Mappable Fashion

We’ve all heard that technology is going to make the world smaller, and this time it’s the fashion sphere that’s shrinking. The latest trend in fashion media – more exciting than blogs, more interactive than Burberry’s facebook page – is online maps full of images from across the world, letting you scroll through cities and discover what their most stylish citizens are wearing. We already stream fashion shows online from anywhere in the world, follow what bloggers on other continents are buying and shop faraway boutiques from our phones, so these maps are a logical next step in finding fashion online.

My favourite is the new Vintage Map created by farfetch – anyone in the world can upload a photo of their vintage clothing or a retro accessory, and it will be attached to a city of your choice.

It’s up to you whether you do an outfit shot, a close-up on interesting details or something more artistic, just snap a photo on Instagram and do some strategic tagging. Use #ffvintage to get your image onto the map and then hashtag your city so that it’s added to the right place – use #paris, #london, #copenhagen or wherever you are. And it’s worth tagging the designer, boutique or brand that it came from, to give people more of an insight.

Even if you don’t have any cherished hand-me-downs to share the map is rich with sartorial inspiration and standout looks, proving that vintage clothing and the digital age are more compatible than ever. The full map is on farfetch.com, but I've added a smaller one here for you to get started with:

Style.com’s Style Map is less interactive, and more authoritative. They’ve chosen just over 60 contributors, all industry insiders, who will update the map with photos and snippet-style blogposts as and when they stumble upon local stories that deserve a global audience. You can view by country, by contributor or by topic - and it’s far more visual than following their Twitter feeds. Follow designer Vika Gazinskaya around the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, or pick up tips on mixing the perfect gin and tonic from London restaurateur David Waddington.

Both maps show the direction that social media is moving in. In the space of seven years, we've moved from written paragraphs (facebook) to one-liners (Twitter) and seem to have settled – for now - on images (Instagram). So as words get less and less important in what we share, it makes sense that we’re looking for new ways to follow the photographs. Get on farfetch.com and style.com, and contribute to the new wave of mappable fashion.