London Fashion Week vs London Collections: Men

London Fashion Week is fast approaching. For this fashion blogger, it is an event I always look forward to. I love shooting the catwalk shows, catching up with familiar faces, and exploring the diversity of street style. But with this being my fifth season in attendance, I have seen the creases in this cornucopia of fashion.

I have observed that London Fashion Week has become far too popular for its own good. The fashion community is ever growing, and LFW is the party of the year. By lunchtime on the first day, the Somerset House courtyard is overrun with attendees, and I cannot help but feel slightly overwhelmed. Although nothing quite like the crowds at Notting Hill Carnival, there is a clear sense of hype surrounding LFW, as if people believe they have to be there and - perhaps more importantly - to be seen there.

Peacocking is prevalent, there is no denying that. While there is certainly nothing wrong with dressing up, some of the outfits are so mad and fantastical, they would not be seen anywhere else but during London Fashion Week. I feel there is an air of competition, to impress one's peers and to attract the lens of a street style photographer. Sometimes it seems like that is the only reason some people even attend.

But the vibe during London Collections: Men is a lot different. Compared with the crowds at its sister event, LC:M feels very intimate. The showcases take place across three days instead of five, there is no central show space like Somerset House, and the fewer number of guests appear more genuine in their individual styles and interest in fashion.

I do not want to photograph somebody who dresses up for the camera. The styles I see at London Collections are effortless, because everybody dresses for themselves. The outfits are not impractical or overly flamboyant, they are true to one's personal style.

The other element of genuinity at London Collections is the street style photographers. There is a collective of photographers who regularly shoot at major fashion events, who are experienced, who know how to approach people, and who know exactly what they are looking for. They are generally the only people shooting on the scene at menswear week, and hence their photographs are unique.

Whereas at LFW, it seems anybody with a camera takes on the persona of a street style photographer, and the event becomes a free-for-all, with everyone photographing each other. What is particularly frustrating, however, is when an experienced photographer sets up a shot, only to have their image stolen by a dozen parasitic happy-snappers, who lurk close by and fire a few shots of their own. It takes advantage of the professionalism of the photographer, who no longer has that original image.

I do fear that with the increasing popularity of London Collections: Men, it might turn the same way as London Fashion Week in the foreseeable future. Will it become just another wild party on the fashion calendar? For now, I shall savour the intimacy and genuinity of menswear week, and prepare for the loudness and hype of LFW. As always, I expect it will be a thoroughly busy five days.

Journalism vs Plagiarism

As a journalist and self-publishing blogger, plagiarism is the monster I fear the most. It lurks in the shadows of the internet, primed to strike without notice. The realisation that your work - your intellectual property - has been stolen, copied, uncredited and passed off as somebody else's is one of the most dreadful feelings a writer, photographer, or any creative professional can suffer.

Most recently, a talented coursemate of mine had his work plagiarised on Twitter. After developing a profound theory regarding an alleged storyline between Tyler The Creator's three albums, music journalist Ryan Bassil published his thoughts to 'Noisey'. A few hours later however, Twitter user @TimzyHasAnEgo expressed a personal revelation behind Tyler The Creator's album trilogy, which he then followed up by literally copying and pasting lines from Ryan's article and passing them off as his own words.

I don't understand very much about Tyler The Creator, but that doesn't mean I don't care about the originality of my friend's article. It has been driven into us during our studies that original journalism is key to becoming a successful journalist. So to have the credit and recognition of one's ingenuity seized by somebody else is undeniably devastating. In Ryan's case, his work has been copied verbatim by somebody with 100,000 more Twitter followers than himself, many of whom have congratulated Timzy-whatshisface for being a "fucking genius". Ryan has tried hard to direct Timzy's admirers to the original article, but his voice is not big enough to turn everyone's heads to the truth.

And so we find ourselves facing an injustice. Tell me, why should a "19 Year Old Escaped Laboratory Experiment", who enjoys tweeting Every Single Word With A Capital Letter, take the credit for Ryan's handiwork and ideas? Even if @TimzyHasAnEgo happened to have a similar theory himself, it is despicable that he resorted to stealing a hard-working journalist's words for his own gain.

In the fashion blogosphere, plagiarism is equally as menacing. A couple of months ago, it came to the attention of two bloggers that their blog header and photographs respectively had been published on another blog. While Sammy from 'The Cookie Button' discovered her blog name and header had been stolen, Megan from 'The Briar Rose' was disgusted to learn an unknown Russian blogger had been pretending to be her for two months. In this particular instance, the issues were as much about theft of identity as theft of intellectual property. Creepy, to say the least.

The identity thief has since halted her theatrics, but Blogger have yet to remove the blog in question. In this example, the intentions behind the specific plagiarism are unclear, and with the mystery blogger remaining silent, we may never find out. However, it does go to show how very simple it is to steal somebody else's imagery from the internet, even with a strict Creative Commons licence.

Since the early days of Google, schoolchildren have copied and pasted images from the internet onto Powerpoint presentations, without thought for reference, and unaware of their copyright infringement. It is a similar lack of awareness which has permeated the general public, and it is a dire issue we face. The internet is not a free-for-all. Yet many people treat the web otherwise.

And that is not to say I never breached copyright in the past, but I have since learnt from my youthful wrongdoings. I have even been a victim of plagiarism myself. But not by any web user; remarkably, by a national publication.

In December, I learnt that Irish teen publication 'Kiss Magazine' had unlawfully used my photo of blogger Olivia Purvis for their January edition. Olivia, who had previously been unaware of her feature, was very helpful in giving me a pdf of the magazine, in which I noticed I had neither been credited. Since the publication's office is in Ireland, I could not call the magazine without amounting a substantial phone bill. So I resorted to multiple e-mails demanding for remuneration, all of which were unsurprisingly ignored. I was alone and powerless to carry the case through.

It still stings that a national publication got away with stealing my photograph, but if there is any wisdom I have learnt from the dastardly affair, it is to be extra cautious of my personal copyright. I make it clear on my blog that my photography is protected by the tightest Creative Commons. But as I mentioned earlier, this won't stop everybody from taking what appears to be openly available to them.

To conclude, plagiarism is like a punch to the nether regions - unexpected and sore. One could argue the ignorance of the technologically passive human, but I personally believe most perpetrators know what they are doing is wrong, even if they are unaware of the technicalities. However you want to see it, taking without permission is theft.

Bieber Fever

Hysteria, idolisation, fanaticism. These three words perfectly encompass the collective of Justin Bieber fans at his concert in Miami. As a "non-Belieber", I was terrified as I was intrigued by the social phenomenon, which first revealed itself hours before the concert began. The thought on my mind is this: does Justin truly realise the power he has over his adolescent worshippers?

There was so much screaming - before, during and after the concert. Whilst queuing outside, girls were screaming at such a high pitch, it was almost inaudible to human ears. I was half-expecting a pack of dogs to come tearing towards the arena. And that was only a hundred girls spotting Justin Bieber's guitarist or stylist, let alone the main man himself. Nothing prepared me for the volume inside the arena.

The screams of 20,000 teenagers thundered in my eardrums whenever "Justin Bieber" was mentioned by somebody on the stage. Then Justin arrived himself, and the arena erupted. The air was rife with excitement and the raging hormones of adolescent girls, who all had a subconsciously primal urge to mount this nineteen year old boy, even if they were too young to understand the circle of life.

For these infatuated and impressionable young people, Justin Bieber represents an alpha male on a very instinctive level. They recognise qualities that would make Justin a prime leader, while girls specifically recognise qualities that would make Justin a good mate. This is what I speculate to be the essence of Bieber Fever. Add the facts that he is young, likeable, a musician, and constantly in the public eye - the end product is mass hysteria.

These Beliebers, as a collective, are such devout fans, they are at the mercy of Justin's influence, even if he is not aware of it himself. While there are hundreds of thousands of people who inherently despise him, millions adore him to a point where they worship his image in their bedrooms, follow his leadership on Twitter, and gather in mass at concerts worldwide. One could argue Justin Bieber has the effect of a god.

From personal experience, this fanaticism is terrifying. When the Adidas NEO team were handing us meet-and-greet wristbands, a swarm of Beliebers surrounded us, pleading and begging. Some even attempted to snatch the bands from us, while others refused to move away, hopeful that we might have a spare. It was a moment of insanity, and I saw the hunger and yearning desperation in these fans' eyes. Delinquent youths may have incited riots in London two summers ago, but I would be genuinely more scared of the teenagers at a Justin Bieber concert.

At the end of it all, Justin Bieber is simply a teenage boy with a successful singing career. As a non-Belieber, I find the scale of his fandom rather excessive, but I can accept why he is admired as a performer - an amazing voice, incredible dance moves, instrumental skill on the guitar and drums, and a charming charisma with the crowds.

That said, I do I have a couple of requests of him...

1) Your lyrics state that in order to be your out-of-town girl, "all you have to do is swag". Please, what does that even mean? 

2) When you eventually put your top back on at the end of the concert, pull your trousers up while you are at it. You look ridiculous.

What I have learnt from bloggers

It has been a year since I was officially welcomed into the blogger community, when a friendly face named Bee plucked my shy and awkward self from the bar of a Bristol nightclub. MyStreetChic's blogger Xmas party was the first of many meet-ups to follow, from which I have gained confidence, knowledge, new friends and new perspectives.

Here are a few things I have learnt along the way...

Company Magazine: blogging is a girl's world

Only two days ago, I was celebrating my blog reaching its second anniversary. Meanwhile, Company Magazine had published a feature which seemingly relishes the fact that men have a lower standing within the fashion blogosphere. Having read Stu Bradley's critical response yesterday, I was encouraged to read the article for myself, and I too find some of its inferences questionable.