Fashion Blogs Definition

Fashion Blogs  Fashion Blog  First Fashion Blog  Fashion Blog Celebrities   Fashion Bloggers


To see an example of a fashion blog, you can view the Apparel Search Fashion Blog at https://www.blog.apparelsearch.com

You can also view the top fashion blogs section to view a few more.

The following blog definition is from May 2014:



Fashion blogs are blogs that cover the fashion industry, clothing, and personal style.

A fashion blog can cover many things such as specific items of clothing and accessories, trends in various apparel markets (haute couture, prêt-à-porter, etc.), celebrity fashion choices and street fashion trends. They cover fashion at all levels from the biggest names to the smallest indie designers.

Many fashion blogs could also be categorised as shopping blogs, since "most of the conversation is shopping advice, liberally laced with consumer recommendations". This is very similar to the content of fashion magazines. Some retailers in the fashion industry have even started blogs of their own to promote their products.

Blogs that only occasionally mention fashion are not categorised as fashion blogs, although they may be labeled by the blogger as such.

Impact on the fashion industry

Fashion is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has considerable impact on the way ordinary people dress and present themselves. But there is more to fashion than the different articles of clothing, fashion is made up of designers, buyers, retailers, editors, and columnists. While all parties work together to create an image, all of these parties can simultaneously be affected by outside forces, especially blogs. Fashion is trend-driven and fashion blogs provide a new way to follow and oversee these fast-paced trends, it is likely that the blogoshepere will have a considerable long-term influence on the industry, as the number of fashion based blogs continue to grow.

From the industry's standpoint

During the 2011 New York City Fashion Week, top-tier fashion designers, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough (owners and designers of Proenza Schouler), took the time out of their ‘hectic schedules' during fashion week to help promote the work of fashion bloggers. The two were interviewed by Imran Amed, founder and editor of The Business of Fashion website. In the 5:15 minute long interview, the two fashion designers were asked various questions from an audience of fashion bloggers, including their personal opinions on the effects of fashion blog writing, how it influences the fashion industry as a whole, and how fashion blog posts affects their designing and selling process. When asked about their thoughts on the overall effect of the fashion blogs, McCollough stated, "Blogs posting things about us, going viral, spreading throughout the internet… it has an extraordinary impact on the business". They also stated how in the past, they would have to wait three, four days to hear a review on their line, but now the feedback comes almost instant. When asked about how the blogs directly affect their own designs, they explained while they do read numerous blogs daily, they try to take each criticism (positive or negative) with a grain of salt, "We try not to obsess over it" stated McCollough.

Founder of Independent Fashion Blogger (IFB), Jennine Jacob, stated how thrilled she was to get the validation from high-end fashion designers (such as Proenza Schouler) that fashion blogging has an incredible impact on the fashion world. Imran Amed stated that there will always be designers and editors that will never fully wrap their head on the huge impact fashion blogging and social media has on the industry, but on the other side of the spectrum, there are numerous designers, editors, branders and writers that do understand and are "coming on board". He also states that this is a fairly new phenomenon that will take time for fashion world to reap the full benefits.

New York Times Style section write, Eric Wilson did an extensive study on the impact of fashion bloggers on the fashion industry for one of his style columns. Wilson wrote that these bloggers have ascended ‘from the nosebleed seats to the front row' in the past year and that the divide between the ‘high code' editors with a professional opinion and the ‘amateur' fashion bloggers is beginning to disintegrate. Wilson interviewed prominent publicists, editors and designers. Publicist Kelly Cutrone stated that over the past two years, there has been a complete change in who is writing about fashion. Not only does Cutrone say she needs to keep a watch on the editors of mainstream writings, such as Vogue and Elle, but now she needs to monitor on the millions of fashion bloggers around the world. Cutrone goes on the later state that once these bloggers post anything on the internet, it never comes off, and it now becomes the first thing that the designers will see.

From a reader's standpoint

The blogosphere has indeed opened up many doors for the fashion industry, one of which is allowing the ordinary people to partake in the 'elite' fashion world. In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize winning fashion writer and former blogger Robin Givhan, claimed that fashion blogs had democratized the fashion industry. Givhan had also wrote in Harpers Bazaar that 'The rise of the fashion blogger has evolved [fashion] from an aristocratic business dominated by omnipotent designers into a democratic one in which everyone has access to stylistic clothes...the average people, too often estranged from fashion, is not taking ownership of it'. A similar statement was said by Constance White, the style director for E-bay and former fashion journalist, saying that the impact of the fashion blogosphere has allowed the whole population to take ownership of the fashion world, including people of all different races, genders, and social standings. The Daily Mail writer Karen Kay suggested once in an interview that blogs allow anyone to both critique and praise designers, regardless of the often ‘needed' professional opinion, with the help fashion blogs, the consumers are helping to set the trends.

Unlike fashion-focused magazines and television shows, fashion blogs are able to be updated more frequently, keeping up to date with the with new and up-and-coming fashion trends. Not only are fashion blogs easier to access, many fashion blog readers (interviewed in Swedish fashion management study) stated that fashion blogs are far more personable and are more 'up to date' on both local and foreign trends. These blogs are granting unlimited access to the fashion world to anyone that has a connection to a computer. Karen Kay also stated that, "These days, before a designer's runway show has even finished, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone in the audience, or better still, backstage, has recorded every silhouette, signature shoe, styling detail and sulking supermodel, then uploaded it onto the internet for style watchers across the globe to enjoy". The interviewed Swedish fashion blog readers, stated above, had also stated that fashion blogs had helped share and promote new trends to a much greater extent than other fashion mediums. Unlike mainstream magazines and newspapers, which are constricted to what they write, blogs have the ease of writing about anything that interests author(s), allowing for a more broad spectrum of focused fashion trends.

From an advertising standpoint

Many of these fashion blogs also serve as a free source of advertisement to both designers and fashion retail stores. These free advertisements have had a heavy influence on fashion designers of various standings, helping to give a name to small up-and-coming designers as well as bringing high-end designers back to life. While the majority of the independent bloggers do not get paid to mention or critique designers' products, many of the top fashion bloggers are said to have received free samples of the designer pieces that they have mentioned in their blogs.

In a study conducted through the Biz360 Community, it was found that over 53% of the New York City Fashion Week converge had come from online articles and fashion blogs. While a vast portion of what was written in these blogs came from various mainstream fashion resource magazine and newspaper articles, such as Coutorture and New York Magazine, these fashion blogs provided a larger viewing and reading audience for the fashion week.

In the past years, American Express has become increasingly involved in New York City Fashion Week, and in 2010 American Express sponsored Evolving Influence, the first international bloggers conference in New York City. During the conference, many surveys and studies took place about the usefulness and tactics used in fashion blogs. During the study it was found that bloggers are more comfortable reporting in real-time and incorporating social tools in their opinions of runway trends and designers. After Fashion Week, it was found that 6.37% of all articles written about or related to Fashion Week had mentioned the Evolving Influence main sponsor, American Express. These blogs were not directly paid to mention American Express, so they served as a free source of advertisement for American Express.

These are some of the things fashion journalists have said about fashion blogs and the impact they are having on the industry:

  • "These days, to have one finger on the fashion pulse, you need to have the other one on your computer mouse, reading (or writing) the latest blogs."
  • "Before a designer's runway show has even finished, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone in the audience – or better still, backstage – has recorded every silhouette, signature
The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fashion_blog 

Retrieved May 27, 2014 Above definition modified by Apparel Search


The following blog definition is from February 2007: This is a snapshot of the definition based on that moment in history.

Fashion blogs are blogs that cover fashions in clothing and fashion accessories.

Definition

A fashion blog is solely or primarily dedicated to coverage of fashions in clothing and accessories. This includes blogs about:

  • runway trends
  • fashion items, e.g. shoes, handbags
  • celebrity fashion
  • street style outfits worn by regular people. (Corcoran, 2006b; Weil, 2006)

There are blogs covering fashion at all levels, from big labels and indie designers (Weil, 2006) to clothing found on the street.

Many fashion blogs could also be categorised as shopping blogs as "most of the conversation is shopping advice, liberally laced with consumer recommendations", and some fashion retailers have now started blogs of their own to promote their products.

Blogs that occasionally mention fashion, such as many "personal diaries of teenagers", are not categorised as fashion blogs.

Impact on the fashion industry

Fashion is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has considerable impact on the way ordinary people clothe themselves. As fashion is trend-driven and fashion blogs provide a new way to follow these trends, it is likely they will have a considerable long-term influence on the industry.

These are some of the things fashion journalists have said about fashion blogs and the impact they are having on the industry:

  • "These days, to have one finger on the fashion pulse, you need to have the other one on your computer mouse, reading (or writing) the latest blogs."
  • "Before a designer's runway show has even finished, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone in the audience
    or better still, backstage
    has recorded every silhouette, signature shoe, styling detail and sulking supermodel, then uploaded it onto the internet for style watchers across the globe to enjoy."

Number of fashion blogs

There is considerable disagreement regarding the number of fashion blogs in existence.

In a February, 2006 Women's Wear Daily article, Corcoran stated:

There is an enormous, and growing, number of fashion and shopping-related blogs: about 2 million, according to Technorati Inc., [...] or slightly less than 10 percent of the 2.7 billion blogs the company tracks. (That number includes blogs in languages that use the Roman alphabet and that contain anything fashion-related, including sites such as Pink Is the New Blog, which focuses on celebrities.)

It is likely that this figure is inflated by a substantial number of personal blogs that mention fashion. These are not considered fashion blogs using the criteria above.

All other estimates of the popularity of fashion blogs are considerably lower.

In September 2005, La Ferla stated that "as little as a year ago, the number of [fashion bloggers] could be counted in the dozens. Today there are hundreds".  Zamiatin (2006) agrees that there are now "several hundred fashion blogs".

Types of fashion blogs

Fashion blogs can be categorised in a number of ways.

By writer's expertise

Fashion blogs may be written by insiders, outsiders or aspiring insiders. (Corcoran, 2006b)

Insiders are people who work (or have previously worked) in the fashion industry or for the traditional fashion media. Some examples of notable fashion blogs written by insiders include:

Kristopher Dukes, by the eponymous freelance fashion writer (Corcoran, 2006b)

Anina.net, penned by a top model

Telegraph Fashion Blog, by fashion director of The Daily Telegraph, Hilary Alexander

In addition, some fashion insiders blog occasionally as guest on larger sites. For example, the fashion designer Nanette Lepore has contributed to Glam.com. (Corcoran, 2006a)

Outsiders are people who know a lot (or at least have strong opinions) about fashion, usually by virtue of being very dedicated consumers of fashion.

Aspiring insiders are people who want to work in the fashion industry or media and believe their blog may provide a back door entry into a mainstream fashion writing job. Examples of people who have been employed within the fashion industry on the strength of their blogs include:

Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist, who has been hired by Style.com

The Budget Fashionista, Kathryn Finney, wrote a book called "How To Be a Budget Fashionista" that was published by Ballantine Books. (Corcoran, 2006a)

By ownership

Fashion blogs may be owned either by individuals or by companies.

The types of individuals running fashion blogs are listed above.

The types of companies now running fashion blogs include large mainstream media organizations and fashion retailers. Mainstream media organisations that own fashion blogs include The Times (UK), Conde Nast (US) and the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). The Apparel Search Company maintains a fashion blog at Fashion Blog (fashionblog.us).  In addition the company manages the Fashion Salad, Fashion Blogger, Blog About Fashion, Runway Fashion, Style Blog, and Fashionista News.

By theme

Most successful fashion blogs follow a particular theme or angle. Some narrow their field to one type of fashion item e.g. shoes, handbags or denim. Some specialise in a particular price point: usually either very high-end or very budget conscious. Some cover celebrity fashion exclusively, while others cover street style. Some cover a mix of two or more of these topics.

History

Fashion blogs are a relatively new phenomenon, so no detailed published accounts of their history exist yet.

It may be difficult to determine exactly who created the first fashion blog with absolute certainty.

Fashion blogs first appeared in the blogosphere prior to 2002. Both the number of fashion blogs and the number of media mentions of fashion blogs has grown considerably since then. Published accounts of the growing number of fashion blogs are mentioned above, and a Facteva search reveals that media articles mentioning "fashion blogs" grew from one in 2002 to over 100 in 2006.

In 2006, the commercial success and growing profile of fashion bloggers have been the two main themes in coverage of fashion blogs.

More Recent developments

Recent media reports state that some fashion blogs have become highly profitable, and that the influence of fashion blogs within the industry is growing.

Manolo's Shoe Blog is currently the most profitable fashion blog, "rumoured to be [earning] around $700,000 a year" (Grant, 2006). Manolo has confirmed he earns six-figure salary. Another commercially successful fashion blog is The Bag Snob, which "generates a five-figure income, mainly from advertising" (Grant, 2006).

Fashion blogs are increasingly becoming a part of the mainstream fashion press. An increasing number of fashion bloggers were invited to designers' fashion shows in 2006 compared to previous years.  Large advertisers like H&M and Gap have bought advertising on fashion blogs, and other large companies like the underwear-maker Jockey are targeting fashion blogs in their PR efforts. The best fashion bloggers are now also being offered mainstream media positions, as mentioned above.

More examples of fashion blogs' commercial success and growing influence can be found in the references at the end of this article. (Indeed, the calibre of publications writing about fashion blogging could be said to give an indication of their perceived importance in the media.)

Fashion blogs around the world

The majority of notable fashion blogs are U.S.-based.  Fashion blogging in other countries appears to have started later, but is also experiencing strong growth. The non-U.S. fashion blogs that have attracted the most media attention follow.

Australia

Two Australian blogs that have attracted media attention are SASSYBELLA.com and The Bargain Queen. Sassybella is an online fashion magazine that allows anyone to "find information about the latest It bags, see what It girls are wearing, as well as what's going on in the industry" with an emphasis on the latest fashion and beauty news.  The Bargain Queen blog is "dedicated to sharing information on how to sniff out a bargain and save money on food, fashion, furniture, gardening, decorating and life's little luxuries".

Hong Kong

A popular Hong Kong fashion blog is the satirical Spirit Fingers. It "attacks Laura Ashley, monogrammed handbags and ill-advised outfits at Paris and Ukraine fashion weeks, while relishing products such as breast-enhancing chewing gum".

United Kingdom

In December 2006, it was stated that "Britain still lags behind the US in developing the fashion blogosphere, but things are picking up" (Grant, 2006). Grant mentions Catwalk Queen as an example of a UK fashion blog. The London fashion blog Style Bubble has also attracted media attention with their "guide to trends, designers and shopping hot spots in Britain's capital city".

The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fashion_blogs  10/7/06  and 2/20/07 Above definition modified by Apparel Search
This is the fashion blog definition from October 2006 :

Fashion blogs are websites created by people who have an interest in fashion design, supermodels, and style. Popular topics to blog about are various notable products, fashion hits and misses, the style of celebrities, trends, fashion shows, new or notable models and fashion designers, accessories such as shoes and handbags, fashion advertisements, fashion editorials, magazines such as Vogue and W, fashion editors such as Anna Wintour, fashion news, and streetwear.

Many fashion blogs use blogger.com, a free blogging site to create their blogs. Others have their own site. An article about fashion blogs appeared on the New York Times. Because of the vast audience of these blogs, they can have a tremendous influence on trends. It's also a blogging group that promotes healthy cooperation and sharing.

Fashionista

Clothing

Fashion

Designer Definition (from U.S Department of Labor)

Catwalk

Clothing Definitions

Fashion Accessories

Clothing Terminology

Designer Definition Guide

Fashion Brands Definitions

Fashion Industry Corporations

Clothing & Fashion Industry Definitions
fabric & Textile Industry Definitions
Fashion Industry Definitions
Fashion Industry   Fashion Models   


Apparel Search   Add Your Company   Contact Us   About Us   Advertise   News Letter   Legal   Help
Copyright © 1999-2023 Apparel Search Company.  All Rights Reserved.