fashion blahg
At the end of fashion week in New York last month, Julie at Almost Girl offered a provoking post about her boredom with fashion blogging.
Everyone wants their readers (whoever they are) to know they are the most special blogger. It has stopped being about honest reporting and started being about status again.
Julie pointed out that now that fashion blogging has become so widespread, the edge is dulled. Now that we get invitations and freebies and perks, fashion blogging has become just as fawning and uncritical as the rest of the fashion media. While her hectoring tone is used to intentionally rile up her peers (and I was no exception), it would not be so painful if it was without truth. More and more I feel the urge to self-censor rise up from my own conscience. I have not examined myself too closely on that front, but I think that the source of it comes from an intuitive sense of what is right for me to write. What is right for me has changed over the course of the past two years. It was and is an unfinished thought. So I responded to B to D with F this way -
why fight? everyone is a blogger, can we finally focus on merit instead of media? why fight when we all just enjoy sharing a fascination with fashion?
I don’t get this post at all. this is so far from representing my experience of blogging I don’t know how to respond. there is so much to be enthusiastic about and curious about, I have never been bored.
Julie responded with another post, Why Fashion Blogging Needs A Shake Up.
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.
While I agree with Julie that fashion blogging has inevitably changed, I do not agree with everything she posted. In particular the line – “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.”
It always bothers me when fashion blogging is addressed as if it is a monolith, especially when I do it myself. While we all find ourselves being part of a trend, and sharing a subject, and having many things in common, the essence of blogging is about individuals, and I feel that fashion blogging is fundamentally fragmented for a reason. Not all of us have critical perspectives, nor are all of us status-obsessed; we can all write whatever we like, and my typing fingers get all ornery when anyone tells me how I ought to blog. There is no overarching “purpose” to blogging. We all put in and take away something that is unique to our abilities and experiences. That is why when Julie or other fashion bloggers are treated as spokespersons for all of us, it is too simplistic to be true.
There are professional bloggers out there, but unlike Julie I do not feel that I am competing with them. There is unlimited room for bloggers of any type on the internet. Let Google sort them out. Some will rise on merit; some enjoy more resources to blog than others; some niches will always be small. Some have more readers, some have less. That is the way it will always be, and probably always has been. The playing field will never be level and I do not think it should be. It is still far more level than other media, like magazines.
As to my own sense of entitlement, it creeps in from time to time. Thanks to Julie and all the other New York fashion bloggers who paved the way, I picked up my media pass for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York with ease. I applied for the same pass to L’Oreal Fashion Week in Toronto and was demoted to an “Industry” pass with less access. My initial reaction was disappointment, and I felt for a second a wave of what must have been jilted entitlement. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I have not really earned a pass yet. I will feel a bit jealous of all my friends hanging out in the media lounge without me. Once upon a time I was proud of my outsider status, but having been on the inside, now I am not.
Which brings me to the last stop on this train of thought; how much changes in two short years. There are things in the archives of this blog that I would never be able to write now. I think of myself as a fashion illustrator with a fashion blog – and in that capacity I feel a lot different than I did as a fashion student with a fashion blog. Things change. Its no secret that I unashamedly edit my archives; I want Final Fashion to show who I am now more than who I was then. I am more careful and less scrappy than I was. I have learned a lot of things since I have entered the inside, and all the theories and manifestos I once posted seem ignorant to me now. The sense of purpose I had seems naive now. Things change, and sometimes for good reasons.
I do not feel like I have made it and plateaued. The call to be a better fashion blogger has shaken me up. I will keep trying to earn my place.
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[...] up the status quo. i think it’s great she even brings the subject up. (via danielle’s recent post on final fashion) [...]
Interesting that you are now industry and consider that a demotion… I thought it meant that you are now “one of them” and surely there is something good in that!
Henna,
Industry status is a demotion only in the sense that I can’t hang out with all of you in the media lounge, or be let into the tent early with the rest of the media. The media pass was the one I applied for, so I wanted it. In real terms, it won’t make much of a difference to my fashion week experience.
In this post I wanted to express an awareness that I am as susceptible to the same feelings of entitlement as anyone else in the fashion media, and that being a blogger doesn’t give me any kind of moral superiority. The point of that paragraph is that I admit my own shortcomings and feel some shame for my brief periods of unjustified outrage.
I agree with you. Nobody seems to be critical anymore. Even I blog in a less critical manner than I used to. Also, I readily admit to wanting to be one of ‘the best’. I cringe when bloggers who have been around for much less time than me are more popular. I guess I’m just jealous, or even worse, human.
P.S.No offense taken on your comments.
its true in any industry. the second i find myself starting to get cocky, something happens to keep me humble, and i have to keep working. the day there is nothing to humble me, is a day when i have to look around and see if ive lost my mind.
Isabel – I’m glad, your other commenters had me biting my tongue again.
Joi, thanks for your comment – its a neverending story – I think that the closer I get to “making it” the more it seems like a myth.
Industry eh. what crap. I’m scaling back the fashion week stuff. not taking any time off and only seeing evening shows.
L’Oreal is no NYC, Danielle. Just shows out of touch they still are here. It’s like Adrian, Chanel seems to think he’s relevant how can L’Oreal not.
it’s funny cause in the marketing world, bloggers are now more important than some other media like radio. A year ago when I let you guys in with full access, my sponsors, other agencies and other marketers thought I was nuts…(one actually threatened to pull out because they thought it was ‘irresponsible marketing’.
I go into this because at then end of the day, it’s these marketing minds that have created this dullness that you refer to. Some bloggers that I read (non-fashion)have really blunted themselves so that they can make themselves more generic resulting in higher traffic leading to more stuff sent to them and money to be made.
I like your blog..I like Adrian’s..I like Joy’s..and I like Anita’s cause this has not happened. Not that I have seen anyways.
oh…and really? are you surprised about TFW not treating you the same?
you want honest reporting…
http://www.thisismylab.com/2008/02/susan-cianciolo.html
http://www.thisismylab.com/2008/02/the-2008-future.html
http://www.thisismylab.com/2008/02/fin.html
no star fucking here my friend.
I don’t think of blogging as reporting, and I don’t want to be judged as a journalist. I think of myself as a fashion enthusiast and illustrator first, and consider media and writing and blogging as a social and useful way to spend my time.
In a way I am not critical anymore because that kind of thing gets overplayed sometimes. I am more curious if I can come up with interesting ways to observe and comment that are descriptive and entertaining rather than just a critical review. That is just where I am at these days.
I want to be invited to all the best parties just so I can refuse to go. Saying no makes me feel good.
Weird. I never once thought about not being myself….guess I’m new?
I don’t have a problem being critical in my posts but I don’t understand the anonymous-commenter ripping other bloggers apart bullshit.
[...] the past few weeks, both in private conversations and in the public discourse, I’ve heard more about the ethics of blogging than ever before. The bribes –party [...]
As a newish fashion blogger, I’m fascinated to read this article. I started blogging exactly because of that dearth of thoughtful, thought-provoking fashion blogs that you cite…and I’m relieved to see I’m not the only one who thinks so. For me, fashion is such a reflection of our lives and the macro world around us, and deserves so much more than just fawning reviews of new handbags.
Thank you for your honesty and insight.
–m.g. — http://www.amaterialworld.net
Ryan – in that case I’m pretty chuffed that you actually come to my parties.
Oh, and this is my favourite bit from your post -
“No one needs to be hyper-critical just to seem honest. And no one needs to be fawning to be liked. Just be what you are and say what you think. Throw the dice high and let people make up their own minds about you. At the end of the day, the freebies are cheap and the parties kind of suck. You can buy your own shampoo and throw your own parties.”
Material Girl and Iron Chic – one thing that seems to be a constant is that the longer you get into something, the more complicated it becomes. Tasks that seemed easy as an outsider become a lot more difficult as you begin to understand the skills you are using.
For instance, back when I started drawing, I was usually pretty pleased with whatever drawing I came up with first. But now that I am doing it professionally, I will redo a drawing dozens of times and still see things about it that I think I could do better if I was more skilled. I am not sure why that is or if it is an improvement on the situation – certainly its a more stressful existence, but it seems like these feelings are unavoidable, at least for me.
well, if I thought I was really “reporting” as a “journalist” i doubt i would have written those posts as i did. i think of blogging as more op.ed. and don’t even consider myself a fashion blogger… or really a writer for that matter. the posts were based on my opinions based on my experiences, not just at the shows, but also generally behind the scenes in media, fashion and environmentalism.
Plus, I did think the posts employed “interesting ways to comment and observe” and was especially “entertained” by the future fashion post… plus my friend wrote from Italy to say she laughed out loud, so, that makes two of us.
this is fashion. who is really reading anyway.
I didn’t mean to seem like I was refuting you Jill! I’ve been loving your posts and the volume technique you’re publishing, whether it is reportage or whatever it is.
I think your comment just got to me because I don’t want to be a journalist really, but I know I belong in media, though I don’t always know exactly how.
[...] I always had a passion for fashion flashing – before I had it I closed my eyes and imagined. [...]
All over the board (sorry)
I found it ironic that Julie said: “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”.
Doesn’t everyone hits complacency and dry spells? I think you said it best. Only blog when you feel compelled to do it. The problem I have lately is time. What compels me takes so much time to compile, competing with other obligations, that I frequently can’t post it. I have no less than 400 unpublished posts in various stages of completion :(… I’m probably not unusual in that either.
I enjoy the different directions into which fashion blogging is being pushed. Your recent collaboration with Caroline is proof enough of that.
Re: demotions. I get it. Somewhat related, did you read Cathy Horyn’s recent article on being banned? I thought she pegged it…or at least my interpretation was the conflict btwn designers who seek to control all that’s said about them (even by bloggers) as an inherent conflict of change resistance endemic to archaic industry practice.