Thoughts on Fashion Bloggers

[couturekristen]

Personally, I agree with some things that have been said here.

I have a fashion blog that I started a few months back and it's really what I love doing. I think there's a lot of bloggers that do it because it's something that you love. When I come home from school, I like to just check out all the new things that people have posted and share it with MY readers. Maybe it's just because I started a few months ago. Maybe I'll get sick of it. But, now it's just something that I like to do. Not to mention you can make money from Google/Amazon ads.

 

[micahslope]

^
To mikeijames

Oh no, I wasn't at all trying to sound arrogant. Of course fashion houses and fashion prints play "pr games", I was just noting what I noted in regards to blogs. I didn't talk about the public relations process towards magazines or editors, seeing as this is a thread about fashion bloggers. All of our opinions so far on bloggers, have been literally been from people who are into fashion or are fashion bloggers themselves. I've certainly made my own individual assessments long ago in these threads, I'd just thought I'd share the opinions of others who have been implemented in the industry for far some time. Apparently it's not appreciated, so I'll just shut up now.

 

[spottie]

Blogging is also very time consuming and a time waster. I'm ready to get back to the real world, cause the virtual one is an mirage.

ITA! Time waster, indeed. Along with Facebook, Twitter, and most other social networking venues. I don't fb or tweet. I do blog but only on a mood basis. As in, I post when I'm in the mood because it's a hobby.

 

[spottie]

I also think a new problem with fashion bloggers, is that they actually think that they're point matters in regards to actual fashion designers/magazines. Wake up, we're using you!

I interned for AnOther Magazine and Purple, and I can say firsthand that the relationship between fashion blogger and actual journalist is very very hostile. Oliver Zahm hates 'em, even thought it's kinda ironic seeing as he has a blog. I've brushed shoulders with Elle Uk and Vogue, who've hinted under their breath that they only really see it as a trend. Which could be why Anna Wintour doesn't think they're a threat. I work HR for A. Wang now, and the basic gist that I got from the pr team is that bloggers are easy to manipulate. Though I don't think we've sent anything yet to people, (could be wrong have to check with PR again) we do keep tabs of who's tagging our brand and we have noticed that other fashion labels do this (sending free stuff), to get famous bloggers to hype them up more. We have sent fashion invitation of our shows to bloggers before, but that's only to bloggers who have unbelievably high viewership. We do it in hopes that they'll talk about the show, not because we think you may be valid source of inspiration of whatever bloggers think of their importance.

In all, I've noticed alot of the higher-rated bloggers to be naive about their importance. But then again, I'm sure they could say that they're using us aswell. The question for both of us though is, for how much longer can we use each other?

Also, I hope none of you saw this post as condescending. I just wanted to pass on the things I've heard. That I think could be reputable sources.

micahslope -- Thanks for the insight, however, the PR folks at AW may want to rethink their position on bloggers. It seems to me that the major consumers of AW are bloggers. I never see any of that stuff on anyone other than bloggers. Just sayin'.

 

[mikeijames]

micahslope -- Thanks for the insight, however, the PR folks at AW may want to rethink their position on bloggers. It seems to me that the major consumers of AW are bloggers. I never see any of that stuff on anyone other than bloggers. Just sayin'.

lots more than bloggers wear alexander wang. in some cities, it's impossible to go to a nightclub without seeing something of his on someone. his pricepoint really drives a lot of sales for him.

 

[softgrey]

^
Apparently it's not appreciated, so I'll just shut up now.

it's totally appreciated...
all comments that contribute to the conversation are...
even when we don't all agree...

i think your comments add a lot of value to the discussion...
and i hope you will continue to share your thoughts with us here...
...

 

[fashionknows]

I really started blogging because I love style and feel inspired by all the fashion bloggers who inspired me to dress differently and be creative in my own way. I think it's a great way to get into the industry and I feel that a great blog needs to have good content and value for the reader. I don't mind seeing 10 + photos of a blogger as long as those photos have quality and showcase the blogger's style. I don't get paid for my blogging but who doesn't? I'm doing it because I sincerely love sharing what I love.

 

[Chloe Parks]

There are so many pros and cons...i think blogs that almost started the whole phenomenon like The Sartorialist lost a lot of its value, Scott Schuman just seems very pretentious unfortunately.

 

[altamiranyc]

They say history repeats itself and I believe that what is happening in fashion with regards to blogs has already happened in politics with regards to blogs. When political blogs hit a critical media mass around 2003-4, new political blogs were popping up left and right. It was a media trend. There is some similarity for new fashion blogs now.

Like the stock market bubble or the real estate bubble, we hit a media bubble surrounding fashion blogs. The novelty factor will soon wear off, just like it did with political blogs back in 2003-4. The media hype revolving around fashion blogs will diminish. That doesn't mean that blogs will die--it just means the media hype will diminish, largely because the newness factor will go away.

Which leaves the question of which blogs will survive in the aftermath of massive media hype? My opinion is that if a person blogs for self-validation and not the validation of others, then that person stands a better chance of timeless success than someone who gets into blogging for weaker reasons (like a fleeting shot at 'fame', freebies, purely self-promotion, or trying to gain other people's approval). Ultimately those blogs that provide substantive value to the industry will withstand the test of time.

I look forward to a comparison from where we are now to 5 years in the future (November 2, 2015).

 

[mikeijames]

^good comparison. it's not just politics, but it's also pop culture. in the world of politics, we find that sites like the huffington post, andrew sullivan, the daily kos, and the drudge report have survived that wave. also, we find that sites like perezhilton.com, gawker.com, and others have become almost as relevant as many old media sources for entertainment news.

 

[booksandliquor]

On the internet it's easy to avoid website one dislikes. Personally, I get very tired of the personal fashion blogs where girls post 10+ pictures of themselves in the SAME outfit. I am planning to start an editorial section of my website but am limiting each feature to 1-2 photographs in the same outfit. I think ALL creativity is to be encouraged but that doesn't mean I'm going to waste my time reading blogs that don't interest me. That is why I don't understand the hate and negative energy directed towards some of the fashion bloggers. Ignoring them, and banishing them to obscurity in one's own life, is punishment enough.

I think fashion bloggers are here to stay. The industry is in the process of accepting it like how brick-and-mortar stores had to accept the existence of competition from online stores. That actually drove innovation in the marketplace and the physical stores that survived into 2010 successfully reinvented the shopping experience, much to the pleasure of the consumer!

I adore streetstyle blogs (and not just because I run one myself) because they celebrate the style and fashion of the everywoman. I think people are drawn to the democracy and popularism they represent. People who I photograph are 99% ecstatic when I stop them on the street - that is worthwhile enough. It's not only the website but the energy and processes that surround them. For me, the most important element of running my website is recognizing the style and personalities of people in Chicago. I feel like I am giving back like a sort of public service. It is my interactions with people on the street, and their excitement about the fact that someone noticed the effort they put into their look and celebrating their choices, that really drives me to photograph everyday. The website itself is only one part of running a blog.

I am planning to build my career in fashion working trend development and public policy. For me, blogging is not only an outlet but a way for me to work in the fashion world before entering the workforce. That way when I apply for a Ph.D in marketing program, I can say I've been tracking and analyzing trends for a couple of years and that this is truly where my heart and soul is.

Hmmm, I certainly agree with you on this point! I run a street-style blog myself, (I just looked at yours, and it's great!) and I find that there is a distinct difference between a didactic fashion blog, one which gives tips and declares what is bad and what is good, and a street style blog, which tends to illuminate the different styles of people in a certain environment. Street style blogs, I think, send a more universal feel-good message of how clothing can function as a transmitter of personality and how anyone can look interesting in anything. I feel that, unlike some fashion blogs, street style blogs, in general, do not set limits on trends, styles, and what one SHOULD do, SHOULDN'T do.

 

[PerfectPerfect]

You know, I've been blogging consistently for the past four years and have seen so many ups and downs with the whole thing and realized that I just need to do my own thing! I found that two things really irk me - I really dislike when other blogs are throwing at us more than ten photos of themselves running around town like they have their own personal paparazzi. This is stupid. Second, I really hate blogger bandwagons! Right now, the Jeffrey Campbell Lita boots, they all have them, and I refuse to get them because everyone is basically being tricked into getting the same thing! And when I see normal girls wearing them I know they've been influenced, but that's exactly what magazines and companies want.

 

[girlalamode]

Great interview with DisneyRollerGirl on JCreport this morning. She talks about what it's like to be on both sides of the fence, a blogger and an industry insider.

JC Report: Why did you start blogging? Did you know your work was going to be impactful then?
Disney Roller Girl: I’ve always been interested in fashion and writing but the publication I was working for at the time had no space for the type of things I wanted to cover. I’m also very opinionated and generally when you write for magazines you can’t be objective, you have to say everything is lovely. So I decided a blog would be a good place to empty my brain and also practice being more analytical with my writing. Of course, when you start a blog, you’re thinking “no one’s going to read this” so you can be really vocal about your opinions. It’s only now, three years on, that I find myself thinking, “Hmmm, should I really be saying this or am I going to end up pissing someone off?” No one knows when they start a project if it’s going to be impactful. You’d like to think it might be, but honestly that wasn’t at all what I was thinking. I was really just playing and also learning how to use the technology.

JCR: How important is blogging? What does it mean for brands and companies? What does it mean for you?

DRG: Blogging is fashionable at the moment so there’s a lot of hoo-ha surrounding it but I really think it has legs, and brands have seen the impact it can have. I’ve noticed especially for brands and designers that don’t have a big PR machine, word of mouth (which is essentially what blogging and tweeting is) can achieve phenomenal results in brand recognition and perception. For me as a consumer, blogging means that our voices are being heard and brands want to engage with us. As a fashion professional, my blog has become a shop window for some of my skills and has brought recognition to me that would otherwise have passed me by. Also though, as an anonymous blogger who works in the fashion industry, I am seeing things from two sides, as an insider and an outsider. The view is fascinating!

JCR: How do you think it will change or morph?

DRG: I have worked in online media (among other things) for over ten years and have seen a lot of changes. In 1999, I wrote fashion articles for a website which were 400-500 words long. Then it was decided that people didn’t want to read long articles on a screen, they wanted easily digestible galleries of top ten images to scroll through in their lunch hour. As we started using laptops, it become normal to consume media on screens for longer periods of time. But as we start consuming media on the go with smart phones and tablet devices, attention spans will get shorter again. I think people will want to look at pictures and videos rather than text when they’re on the move, so I see visual blogs like Tumblr becoming more important. I also see video blogging growing as it’s another new skill to learn, the technology is cheaper and easier and it hasn’t been done to death. People want to be able to relate to bloggers, and video will bring them to life.

JCR: Any tips on how brands can engage you? What about people who want to start bogs? What advice would you give them?

DRG: Brands need to realize that bloggers don’t need help with their content, they have plenty of their own ideas. A blog is personal so a blogger will only write about what resonates with them. However if a brand does its research and targets blogs that are relevant to it, then there can be mutual benefits. On the whole though, just sending out a press release saying, “please feature our product” is really misunderstanding blogs. Brands and their publicists should get to know their target bloggers and work with them to create unique content so that you don’t get ten blogs all running the same story on the same day. That’s when it gets boring. For those who want to start blogs, I’d suggest thinking about why you want to have a blog. What do you want to communicate? If you really have something to say then a blog is an amazing communication tool. A blog is great if you’re a creative, as you can really use it to showcase your art or styling or illustration or opinions. It makes a lot of sense from that point of view. But if you do it with the sole aim of becoming famous or being sent free Chanel handbags then I’m sorry, that just ain’t gonna happen.

Rest of the article here

 

[fashionwriter]

Bloggers should be antidote to traditional fashion editors

I like blogging as a way of democratizing fashion. At first it was meant to signal a shift in fashion, taking fashion from this exlusive entity reserved for the likes of Anna Wintour and celebrities while the rest of us stood with our faces pressed against the glass.

Since anyone can start up a blog, begin typing, and hit publish, blogging demystified fashion and brought it to the masses. Now you didn't need to be a celebrity to have photos of your outfits plastered all over the internet. Starting with Susie from the London-based blog Style Bubble a number of years ago anyone with a digital camera could post pictures of themselves online. These were normally far more imaginative and creative than what any stylist put together for a Hollywood starlet plus they were often built on a thrift store budget. It was a slap in the face to the mainstream fashion media.

Instead of riding that wave of anti-establisment and creating a whole new way of approaching fashion reporting, many bloggers have instead joined the ranks of the fashion editors of the big glossies and do little more than regurgitate runway reviews.

To me that is exactly the opposite of the purpose of a fashion blog, and believe me I have been guilty of runway regurgitation myself. I finally realized that people can find runway shots of big shows anywhere and everywhere, why would they come to me to get it? My privilege as an independent fashion writer is to present my own angle on the world of fashion and that now encompasses a more focused perspective on what I call fashion with purpose: be it sustainable style, or promoting diversity on runways.

I heard a speaker at a fashion bloggers' conference say bloggers should be anti-branding and anti-traditional business practice. We should be forging a whole new medium. Sadly, many bloggers just seem excited to be invited to play in the same old sandbox.

 

[quimby]

this thread reminds me that I need to clean up my blog feeds. so many blogs now, it's necessary to begin to edit. first up in the clean-up: my biggest pet peeve, the blogger come marketer.

i understand that it's natural to want to profit from something on which you spend so much time and effort. but as a reader, can I just say . . . bleh. last thing I need is more advertising, branded messages, and consumption.

 

[Desi]

my blog is juvenile and hardly gets updated. I may make a few posts here and there if I acquire something I was really wishing for but other than that it is just a few choice words of what was on my mind. My sub-par time management makes it impossible to have a decent blog schedule since I would rather stare at a wall and do nothing it seems.

I do feel good after a well put together blog posts though.

 

[PerfectPerfect]

That is where you have to ask yourself why are you even doing your blog? For yourself, for your readers? Both? for money? For fame? If it is fulfilling to do one post a day, week, or month why wouldnt it be okay?

 

[liny]

PerfectPerfect, I agree!

I started blogging about fashion in 2006 because it was such a relief to have an outlet to muse about things I found interesting, and my early posts didn't have much discipline to them at all - they were truly random.

Over the years, having a place to gather what inspires me and what I like and what I acquire etc has helped me hone my tastes and preferences and explore what truly inspires me.

It's also a space for me to keep track of what I buy, what I wear (sometimes) and make sure that I shop in a disciplined, well-thought out way. It's like accounting.

I blog for very personal reasons and I don't think I get much hits since I don't get contacted by PRs...I think of it as a fashion diary and my own personal coffee table book, a place where I make sense of my thoughts and collect what visually inspires me. On a blog you can sieve out what truly interests you into your personal magazine, and that's what I find liberating.

I think I'd like to have more of a dialogue going on with my blog, and I'll work on that, but the beauty of a blog is that you're really beholden to no one but yourself (while observing the basic rules of publishing eg credits and sources of course) and worrying about readers is really not my responsibility.

 

[nyc_art_style]

an interesting article from the cut blog on bryan boy and how he's turned blogging into a career.

Bryan Boy Earns Handsome Rewards for His Blogging

Photo: PatrickMcMullan.com

Bryan Boy is one of the judges of Sunglass Hut’s Full Time Fabulous Blogger competition, in which the winner gets a salary of $100,000 and a furnished luxury apartment in New York City, rent-free, for one year. At a dinner for the ten finalists at Sunglass Hut’s Fifth Avenue flagship last night, Bryan Boy told The Cut that blogging exclusively for a corporate site is a terrific opportunity, although it probably would not be right for him because he loves the freedom he has writing his own site. Also, he said, he makes more than $100,000 per year. While most of his revenue comes from advertising on his blog, now that he’s in demand, he charges fees for appearances and chooses which events he wants to go to. "But if it’s something or somebody that I support, then of course I’m not going to charge," he said. "For me money is really not the issue, it’s about getting material and getting my content."

Highlights of the 24-year-old’s career so far include having a Marc Jacobs bag named for him and sitting beside Anna Wintour at a Dolce & Gabbana show, even though she didn’t speak to him. "But, two weeks later they e-mailed me and we did that shoot together in the March issue of Vogue,” he said. After that the grande dame of fashion seemed less terrifying: In February of this year at Prabal Gurung, Bryan Boy tapped Wintour on the shoulder and thanked her for the Vogue feature. "She said, ‘Oh, it’s you. They were great photos, thank you for doing it.’ And since then I approach her during Fashion Weeks, say hi, and she’s so wonderful. So for me I don’t really understand the whole hullabaloo about how she’s this cold icy person. She’s been warm and gracious to me.”
Despite flying all the way from the Philippines for Monday’s dinner, Bryan Boy says he would never move to New York. “People are never happy here. There’s this insane drive and ambition and desire to go always up to the next level to the point where they’re never happy,” he says. “Even if you’re going out with somebody, they’re always looking for other hot guys. Everyone is on Grindr, you know what I mean?” he added. “I have so many gay friends here, and, you know, it’s Grindr, Manhunt, Adam4Adam, Craigslist, all these.”
But he is considering relocating — to Sweden, to be with his boyfriend. Right now, they see each other once a month in Europe or wherever else Bryan Boy may be. The two met when they shared a table at a crowded café in Sweden, and the guy, who is a banker, did not know who Bryan Boy was. “Which I love,” Bryan said. “Totally unrelated to fashion; fashion meets finance.”

 

[ng19]

^ wow!! i'm impressed