Fashion bloggers: the new era of influencers?

Fashion bloggers are arguably the pioneers of the large blogging community. Sure, there are many other kinds of bloggers out there and they cut across many different areas of modern life. From food, lifestyle, to technology. Chances are if you can name it, the blogosphere has it. The argument lies in the success of fashion blogs. As Amna Al-Falasi says, "the fashion blogger acts as a reviewer of a particular business/product, whether its a boutique, a designer, a fashion brand, makeup and other related products."

In her blog: The Rabbit Hole, Amna touches on the reasons behind the success of fashion bloggers and why they are still at the top of the game in an industry characterized by fleeting trends and extremely high turnover rates.

1. Many fashion bloggers start up their blogs with a purpose. Whether it is to showcase their talent in a particular area such as photography, good writing skills, being an excellent stylist, designer, artist or all of the above, fashion bloggers have something good to offer. The blogging community is filled with like minded people who may share the same interests so it is a great way for bloggers to enhance their existing careers or launch new ones in the future. 
2. Fashion blogs have become an important part of mainstream fashion media. They offer a lot of content, from how to wear tutorials, a breakdown of runaway shows, product reviews, a daily dose of inspiration. Fashion blogs are like a better form of magazines.  All that curated content by real individuals and easily available online!
3. The power and influence of fashion bloggers. Fashion bloggers challenge the dominant perception of fashion visual culture as something that can be worn by all women of different backgrounds, sizes and ages who all establish their own unique sense of style. For instance, Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury fashion brand. Imagine their clothes on Asian women and you get an idea of where this going.  
4. Fashion bloggers play interchangeable roles. They can act as the journalist, the photographer, the editor, personal stylist, the advertiser, and sometimes all at once. 
5. Fashion bloggers are attractive to audiences. Consumers perceive fashion bloggers to be real and more genuine in comparison to other forms of fashion media. Fashion bloggers earn their credibility through stating their opinions about the fashion industry. They sit on the fence just between being an insider and an outsider of the fashion industry. They know more about the fashion industry than the average consumer, but they don't know enough to be categorized as an insider. The views of fashion bloggers are their own, untainted by external factors such as pressure from a specified advertiser or designer. It's certainly a refreshing change from traditional fashion media which is largely dependent on advertising and therefore unable to voice completely unbiased views. 
6. Influence of fashion bloggers. Designers are becoming increasingly dependent on the views of fashion bloggers. Their input is considered to be vital in the process of shaping their design collections as bloggers place them in direct contact with their targeted customers.

Amna also comments on the business side of fashion blogging. The toughest question for fashion bloggers is in determining when to charge and when to do things for free. There isn't really a clear standard in the blogging industry. She offers the following advice: 

• A blogger who first starts up their fashion blog should work on building good relationships with other fashion bloggers and brands. 
• Bloggers should treat up and coming brands and designers with flexibility. Compensation for making a blog post on the brand can be accepted in the form of a free garment or product. For an established brand, a win-win situation can be negotiated between both parties. 
• If a blogger is asked to work on a series of promotions on behalf of a brand within a specific time frame, then bloggers should most likely charge for their time spent on doing. However, if the blogger is presented with information on a brand or an event, it may be considered as editorial work and so it's not something to be charged. Ultimately, this is up to the blogger. 

Do giveaways benefit blogs?

When we explored the business side of blogging, we discovered that giveaways are an important promotion strategy used by brands to engage with bloggers and attract blog readers to the brand. As the popularity of the blogger grows, so does the number of giveaway requests they get from both upcoming and established brands. 

In her article titled: Do giveaways benefit blogs? Writer, Jennine Jacob attempts to tackle this difficult question. Which end of the partnership gains more benefits from the giveaway? Do the companies and brands gain anything from these giveaways? We are guessing more brand recognition perhaps, but is that truly enough? More importantly, how much money or benefits do bloggers gain from hosting these giveaways on their blogs? She brings up these interesting points: 

1. Giveaway blog posts as promotional content. One of the common aims of a company having a giveaway is to promote a particular product. For the blogger, giveaways generate more engagement with readers in comparison to a normal post, so the giveaway has value for both the brand and the blog. 

Perhaps the benefits are more unbalanced if the brand is up and coming while the blogger in question has an established reader base online. In that case, the brand relies more heavily on the blogger's reputation online to promote the product and to gain more recognition. Alternatively, when well-established brands collaborate with bloggers with giveaways, the brand is already known, and the blogger gains more traffic when the brand advertises the giveaway on its other social platforms. 

2. Giveaway blog posts as generating more traffic. Jennine Jacob notes that the downside of using giveaways as a way to generate traffic for bloggers is that the traffic gained from the giveaway does not stay. Readers who are attracted to the giveaway tend to unsubscribe after the giveaway is over. 

3. Giveaway blog posts as a give back to blog readers. The general consensus from bloggers is that giveaways should not be used as a means for gaining traffic and exposure. Instead, giveaways should be viewed upon as a reward to blog readers for their support to the blog. The question as to whether bloggers charge brands for giveaways is answered with more Nos than Yeses. Giveaways provide bloggers with an opportunity to build relationships with brands while giving back to readers. This division between bloggers who blog as a profession and those who treat it as a hobby is especially clear. Professional bloggers view giveaways as a source of promotion while others tends to view them as a way of giving back to the readers. 

4.   Do giveaways benefit readers? On the surface, the answer to this question should be an unequivocal yes. After all, who doesn't like freebies? Giveaways seem to be enjoyed by the majority of blog readers although that is also dependent on factors such as what the item is, and the chances of them actually winning the item. But what happens when giveaways begin to compromise the overall content of the blog? A minority of blog readers do not enjoy giveaways. Why? 

This is definitely something to explore further in the feature since giveaways seem particularly prevalent to our targeted demographic of young people. 

Fashion bloggers and their audience

A quick search of the term ‘fashion blogs’ on Google will return millions of results-389,000,000 to be specific, all of which revolves around the theme of fashion. The rise of the internet has enabled users to easily gain access to millions of blogs with free content, and all just a click away. So why do some fashion blogs attract a larger readership in comparison to other blogs? Is there a list of criteria to guide the audience into choosing their favourite fashion blogs just as we have a list of criteria when we buy magazines? This post attempts to look into the reasons behind how niche audiences of fashion blogs choose which blogs to read and follow up on, and why? I came across an article by Taylor Davies on the website: Independent Fashion Bloggers which looks at the popularity of fashion blogs from the perspective of blog readers. She does come up with quite a few valid points that would be great for our feature. 

1. When blog readers browse through a fashion blog, they are able to connect with the blogger on a more personal level in comparison with other types of fashion media. It's a more personalized experience. 

Generally, under these What I wore today outfit posts, the fashion blogger makes a list of where their clothes are from. The fashion blogger may shop at the same stores as their readers, enabling them to easily purchase elements of an outfit they like, and replicate their favourite blogger's look easily enough. 

Taylor Davis notes that: "the larger fashion media community has embraced fashion bloggers for their ability to relate to their audiences as well as translate that appreciation into monetization. From blogger networks like Fellt to editorial features, magazines and brands are scrambling to capitalize on bloggers' success-but within their standards."

 Credits to Melbourne Blogger Connie Cao of  K is for Kani 

Blogs have the ability to influence purchases. Like that pair of shoes the blogger is wearing? Simply click through on an embedded link and be led to the virtual location of those shoes. All that hassle of browsing through stores saved for you!  Online clothing giant ASOS may have chosen Connie to be their ambassador, but this is done after careful analysis to ensure that her blog readers' demographic fits in with their brand. 

2. What attracts blog readers to these top tier blogs are how good they are. The photography of the blog plays an important role in attracting blog readership. Just as readers are just as attracted to the content of a magazine, they are just as interested in curated images, and these top tier blogs have high quality photography. 

3. They also have a consistent posting schedule so readers can expect an update the next time they drop by the blog. Fashion blogs are able to provide their niche audience (the readers who pop by a few times a week to check in with their favourite blogger), with insight into the way they live, and the clothes they choose to wear happens to reflect a large part of that lifestyle.

Credits to Shine by Three

Add to the mix that blogging networks now host a number of fashion blogs on the same platform, so accessing blogs has never been easier.  

4. Readers want to be able to connect with their favourite fashion bloggers outside of the blog and not everybody has a blog to be able to leave a comment. Successful fashion bloggers are usually on other social media platforms as well such as twitter and facebook. Below is a video with the twitter accounts of successful fashion bloggers and how it has attracted them more readership. 

   

5. The layout of the blog has to be simple and functional enough for their blog readers to easily access blog content. For instance, the archive and tags of blog posts are arranged neatly so readers can click on a link and be led back to past entries. 

6. Comments are an integral part of blog readership. As Kristina Braly notes in her blog post on The Secrets to Successful fashion Blogging, comments are a two way process. She says, "I believe that comments are a measure of engagement...what better way to show that than to reply to your commenters?"

It allows readers to feel connected with the blogger on a personal level whilst providing bloggers with insight into what readers would like and not like to see on a blog.  

7. Great content where bloggers provide a fresh and unique voice. One thing that Taylor Davis notes in her article is something that the feature would like to explore. She says, "there needs to be a serious commitment to higher-quality content, as well as a more committed approach to fostering the growth from brands and larger publications. 

Fashion Brands & Bloggers United

Social Media: The Fashion Industry's Hottest Trend

The article above looks upon the positive impacts that social media brings to the fashion industry, one of them is the role of social media which acts as a liaison between fashion brand and fashion blogger. To summarise the main point, here's one big chunk of quotes from the article that really illustrates the positive impact that social media that helps to establish a mutual relationship between fashion designer and fashion blogger.

Fashion bloggers are emerging as thought leaders in the industry, and brands are turning to them not only to test and offer feedback on their products, but also to act as a liaison between themselves and their target consumers. These relationships have proved invaluable for luxury brands who are working to maintain sales and keep costs low during difficult economic times.

For example, Rebecca Minkoff, a popular handbag designer, has received praise not only for her blog, but also for establishing strong relationships with fashion bloggers. For example, Minkoff, who runs her own Twitter account, tweeted at blogger Maria Morales, complimenting her on a post that featured one of her handbags. Needless to say, Morales maintained her brand loyalty, and continued to promote the brand in her posts.

(Image sources from: Rebecca Minkoff Website and Kitties + Couture's Blog)

What's out there?

When Fashionality presented their pitch, it was interesting to receive multiple feedbacks and concern that the idea of the backstage of fashion blogging has already been explored (if not over-explored).

So what's currently out there, and how is our feature going to differ?

Because there are so many variations of blogs, websites and features that claim to explore this similar topic, this is by no means an exhaustive list of what is out there on the internet. However, we can already come to a few conclusions form this list:

1. These features often have different ideas of what makes a successful fashion blog.
2. The features also have different means of exploring the idea.
3. Some features focus on an in-depth exploration of a niche part of a successful fashion blog.
4. The features are targeted at different audiences.

Here are the top three features and websites that I examined (among others):

1. Independent Fashion Bloggers

IFB has grown to be a renowned online community for fashion bloggers to share their ideas and tips on how to develop a successful blog via articles and forums. A section of their website also explores the Business of Blogging. While there are certainly benefits that comes from the articles being written and shared by bloggers themselves, I find that there is sometimes a sense of illusiveness and lack of detail and specificity that leaves the reader none the wiser about how to improve or monetize their blog. On the other hand, their interviews, such as the recent article, 'Tips to boost your blog business: what you can learn from Nasty Gals' success', should be noted when we develop our own feature as they really attempt to bridge the gap between the fashion industry and the individual blogger. Our feature must find a unique perspective from IFB.

2. Grit and Glamour: Build a Better Blog

One idea that I am immediately drawn to when I saw this site is the idea of having Vlogs to explain the intricacies of building a better blog. Our feature will also explore the use of images, videos and voxpops to get our ideas across. One way that our feature will differ is the amount of research rather than personal opinion that we will obtain. I appreciate her interview style in this article to get her point across but I'm disappointed to find out that she was answering her own questions. As Fashionality feature writers, we cannot claim to have authority or expertise on the topic.

3. The Business of Fashion

The main disadvantage of this site to Fashionality's target audience is that BOF is a UK-based site. While the internet transcends geo-national boundaries, Fashionality must necessarily cater for a more Australian-based audience in its exploration of Australian as well as overseas brands. Any attempt to avoid addressing local firms or local issues facing fashion bloggers would render our feature to broad, vague, and therefore probably unhelpful. BOF is a prime example of how the feature has chosen to focus on a niche area of fashion blogging - the business. Unlike BOF, however, Fashionality will not be focused on delivering fashion news to readers but will have a more analytical focus on the fashion industry and the place of fashion bloggers within it.

Photo by Francesca Teng

Fashionality

Fashionality will aim to take an original approach to exploring how to improve fashion blogging, not purely from a business-model perspective, but by considering as many of the different viewpoints of the fashion industry as possible. There are many facets of a fashion blog that appeals to the fashion industry but none of these facets seemed to have been explored in depth and in a critical and analytical manner, yet delivered to the prime fashion-blogging audience of young adults aged above 16.

The above existing features, however, does provide inspiration in terms of layout and the tools that we can utilise to produce an attractive and attention-grabbing feature for our readers.

Sharing 'your' trends in Instagram

"What's the use of passion, if you can't share it" 

                                                                                              - Regina Winata -

Instagram has become way better with the trends it has. I discovered there are million ways to convey your interest through millions trends available, or you can simply create your own trends! Spending last few days searching for Instagram's trends, here's some fashion-related-trends that I found:

• #ootd aka outfit of the day

(#ootd, Photo courtesy: Valencia Tanoesoedibjo)

#ootd is normally use to convey what people are wearing for the day. This trend is normally accompanied by other trends to explain their outfit in more details: #bareback, #ring, #miniduffle and even the trending colours: #neon, #salmon, #orange. Psst, I wouldn't be surprise but there are 1,892,986 #ootd photos in Instagram now.

(Instagram trends, Photo courtesy: Regina Winata)

• Putting time and places as trends

(Instagram trends, Photo courtesy: Valencia Tanoesoedibjo)

Instagram users can also include details like time and places in conveying their story: #winter, #sydney, #august, #australia, #2012. So, you wouldn't wonder where and when the pictures were taken :)

• BRANDS

Putting brands as trends conveys a lot of different meanings to the viewers. It can be informational so you wouldn't wonder what shoes or bag is that (cause perhaps you want one!). Sounds stupid but it's true, people also want to brag and flaunt their stuff. No rules saying people can't do this! It is up to you how you would see people's true intention of revealing the brands they use. You can also see this as promoting the brands: #armaniexchange, #ysl, #proenzaschouler, #salvatore, #alexanderwang. These brands would definitely love to know how happy and satisfied you are with your items to be able to promote them to others. Why wouldn't make them happy if they make you happy too, right?

There are million other trends available in Instagram. Those mentions above are just some trends that convey people's various passion for fashion. If you think these trends are too common and mainstream, go and make your own! 

P.S. It would be great if you can make #fashionality as trending trends in Instagram, we are making this happen and make sure you do too!

Till then!

Ideas for Feature Design

Few weeks ago, we talked about making a collage for our feature background. To simply outline the idea, the collage will feature fashion bloggers and fashion enthusiasts that we encounter or randomly spotted on the street. I think this idea fits the theme of our features, since the main focus of our feature is fashion blogger. Or alternatively, we can also include other fashion-related pictures, so then the background won't look so overwhelmed with portraits of people. We'll see how it goes.

Here's some of the snapshots that I've taken for the past few weeks - including some snapshots from last night'sVogue Fashion Night Out in Martin Place - that I think would be suitable for our collage background. Most of them were taken in Burberry and Pitt st. Mall area. Just a reminder: this is just a raw, unedited pictures that I have put together in Adobe Photoshop for a preview. And if we're actually going to go with the collage idea, we might have to follow the Scott Schuman's path (from The Sartorialist) - to take our camera out to the street and snap more pictures!

(Taken by Michelle Natalie Susanto)

Is Photography The Numero Uno to Achieve a Successful Fashion Blog?

Alix Bancourt, Bryan Boy and Alexandra Spencer. 

They are the three fashion bloggers from France, USA and Australia consecutively that have gained the celebrity status amongst the virtual sphere. Aside from having the celebrity status, what does all of these fashion bloggers have in common? After looking through pages and pages of blogs by celebrity fashion bloggers, I have finally wrapped my head and firmly believe that one of the main keys behind a success of a fashion blog relies on its high aesthetic quality of their blog, particularly their photography.

(Image Source: Alix Bancourt's Blog, The Cherry Blossom Girl)

(Image Source: Bryan Boy's Blog)

(Image Source: Alexandra Spencer's Blog, 4th and Bleeker)

Of course, a great picture isn't the only factor that constitutes a successful fashion blog, but it is indeed one of the most important thing. Take a closer look at most fashion blogger's blog and you would agree that most of them are photo-heavy blogs. In an industry where looks and aesthetic appearance are the ultimate goals, pictures serves as a medium whereas fashion blogger can experiment in how they represent themselves in their outfit of the day. The different photography style that each fashion blogger carries also distinguishes their personal style, which makes them look appealing to certain niche of readership. For instance, Alix's blog tends to have photograph that has a softer color tone, which then emphasize her feminine and pastel-colored fashion style. While the photograph in Alexandra Spencer's blog tends to use a rusty-looking and high constrast effect, which then emphasize her edgy sense of style.

Looking back at the history of fashion blogger, The Sartorialist is the blog that kicks off the fashion blogging phenomenon. The man behind The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman is a street fashion photographer that became the pioneer of fashion blogging. Ever since he carried his canon 5D around New York City, he has captured ordinary people with a remarkable fashion sense and posted these pictures in his personal blog. From that on, once fashion street style that is looked upon as a specialized service carried out by magazine and other print publication has disrupted. Now, avid fashion reader is just one click away to seek for fashion advice or even become a fashion guru, which is how the fashion blogging phenomenon is born. 

(Image Source from The Sartorialist)

However, a photograph in fashion blogger's blog goes beyond on showing the reader what they wear and how they wear it, but it is also serves as a window to the fashion blogger's fabulous lives, and readers get to see their favorite fashion blogger gets listed into the VIP and front row to the hottest fashion show. Afterall, a picture says it all. 

So then, there are few questions that I would like to investigate further that could be potentially interesting for our feature:

• To what extent does photography enhanced the success of fashion blogging? How much budget and effort does fashion blogger put in their photography? 
• What constitutes a good photography in fashion blog? Is it purely the quality of the image? The color? The way the blogger poses? 
• How does photography helps to establish the blogger's identity / style?
• How much impact does the aesthetic of fashion blog have to the reader? It could be an interesting if we have one feature on the reader's perspective. We can establish this feature by using multiple forms, such as video. What makes the reader keep reading the fashion blog? What fascinates them? Which fashion blog that they follow? And why? 

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Here's some fashion-blogger related musical entertainment. Oh, and you might want to keep the volume down before you watch the video!

How are bloggers changing the fashion landscape?

Check out this video to see what do other fashion bloggers and fashion industry insiders have to say about the influence blogs have on the industry. We have summarized a list of quotes we find particularly applicable to our feature below.

• "I just think they are adding new voices, the really special voices, the ones that seem to be garnering so much attention. The Bryan Boy, Susie Bubbles, the Tavi Gevinsons of the world, that's because they are saying things in a different way that people find authentic and very personal to those individuals."-Imran Amed (Business of Fashion)
• "A blog doesn't cost anything so a reader can have several, different favourite blogs. You know how you have a type or two types of magazines you go out and buy a month but (with fashion blogs) you can just click on the ones you like, which is good."-Hanneli Mustaparta (Hanneli)
• "We can get the news up faster so people do kind of look to us to see what the trends are, what people are wearing." -Catherine Kallon (Red Carpet Fashion Awards)
• "Everyone is putting stuff up straight away, you are more creative, you have got no restrictions or boundaries."-Natalie Hartley (Natalie Hartley wears).
• "(Fashion blogs) give a more personal approach to fashion. You know when they post pictures of themselves wearing designer clothes or outfits, its really approachable compared to what they see in magazines." -Bryan Boy
• "I feel like they are adding a real dose of reality and freshness into the fashion world online." -Rumi Neely (Fashiontoast)
• "Fashion blogs have given a lot of limelight to people who otherwise wouldn't be seen as much, and there are a lot of editors who have fantastic dresses who no one knew are about who are now fantastic and they are now leading fashion and they are influencing designers, and that's amazing."- Peony Lim
• "The editors, the stylists and the models are wearing designer clothes right? So to see them wear it their own way is a little more inspiring." -Tommy Ton (Jak and Jil)
• "There's a lot of creative energy and output that you don't get from print journalism, and I think that's actually changing  things at the level of design."-Kristin Knox (The clothes whisperer) 

Invitation only.

It’s a given that fashion bloggers attend fashion shows and events. 

And for a designer or brand or even a shopping centre, fashion bloggers can be an effective marketing tool within the industry.  

It makes sense that since the online presence of a fashion blogger makes them accessible to a wide audience, a designer would want to utilise blogs for the promotion of a new collection. The designer wants as many people as possible to see their new line.   By inviting one blogger who publishes on their blog, images and comments about the show, many other people will see it.  They'll have their own experience of the fashion show through the eyes of the blogger.

If the follower likes what they see, they too might choose to comment about the collection and even 'link' their friends to images of their favourite pieces via social media sites such as facebook or twitter.  And so the dissemination continues.  Before you know it, the designer has doubled it's exposure of its new collection.

However, experiencing a fashion show through the eyes of a blogger is never the same as the true experience itself.

So how do you score an invite to these exclusive fashion events?

What do designers look for in a blogger?

How do the designers choose who makes the list and who doesn't?