Q&A with Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist

I met Scott Schuman at The Surf Lodge last year. I truly admire him as both an icon and a revolutionary in the fashion industry. We hung out again during New York Fashion Week, which was a huge thrill. Mr. Schuman graduated from the same alma matter of Grungy Gentleman, Indiana University. Ain’t nothing like IU pride! It was a complete honor to conduct an interview with the talent behind The Sartorialist. We discuss his favorite destination, the site’s redesign, his favorite prop, his lovely relationship with Garance, shooting in Bloomington, and monk straps. And hey, Garance Dore joins in too. Not too shabby.

Grungy Gentleman sits down with the man who changed everything, Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist below…

Grungy Gentleman: Some Americans tend to think that New York is the fashion capital of the world. To me, the epicenter of the fashion world resides in Milan and Paris. You travel a bunch. What is your favorite destination to shoot where you find inspiration?

Scott Schuman: Well, I am lucky that I get to go to a lot of different places. For me, especially when I am going through fashion week, I like to shoot London the way I see London. And then go to Milan because it is a totally different kind of look. It is like eating food. Once you have a lot of Italian food, then you’re ready for something like French food. I don’t really have a favorite because I think about individual shots. The great thing about a blog is the way it scrolls; how you’re able to compare and contrast one image to another and decipher how you feel about it in an abstract way. So I don’t really have one particular place. But I love shooting Milan. It is still a reasonably small city when comparing it to a city like New York or London. But it is so design heavy with interior and fashion design. The way people are over there and its visual charisma is really appealing. And yet, the city still has a hint of mystery to it. People know the history of Paris and New York. Nobody really knows the history of Milan. I am always drawn to these beautiful buildings where people aren’t aware of its history or story. The mixture of the people, the city’s romance, and the mystery of Milan makes it the most fun for me.

GG: I saw that you recently redesigned your site. What was the reason to change it up?

SS: Well, the main thing was that when I would go look for an old image, I kinda knew where it was because I remembered taking it. But sometimes I couldn’t find old photographs on my own site. So I felt a need for a visual redesign. I had to go back through every image to tag and categorize each individual photograph, which was something that was new for me. The reason for this was so now you are able to click one button and you can sort through all ‘old man style’ or ‘photographs taken in Florence.’ To me, this was essential to make the site a more user-friendly experience. Another issue was that on Blogger, it was less under my control. Whereas when using Wordpress, it is much more under my control. But the tricky part was as I was growing and getting bigger, there was more to loose with the idea of a redesign. It took a while from getting the old site to the new one. I was just so nervous to finally hit that button and say ok now it’s transferring over because what is so important to me was the comments section and keeping that intact. We didn’t just only do a redesign, we literally changed the whole URL. So it is not thesartorialist.blogspot.com, it’s just thesartorialist.com. So we had to make sure that the tech people would be able to transfer all the comments from the old site to the new one because to me, it’s a social document. It’s a document of how people felt about those clothes at that particular time. So until I was able to feel comfortable that all of that archiving was going to work, it was a good day because I was really pleased with how it turned out. The design I was always comfortable with. Garance took charge with that aspect because it’s her super-strength. In our relationship, I lead in certain things. I focus on the advertisement sales and other things. And Garance is really in charge of the technical aspect of the site. So now that this is all behind us, I am really excited that now I have wider photographs, which is something that she came up with. It is really rewarding for both of us.

GG: Favorite prop, old-school bike or vintage vespa?

SS: [Laughs] Bicycle.

Adrian Grenier

GG: We both went to undergrad at Indiana University. Have you visited since you graduated?

SS: Well, my mom and dad moved to Phoenix. So I have not been back.

Garance Dore: He needs to take me there!

GG: Well Bloomington is a whole lot of fun. I can promise you that Garance.

SS: Yeah, you’re right. Well, she’s from Corsica, France. So, her taking me to Corsica is a little more beautiful than me taking her back to Bloomington.

GD: It’s fine. [Laughs]

SS: I need to figure a romantic way of making it seem cool. But I still know a lot of people out there. I am still close with a professor, who was a student when I was there; that is a year younger than myself. So, it’s something I want to do for sure. I am going to try and go back there with Garance in the fall because we travel so much internationally. In the next year or so I want to do a lot more domestic. I want to go back to Bloomington and shoot square dancers.

GG: See…ya here this B-Town? Be ready for The Sartorialist!

SS: Yay!!! [Laughs] So that’s some of the stuff I really want to try and do. Go back to Bloomington, go to North Dakota; where my dad is from and shoot a little more of Americanism on the site.

GD: He is a good Midwestern boy!

GG: I recently saw a shot of Inna Gerchikov on your site where she was wearing a Kiel James Patrick belt. The shot was so elegant. The woven braids really spoke her personality. Now, I have a menswear site. So, I am going to ask you which accessory captures your attention most frequently as something guys should add to their wardrobe?

SS: Shoes. I mean for me it’s easy, shoes. Garance is my shoe editor.

GG: A lot of monk straps these days.

[We look down and Scott is wearing monk straps…quite funny.]

SS: A lot of monk straps. Yeah.

GD: It’s all about the shape.

SS: Yeah, it’s the shape. She has a great French phrase. “It makes a good foot.” She says, “I don’t like that shoe. It doesn’t make a good foot.” So, I might not always wear a belt, I don’t always wear a tie that much, but she bought me a nice watch and she really helped me refine my shoe selection. So, a really good pair of shoes is the answer.