipster Dublin seems to have an insatiable thirst for this burgeoning fashion medium. The face hunter in question - Swiss blogger Yvan Rodic - owes his cult status to those insouciantly chic pics of passersby we could only wish to emulate. Lest you think everyone from London and Paris bears a unique posing gene (pigeon toes and dislocated shoulders), think again. Rodic admits to taking up to twenty frames of a subject before committing to a shot.

Pity that kindness wasn't extended to me when recently stopped by The Style Scout (www.thestylescout.com). It was the last day of London Fashion Week. Sore feet, back-to-back deadlines and an eye allergy added to my 'wilted' look. Cosmic spite being just that, I was asked to pose for my likeness. One click and Mr. Scout was gone. Two weeks later and I receive an email from a colleague entitled 'Look What I Found'. It was yours truly looking truly awful. I felt like the girl in the bottom two on Top Model with the least frames.  Has it come to this? Is full-hair and make-up a requirement before attempting the cobbles at Somerset House? Or do you need an arsenal of poses to square up to the Dublin Streets (www.dublinstreets.blogspot.com) duo?

Still, I don't see how the common man's catwalk can increase the Hermes bottom line - what with NAMA so very now. The closest I'll get to a Birkin bag is pressing my nose against the glass. I bet even that will be taxed. But hey, there's always Tesco. The supermarket chain has launched its own tribute to the iconic tote without the waiting list and €10,000 price tag. For just €20 you can make like Posh and snap up your own collection in teal and purple. What's more, you can leave it behind you on the Luas without having a mild stroke over the insurance policy. Sure, you may never get papped 'en rue' by Hermes (summarily ignored perhaps) but then again, maybe that's a good thing.