My dear Danielle at Final Fashion, one of my oldest and favorite blog friends, is upset at my blogging malaise. She can’t imagine why I am bored. Thus I have responded to her and added in a few other observations
The community I engage with is filled with some of the brightest, most enthusiastic, talented and downright interesting people I have ever met. They warm my heart and constantly inspire me.
But fashion blogging in general? I am really down on it right now because frankly I barely recognize it from two years ago. It has gotten fawning again. Its almost as if the second we all got access the critical perspective we once took went out the window. It has become a competition for access and ass kissing which totally defeats the purpose of blogging in the first place. Everyone is so focused on why they in particular are so special and deserving that we have forgotten that we have to earn it first.
And maybe its because the fashion publicity regime is so tied to the “smile while you lie” mode of operation that we are simply scared we will lose the access if we are forthright again. And then what happens to all the nice party invites! Trust me, I get told all the time to be nicer because I need to sweet talk the publicists to get access. And it really pisses people off when I just don’t feel like doing it. People seem to take my refusal to play the game as a slap in the face. But I say real slap is that they themselves don’t want to take the risks. Trust me, the rewards are worth it.
I think bloggers need to begin focusing on creating value in our own right. We need to move beyond commentary. I want to find new creative outlets that add to the experience of being online. Not all of us have the luxury of a budget or full time attention so one solution I see is creating a tool set to make blogging better. Make it more than a blog if you will. That way no one can complain that with the big names getting into blogging that we are being pushed out thus necessitating us being even more simpering and silly to keep our access. I understand it can seem difficult to compete with the pro-bloggers working at one of the best pro-blog establishments around. But as we evolve I assure we that everyone can be back on equal footing again reasserting talent. Which I suppose is my way of saying now that the hierarchy has been reestablished let’s get rid of it! Blogging is mainstream media again.
I think what Coutorture did this fashion week with our unique photography is a start in the right direction. And a project that is in the works at Sugarland that I am working on is a HUGE step in the right direction. I want to enable people to do better work. Not enable people to go on feeling smug. The smugness makes me yawn and say NEXT. Fashion Week was one long cloud of smug. Hence my boredom. We have grown complacent as we have gained success and that is soundly a horrible thing.
Tags: blogging, Coutorture, fashion blogging, fashion week
I understand what you are saying, but I wonder what you mean by ‘everyone can be back on equal footing’. There will always be those blogs that dominate.
Hear, hear! The un-biased, un-bought perspective is why I started reading blogs and dropped my mag subscriptions in the first place.
Reading you (I first came to know your blog today…) was like a breath of fresh air, a reminder why I first started blogging or why I was so reluctant to doing it before I started. At first I wanted to speak out loud so anyone could hear me. Doing it was a completely different soup. I began to feel like the little fish from the biiiiig ocean. And wherever I looked, I saw down-to-earth-ovations for every tiny bitsy thing anyone celeb was doing. It kinda make me vomit so I came back to my little blog and commenced an acid campaign against them all. There are days when my husband, my most faithful daily reader, asks me if I haven’t come across any news that pleases me, or if I don’t consider that all this venom will end up poisoning my early audience…
I do wonder what is there do to in blogging to wake them all up. Or if ever they’ll wake up. It’s like there’s a huge line-up for celebs tushies to shine with lots and lots of kissing blog-articles. That or the big sharks are coming for the tiny fishes, the futures slaves behind the blog-blocks.
Julie – This post really hit home for me. I actually printed it out. How often do we do that! While I am fortunate to be able to fund my two ventures full time I often share the same concerns as you. The temptation to cave to the pressures you speak of is huge and delivering unbiased, quality content that stays on focus and helps readers/users is always challenge. This is especially true when you are new (as we are) and wonder if paying $$ to a PR firm as we do is even a good idea. It seems the audiences we address – by that I mean you and Sugar as well as us – crave either the ability to create (Sugar, stylehive, shopstyle, polyvore, etc) or crave a little unaffected/unbiased guidance so they can discover their own sense of style & self. Call me a dreamer but I honestly believe the natural market forces for both will lead the best cream to rise to the top. I hope that’s not too naive. Big fan of yours. All the best, Jean
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i agree. i mean if you aren’t Vogue and pulling in 6 million a year from ads, do you really need to fawn?
to paraphrase bertrand russell…
this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
at the lab (although i wouldn’t totally classify it as a fashion blog) there is no fawning, some yawning…
http://www.thisismylab.com/2008/02/the-2008-future.html
http://www.thisismylab.com/2008/02/susan-cianciolo.html
http://www.thisismylab.com/2008/02/fin.html
i hope it makes you happy.
p.s. i have found a little red wine and a digital camera can stave off boredom, but luckily, i didn’t have to run to too many of these things.
I totally agree – especially with: “I want to find new creative outlets that add to the experience of being online.”
I work with Stylastic, which is a fashion street style site, and we are working on a project to help out bloggers. If anyone is interested in talking to me about their blogging experience, please let me know. Check out the site (http://www.stylastic.com), though we are redesigning it so it will have a new look soon. Definitely let me know if you are a fashion blogger looking for new ways to improve your fashion blog. I want to talk to you!
Jill: love the Russell quote.
I totally agree. In America the smile while lying thing is out of control. People are totally unable to take criticism properly. Is the collective esteem of the nation so fragile?
As for fashion blogging, it seems to be another symptom of the greater issue. There’s also way too many people trying to become the next Manolo.
Here are a few pics where critique was in order and given:
http://www.stylastic.com/fashion/views/details/372
http://www.stylastic.com/fashion/views/details/590
Some people take issue with using words like “slim” or “skinny” as if it were destroying the very fabric of our society to verbalize the concept.
We’re either selling out for money or selling out for psyche.