Two super interesting takes on the current state of fashion blogging

annagybe

In the first one be sure to read the twitter conversation at the end.
http://www.stylebubble.co.uk/s.....nk-up.html

http://www.ahitofsarah.net/201.....ction.html

I don't mind outfit blogs, but I also like to read about fashion, especially new up and coming designers. I just get frustrated when I see something cool by some indie designer and it's basically impossible to buy.

12 years ago

General

11 replies

Latest reply was from Janet

Anonymous

Interesting, Anna. I don't have the time or inclination to follow other bloggers and certainly not if there was little content or diversity.

12 years ago

rae

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for the good reads, Anna!

I think that there is some truth to the claims that style blogs have become fairly unoriginal and light on textual content. I feel that's why I follow so few blogs - and read the articles on even fewer! Angie's tips on how to wear the "fringier" trends and what pieces are especially fab are very useful to me in my everyday life. On the forum, when my friends here talk about where they went and what they did in their clothes, I get a good idea on how X item can perform. Conversely, I was searching for inspiration pics the other day, and came across a beautiful pic - the accompanying text was all about how NY photogs just couldn't stop checking out her and her boyfriend that day.... erm, not so useful to me! Not following that blog, but I'm sure many do just for the eye candy inspiration.

That's probably one part of the puzzle: blogging combines photographic art and textual content (was going to write journalistic, but I don't know if most qualify), and most people will favor one or the other. Currently, it seems like most click-throughs come from people looking for visual stimuli. Maybe text heavy blogs don't have the visual hooks to bring the people in and make them curious? Or maybe they aren't writing about the things that interest the clicking masses - things that will come up in Google searches to bring a face to a page.

I'd like to know what kind of content specifically people want more of - artistic criticism of runway collections? how-tos? looks for less? buzz and gossip around what a designer might be up to next? features on up-and-comers? Even here, when we had a recent what-kind-of-post-do-you-prefer poll, it seems like many preferred less text.

12 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

Interesting. I don't know. To me a blog is a personal diary. I don't think it counts as journalism. And as with personal diaries, you get some entries worth saving, but way more "I ate oatmeal again." It's the nature of the beast.

To me the question is, why are folks (and it's not the bloggers who do it) trying to pass off blogging as journalism?

12 years ago

Deborah

Veteran

Interesting read Anna, thank you. As someone who does have a blog which is essentially an outfit diary this is particularly poignant. I blog for a number of reasons. I enjoy style and I enjoy communicating with others about it. And in the same way that I love being part of the community here, I also enjoy being involved in a wider blogging community. I love seeing regular women and how they style their clothing (another thing I love about YLF). Blogging also stretches my abilities, is a creative outlet, and has birthed an interest in photography. If no one were to ever read my blog, I would still be perfectly happy and would continue because I have fun doing it. And I have no desire to advertise or make money out of my blog. Not only do I read a small collection of blogs that are style diaries, I also read blogs that discuss fashion. I am interested in all aspects. So from my perspective there is a place for all types of 'style' blogs. I think we seek out what we want, and it's all out there for us to find.

12 years ago

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for sharing that. I do think there's a place for both in-depth writing on fashion blogs and the more picture-heavy outfit-a-day type of blogs, but I do have special appreciation for bloggers like Susie who dig into things deeply and give some sort of context or content beyond "look at how cool/pretty/edgy/wealthy I look in these 17 artfully-posed backlit pictures of the same outfit." I do get annoyed at the style blogs that give absolutely no context for an outfit and seem to primarily serve to show off the blogger as a model (and recipient of designer items), not a thoughtful human being with somewhere to go and something to do that day besides look cute.

Now I have some new bookmarks to check out...

12 years ago

MovingFashionForward

Active Member

I think that the complaints about outfit bloggers are a bit silly. I am a writer myself, and enjoy reading all sorts of long texts (you know -- books and stuff) but I also very much enjoy pure outfit blogs and to the extent that their style is interesting (like I find Deborah's, for example) the outfits speak for themselves and need little or no text. Not all communication is in words, and to me, there is a wholly unjustified disparagement of non-verbal communication in the cited articles and particularly in some of the comments following them and in some of the blogs Susie lists.

Moreover, the idea that text-based fashion-related blogs get few readers because outfit-blog-lovers are a bunch of ignorant dimwits incapable of understanding their lofty texts is, well, frankly embarrassing. I will be adding some of Susie's listed blogs to my reader, but not all of them. Apart from the fact that I can't bring myself to read text-based blogs whose writers consistently fail to use apostrophes correctly, I also have no desire to read blogs that go on and on about dreary political ideas I don't share, or indeed blogs whose entire purpose appears to be to call into question the intelligence of anyone who enjoys outfit blogs, or indeed fashion. It is all just too tedious for words! If that makes me a dimwit in their eyes, oh well!

Incidentally, I personally dislike lifestyle blogs too, and don't follow them unless they have an rss feed for just the outfits. I don't have any interest in reading about some blogger's travels, recipes, politics, home decor, etc. Not interested. I do follow some fashion blogs that have both outfit photos and interesting articles, but if I want recipes or travel information or politics or home decor, I have preferable sources, and to me, lifestyle blogs are a lot more narcissistic than pure outfit blogs, because the outfit bloggers don't expect readers to want to read lots of stuff about them, whereas that seems to be the point of many a lifestyle blog.

FTR, I am in no way against criticism, and no doubt amongst the dreary political stuff of some of Susie's listed blogs there are some interesting ideas, but the apparent assumption that anyone who prefers outfit blogs to their snooty and tediously scholastic articles must be a dimwit is off-putting. I'll stick to reading interesting outfit blogs and YLF, where an interest in outfits is not deemed dimwitted. YLF is popular for a reason. Angie does not appear to be looking down her nose at people, and instead of moaning, she has created a forum that consistently attracts intelligent people who post fascinating discussion.

Sarah

12 years ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

The medium is the message...

As the internet's capabilities change and expand, the nature of what gets published and read on the internet (or more accurately, perhaps, what gets seen on the internet) also changes.

Rachy makes a good point. Most blogs are personal journals of some kind, not journalism. Very little web content in general is true journalism. (Very little journalism these days on any medium is old-style journalism, but that's another issue!)

Notice I used the word "journal" vs. "diary," however. Journal is a wider category than diary, and it allows you to do more, or different. The style blogs that feature a photo and a "what I did today" kind of commentary are more like old fashioned diaries. They are a record of a kind, a chronology. Remember those five year locked diaries that everybody's sister snuck into? Now they are in pictures, and the owners have tossed the keys, and they're out in the world for all to see.

But a journal can encompass more, or different. It might include your sketches of the building across from where you are sipping your coffee...it might include philosophical musings, characterizations of friends, gossip, records of your dreams, imaginary dialogues, meditations on feelings, lists of best and worst moments, diatribes, arguments with the world. It's a more complicated thing than a diary.

One's not better or worse. Just different. With different value to different people at different times.

12 years ago

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

"my bets are 98% of bloggers would not know or use 'echelons'." (From the twitter conversation Anna mentions.)

Really? I agree with MFF that the attitude is obnoxious and a bit ridiculous and agree with everyone that there is plenty of room on the internet for text and for pictures.

12 years ago

Traci

Veteran

Interesting links, Anna. I have a couple of thoughts on them.

The twitter conversation felt a bit elitist to me. I was sniffing that superiority a little bit and then one of the writers confirmed it with her comment on the masses of bloggers not knowing how to use the word "echelon".

As I was reading the first link I kept thinking that the answer to this sort of problem of the content in the world not being what you want it to be, is to make the content you want to see and lead by example. I was glad to see when I clicked on the second link it was much less of a whine fest and must more of I'm going to make the change I'd like to see.

Personal fashion blogs are interesting in my neck of the woods because I notice the world can seem saturated with a pairing of items or a color combo, but in my real life I almost never see it. I don't think I even know another person who owns/ed a chambray shirt, much less who would have ever ever paired it with another piece of denim.

I pretty much stopped reading personal fashion blogs a couple of years ago when they started all getting sponsors. I think what I had always liked about it was the every day girl feel. It was very different from the content I could get from a magazine. It was more raw, more relatable, and more attainable. As everyone scrambled for sponsors it became more homogenized, more about having the right kind of content to appeal to sponsors, etc.

It sounds like a difficult dilemma of wanting to have many readers, but also not wanting to appeal the pedestrian masses. I'm not sure they can have it both ways. Yes, it does happen sometimes that there is an intersection of edgy and mass market appealing, but those are the exceptions, not the rules. Throw in the tendency for people to turn away from something they like, just because too many other people like it too, and you're not going to have a long term market for the upper echelon without constant change and boundary pushing.

12 years ago

ironkurtin

Veteran

I look at fashion blogs for clothes. Clothes are fun. Navel-gazing is not fun. I do like when people say why they like certain outfits, though, which is why The Sartorialist and Garance are worth looking at. As for deep thoughts, I don't really like reading on my screen so -- especially if it's formatted badly like on A Hit of Sarah Anna (!!!) -- I don't read walls of text.

It's interesting what different people want from these blogs, though. Anna wants to be able to buy what they're wearing, like they're magazines or catalogs. Others think that ability destroys blogger's cred. Others want deep explanations of how and why things are made. Luckily there are tons of blogs out there so there really is something for everyone.

It makes me sad when blogs I really like go away though. Luxirare, res-pulchrae, and coffee-stained cashmere, I MISS YOU!

12 years ago

Janet

(website)

Veteran

"Luckily there are tons of blogs out there so there really is something for everyone."

True! Some days I just want eye candy, to see what's out there. Others I am in the mood for more reading and thought. My "Fashion and Style" bookmarks section is not exactly lacking for options.

12 years ago

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