Fashion bloggers to take over the world
April 29th 2010 09:48
... the fashion world, that is! Once ruled by the likes of Anna Wintour, the reporting of fashion has become a lot more web-based over the last few years and seems to be continuing on that trajectory. While many bloggers (myself included) do have degrees in journalism or fashion design, there are plenty more out there who do not, and are just writing about what they love. As is only natural when people do the things they love, many fashion bloggers have found great success in terms of readership, and are beginning to have a real influence on the sartorial decisions of the world at large.
One such blogger - who has around 70 times as many daily readers as I do - is French artist, photographer and writer Garance Dore. Four years ago she was a struggling freelancer, and today she practically has celebrity status due to the popularity of her fashion blog Une Fille Comme Moi (which is French for 'A girl like me'). The appeal of Dore's blog is that it is written in a very down-to-Earth kind of way..... completely devoid of the elitist snobbery that regularly seeps through the pages of certain fashion magazines.
"I've always talked about my life in a very simple way and actually now it's more difficult because I have a life that's so crazy," Dore told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I started when I really was a next-door girl. It was easy to talk about these things you know, 'Oh I'm going to buy a thing at [clothing chain store] Zara' or problems everybody has.
"Now I have problems that nobody has, like flights and things, meeting with these designers, you know. I want to talk about these things but I really want to do it from a very honest point of view and now all these people I'm interacting with are really reading my blog and it's getting more difficult, but I'm finding a way. I'm trying to stay honest."
Dore and her partner Scott Schuman (who writes a little fashion blog you may have heard of, called The Sartorialist) focus their blogs' content more on the street style of individuals, over what's hot on the catwalk, and it's this sense of realism that makes their blogs so popular.
Journalist and blogger Patty Huntingdon of Frockwriter says that the lack of any serious income from blogs is what makes them so appealing: the people producing them are genuinely passionate about their subject matter, and this shines through in their writing.
"Fashion journalism, or paid fashion journalism, has become incredibly lazy," Huntingdon said. "Bloggers are people who are working for nothing to write about fashion; they might eventually monetise it somehow but you're not doing it for that, you're doing it because you love doing it; you're good at doing it."
And while fashion magazines will always have their place, there is no doubt in my mind that the landscape of fashion reporting is changing. Moving from the elite to the street, from the fantasy to the reality, was only a matter of time... it's basic supply/demand economics and it looks as though the people have spoken!
As for my favourite fashion blogs? I have several in mind right now, but I'll save those for the next post. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, because therein lies the beauty of blogging: unlike with magazines, the writer can heed your call.
French blogger Garance Dore doing what she loves
One such blogger - who has around 70 times as many daily readers as I do - is French artist, photographer and writer Garance Dore. Four years ago she was a struggling freelancer, and today she practically has celebrity status due to the popularity of her fashion blog Une Fille Comme Moi (which is French for 'A girl like me'). The appeal of Dore's blog is that it is written in a very down-to-Earth kind of way..... completely devoid of the elitist snobbery that regularly seeps through the pages of certain fashion magazines.
"I've always talked about my life in a very simple way and actually now it's more difficult because I have a life that's so crazy," Dore told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I started when I really was a next-door girl. It was easy to talk about these things you know, 'Oh I'm going to buy a thing at [clothing chain store] Zara' or problems everybody has.
"Now I have problems that nobody has, like flights and things, meeting with these designers, you know. I want to talk about these things but I really want to do it from a very honest point of view and now all these people I'm interacting with are really reading my blog and it's getting more difficult, but I'm finding a way. I'm trying to stay honest."
Dore and her partner Scott Schuman (who writes a little fashion blog you may have heard of, called The Sartorialist) focus their blogs' content more on the street style of individuals, over what's hot on the catwalk, and it's this sense of realism that makes their blogs so popular.
Journalist and blogger Patty Huntingdon of Frockwriter says that the lack of any serious income from blogs is what makes them so appealing: the people producing them are genuinely passionate about their subject matter, and this shines through in their writing.
"Fashion journalism, or paid fashion journalism, has become incredibly lazy," Huntingdon said. "Bloggers are people who are working for nothing to write about fashion; they might eventually monetise it somehow but you're not doing it for that, you're doing it because you love doing it; you're good at doing it."
And while fashion magazines will always have their place, there is no doubt in my mind that the landscape of fashion reporting is changing. Moving from the elite to the street, from the fantasy to the reality, was only a matter of time... it's basic supply/demand economics and it looks as though the people have spoken!
As for my favourite fashion blogs? I have several in mind right now, but I'll save those for the next post. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, because therein lies the beauty of blogging: unlike with magazines, the writer can heed your call.
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Comment by AmyHuang
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Are you our next big thing Journeywoman? I'll make sure I get on your trail first!
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Amy you're right about the subjective topics being better received in blog form than journalism form - the public is aware of the fact that just about any paid journalism will have a commercial bias...... it's worse than blatant advertising because it's in a covert form.
I remember when I was younger and I'd read a magazine article about, say, eye shadow, and within the article the journo would say "We love [insert brand name here]." Pre-Uni, I actually thought that they were for real but no, said brand name is paying them to comment favourably. It's great how everyone is now becoming aware of this, and preferring to go to little-paid sources (i.e. bloggers!) for their fashion info.
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I also need to be a little more dedicated - the best bloggers update their sites more than once a day, whereas I like to take up to a week off my writing sometimes, and rarely blog on the weekend.
I'll be doing more street style stuff in the future too - I find it much more inspiring than what I see on the catwalk, so no doubt that's how it works for many other women as well.
Thanks for the support all! Very much appreciated.