Ketchup Files: Street Style's secret sauce

If we've already sailed around the Mediterranean, this time we're going on a transatlantic trip - we're going to New York. And I don't know if it's a European cliché, the fact that I am addicted to series or to have a soft spot for romantic comedies... when I think of New York, I automatically think of the aesthetics and vibe of “Only Murders in the Building” mixed with “Breakfast at Tiffany's” and the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

And now I need to introduce a hamburger into all this imagery to make a smooth transition. So let's imagine a despotic universe, where Holly Golightly joins Mabel Mora, Oliver Putnam, Charles-Hadden Savage and Loreta Durkin to eat cheeseburgers and fries... What's missing here?

Ketchup! And we come to our protagonist, or rather, protagonists - Ketchup Files. And it has nothing to do with food or the despotic universe of my crazy introduction and has everything to do with Fashion and pop culture.

Before I reveal everything, or almost everything to you, I have to say one thing… If this article needed hashtags it would have the following: #nopub #notanadd #collab.

That said, what are Ketchup Files anyway? According to the founders, it is a retrospective of a subculture documented over more than a decade. An stock images website solely and exclusively dedicated to Street Style.

And knowing that those on the other side of the screen are, for the most part, creative people, I know that this information alone is incredible. An image bank with a branded rather than generic aesthetic, images with personality and not false representations of boring realities.

But, since creativity is always linked to curiosity, on a sunny winter afternoon, I sat down with Celina and Felipe Espinal. A love that translated into creative entrepreneurship surrounded by a vibrant community. Together they are the founders of Ketchup File and Cocora Creatives (Media Agency).

In my view, in Celina we find the dynamic and organizing spirit and in Felipe the externalization and realization of creativity. Since the genuine and sharing personality of both, combined with their passion for Street Style, reminds me of the candor of the late Bill Cunningham.

Reflecting on the phonetics of the name “Ketchup Files” reminds me of the expression “to catch up” to bring ourselves up to date, to update them on what happened in someone’s life or in a certain context or event. Something that this website as a tool allows.

To provide an almost involuntary service of perpetuating memories of Fashion, of trends, of the tableau vivant of Fashion itself. At a time when print media is going through turbulent times and objects such as trend supplements have long since fallen into disuse. And, although it is often said and repeated that what is posted on the internet never leaves it, often trying to track a timeline of nearly a decade becomes a troubled path full of “404 - page not found” errors or warnings of content that is no longer available.

The origin story of KF begins with Felipe’s body of work inherent to his biography. Having been born and raised in Colombia, he felt that the fashion cluster in his home country was not sufficiently developed for him to be able to realize his dream of becoming a fashion photographer.

He travels to New York, where he arrives in September 2015, just in time for Fashion Week. The timing was perfect, the fact of not having an established network was not relevant, after all, Fashion had always been on the streets. And to see it pass by and to capture its passage, no invitations or accreditation are necessary. So, Felipe started photographing the entrances and exits of those watching the fashion shows or of the models ready or almost ready to walk the runway. In this way, he built his network of contacts, which included other freelance photographers who would later become part of Ketchup.

When photographing the surroundings of New York Fashion Week, it is inevitable not to document the legendary editor-in-chief of Vogue - Anna Wintour. As street style is a non-intrusive approach to the subject being photographed, capturing a personality in video or photography over the course of a decade creates a relationship, albeit indirect, with that personality.

I noticed it when I spoke to Espinal… Mainly, when, almost with a certain accidental sagacity, he showed me the clip that is the origin of the cover images of this text. It is images like these that make humanity shine through and show traces of emotion, beyond a Wintour myth.

I couldn't help but ask them to explain their business model to me. With ease and genuineness, they said that they intended to create an alternative with anarchic touches to image banks and traditional media companies. In this street style hub, its founders do not retain 60% of the profits from the works of the professionals they work with, as happens with Getty Images. In the philosophy of this creative union, the biggest slice of the pie should be whoever took the photo - the 60%.

As Celina and Felipe we  pro artist -  “what we mean by that is that we see them as artists. In every sense of the word. Normal stock image sites like Getty really devalue the actual style and image of an artist. Here we hope to highly and celebrate it. There are a million different ways to take a picture we are working with those who have spent careers trying to master how.”

In this sense, they also seek to offer their platform's customers a good quality-price ratio, through packs and subscriptions, or even by offering the possibility of downloading images with a logo or watermark that is often in harmony with the photograph itself without “eroding” it. ´

The clients of this project include PR agencies, bloggers, influencers, stylists and fashion students looking for inspiration for their mood boards. For which the co-founders of Cocora creatives create an entire ecosystem.

As? Combining photography with words and further appealing to diversity and multiculturalism with the professionals they collaborate with, namely the Hispanic, Latin and Spanish language communities. To this end, they created “La Semana de Moda” where creators of mixed media - writing and photography - could be a showcase for professional collaborations, and as it evolves, it will work with a mechanism similar to Ketchup Files.

LSDLM (“La Semana de Moda”) came to the forefront of the need for a portfolio platform for Fashion in the form of words, since platforms such as the famous Béhance are geared towards projects with a strong visual component.

Returning to the cake analogy, Celina, who was born in Chicago and raised in Pennsylvania, explained to me that creative entrepreneurship in New York is not about breaking into an overly saturated space. Because New York creativity is a cake in which everyone has a right to their own slice.

The projects developed by Celina and Felipe show us not only that in terms of structure we can give our own and necessary twist to what is in force by combining concepts and styles in a unique way, but also that they have combined street style with an image bank. At the same time, what will always be a trend in the Fashion System is to start exactly where you are with the skills you have, iterating with the evolution of time and the work developed.

For continued inspiration, visit and explore ketchupfiles.com. With the promise that all the news that has emerged from this ecosystem of creators for creators will be told here on The Fashion Standup.

See you soon!

With love,

Vera Lucia