Bill Cunningham was the pioneer of street style photography, capturing the ins and out of the fashion world in a 40-year spanning career at the NY Times. Aside from his incredible body of work, he was known for a familiar uniform; never without his bike and camera, and a blue jacket. To celebrate his legacy, 1,200 people will pay tribute to the iconic artist by wearing blue to a special screening of Bill Cunningham New York.

The series usually shows new works, but NewportFILM has announced a special showing of the 2010 documentary, reports WWD. The event will be held at Oceancliff with the doc screening alongside other fashion-related pieces. NewportFILM has requested that all guests wear blue to honour Cunningham’s familiar jacket.

Fashion’s most prolific photographer passed away at the age of 87, and has since had a street corner named after him in his adopted city New York, an apt tribute to the Boston-born man who captured what its residents were wearing across four decades.

NewportFILM executive director Terri Conners said, “When you think of Bill, you immediately think of him in that blue jacket. Every review of the film I’ve read always mentions the blue jacket. When we were trying to think of a theme, we were getting all creative and fun. And then all of a sudden I was like, ‘How about blue – just blue?’ We figured it would be a simple, but beautiful visual to see all of this blue up against the ocean on this big, huge green lawn. We wanted to make this an homage to his signature blue jacket. So we’ll see.”

Guests at the screening will be judged on their outfits, and according to Conners, judges are advised to be Cunningham-esque.

“They will also be keeping an eye out in the way that Cunningham did, and illustrate his knack for capturing things that the average passerby might not give a second look to or would chalk up to, ‘Oh, that’s just New York.’” Conners said.