Dressful

Last month marked four years since I started my first fashion blog. Back then, bloggers were gaining tremendous popularity because of their fun, accessible style and uncensored opinion, a cherished antidote to aspirational fashion magazines readers no longer related to. But what glitters is not always gold. Have bloggers democratised fashion for the long run or are they too guilty of dipping into the industry's less kosher sides?

Photo by Darling Stewie

Fashion blogging beginnings: Individuality and naivety

In the past, the fashion industry was proverbially hard to break into unless you were well-connected or rich. Along with early fashion blogs emerged the idea of the 'democratisation of fashion', which was supposed to shake fashion hierarchy to the core.

In regards to bloggers, 'democratisation of fashion' meant that if you had a cool, relatively high-traffic blog and great style that didn't necessarily have to be all Chanel and Balenciaga, you could become part of the fashion industry without connections or education.

Fashion lovers were encouraged by the success of the first bloggers who quit their jobs to focus on blogging full-time and thousands of blogs started sprouting up worldwide.

While many of those blogs were undeniably launched with the intention to catapult lithe, blonde, semi-stylish girls into online stardom, in the early days, fashion blogging was primarily about doing your own thing. It was honest. It was not nearly as calculated as today.

Each blogger I was following five years ago had a distinct voice. They wore completely different things – you didn't see the same handbag popping up on every other blog. They shared miscellaneous events from their life. Some of them posted political opinions.

For many fashion enthusiasts misunderstood by their community because of how they dressed, fashion blogging was an outlet where they could finally express themselves without being judged. You only had to click the 'Publish' button to go from uptight coworkers staring at your frilly lavender blouse to readers applauding your uniqueness.

After months of hesitation I started my own fashion blog.

I was surprised how much my small town experience mirrored bloggers in fashion capitals. We went to events as plus ones because no one in the industry knew we existed. 100 daily unique visitors was considered decent traffic. Extravagant gifting wasn't a thing. I was exalted when a Swedish company sent me two temporary tattoos that took a month to arrive.

Fashion blogging in 2013: Attack of the clones

Fast forward to 2013, the fashion blogging landscape has undergone major shifts. There are notable exceptions, but in general, fashion blogging is no longer about individuality. It's about mediocrity.

Fashion blogging today salutes reducing self-expression to a handful of common denominators: the ubiquitous Kenzo tiger jumper, Isabel Marant wedge trainers, ombré hair, Céline handbags, sheer maxi skirts. Individual fashion voices of the past have merged into one monotonous voice. Fashion bloggers look like each other's clones.

Fashion blogging today is about fitting in with the cool crowd. How ironic to think it originally emerged with the outcasts – people who loved fashion but couldn't or didn't want to be part of the cool crowd (the industry).

Apart from the attack of the clones, you'd have to be blind not to notice fashion blogging has become unabashedly commercial. The main issue here is is an astonishing lack of transparency. I support sponsored content because bloggers need to pay the bills like everyone else, but keeping readers in the dark about it is unethical.

Several top-tier fashion bloggers, as well as hundreds of smaller ones, are not in the habit of disclosing commercial affiliations and freebies. They deceive readers who believe bloggers endorse products they have purchased themselves, not received as a gift and got paid to promote them.

We've seen it all before in fashion though – magazines failing to disclose advertorials and not giving editorial space to brands that don't advertise in them.

Another recent blogging gem is posting outfits consisting solely of pieces the blogger has received from brands. Is this really your style? Would you wear it if you didn't get it for free? All of it?

Photo by Miss Sly

Do you read intelligent fashion blogs?

Many people jump at every opportunity to accuse bloggers of being shallow, unethical and uneducated. But why do bloggers guilty of this so often have a massive following?

When bloggers take criticism into account and share in-depth articles or outfits not based on trends, we gather from the lack of feedback we receive that the vast majority of readers prefers the very things that give fashion blogging a bad rep – instant gratification, conspicuous consumption and absence of critical thought.

There are many websites and forums dedicated to discrediting fashion bloggers (I say 'discrediting' instead of 'criticising' because comments on those websites often cross the line). People who frequent them read the blogs they 'hate' to get fodder for snappy discourse, boosting their traffic with multiple daily visits and rampant linking.

Would it not be more fruitful to spend all this time supporting the bloggers you believe are ethical, have original style, are great writers? Or is this just another reflection of what people really like?

Are fashion blogs the same as fashion magazines?

The most popular fashion blogs share a single pivotal ingredient: aspiration. This is the same aspiration the fashion industry is relentlessly condemned for: portraying beautiful, unrealistic, unattainable lifestyles in editorial and advertising.

It's images of ultra-thin models with flawless photoshopped skin wearing £10,000 outfits that make you buy perfumes and accessories – the cheaper products that drive approximately 80% of sales.

Are top fashion blogs different from fashion magazines? Figures are slender, clothes expensive, locations cosmopolitan, food photogenic. For most readers, this lifestyle is beyond reach. A million girls would kill for this job.

I don't believe aspiration is detrimental by default, but if it exists in fashion blogging (and so prominently), it means fashion blogging is no different from the industry in general. As promising and refreshing as the idea sounded at the beginning, by conforming to industry standards, bloggers have not democratised fashion in the long run.

In other words, you still have to be well-connected or rich to break into the industry.

I often talk about fashion blogging with people who once heard about bloggers who receive expensive clothes for free, launch their own lines and collaborations, fly business class, get paid €5000 per appearance and make millions in ad revenues (OK, I made that one up). While I love discussing fashion blogging, I don't love it when people think this kind of success is what every fashion blogger is aspiring to. Telling them I don't subscribe to the same blogging rationale leaves them in shock. They think something is wrong with me because surely I should be aiming to become a Famous Fashion Blogger, bathing in designer goods between paid flights to glamorous events all over the world.

There are as many reasons for having a fashion blog as there are fashion bloggers. The degree of monetization that allows the blogger a comfortable lifestyle (I'm vary of "luxurious" over "comfortable"; a blog is not an accurate representation of the blogger's life because it only shows what the blogger wants you to see) is widely regarded as the peak of fashion blogger success. However tempting it sounds, there are bloggers who would actually not be interested in dropping everything on the spot to become the next Famous Fashion Blogger for reasons such as being in school, having kids, enjoying their current job etc.

Why do I blog?

My motive for starting this blog was essentially what I've accomplished in the past year: 1. establishing myself as a relevant blogger and writer attending major fashion weeks and 2. being accepted to London College of Fashion to study fashion journalism. It was through blogging that I realized I want a career in international fashion. In order to land the kind of jobs and projects I'm interested in, I need to be physically present in one of the four fashion capitals. I have a blog, but nobody is going to hand me a career, let alone my dream job, over the internet because thousands of others have tried harder, moved to New York or London and relentlessly started working their way up the fashion ladder. In this industry trying harder often pays off better than being talented.

Though the purpose of this blog has been partly fulfilled with my acceptance to London College of Fashion, quitting blogging is not on my agenda. In fact, one of my dreams for Dressful has always been to publish exclusively original content (photos and writing). I think that's the number one thing a quality blog should have. I don't post outfit or street style photos, so creating original content that fits the theme of this blog constantly is only possible in a city with a huge fashion scene and many events. Therefore the fulfilled blogging purpose opened the door to a new purpose. Let's hope London will be everything it's cracked up to be and more.

Audience at the Emporio Armani Spring/Summer 2012 show

You know the awkward moment when people who don't have anything to do with fashion shows feel entitled to dictate who has the right to sit front row and who doesn't? Usually the sole purpose of their relevant, well-informed remarks is to downgrade one of the groups of people who – much to their chagrin – frequently do find themselves sitting front row no matter what anyone thinks. Editors and bloggers still seem to be favorite targets, though I think it's high time for people to realize it's pointless to keep adding fuel to the "bloggers vs. editors" debate. You don't compare apples to oranges either, do you? (Much to my chagrin, people do not realize.)

The thing with individual opinions on who should (not) sit front row is that unless you actually have an impact on how the seating chart will be arranged, nobody cares.

A view I encounter ever so often is that bloggers should be banned from front rows by default because unlike editors, journalists and buyers, they don't do any "real" work. I think it's rather cheeky to act like you know better than the person responsible for the seating chart. Essentially, you assume fashion houses are incapable of picking appropriate guests. Fashion houses aren't stupid. Every person attending the show is there for reasons beneficial to the brand. When they seat Rumi and Bryanboy in front row, it's because they'll tweet and post photos from the show on their blogs, transmitting the brand's message and aesthetic to an audience of hundreds of thousands. The same goes for non-major bloggers like yours truly, except our audiences are smaller.

Bloggers do the same as editors, buyers and journalists: promote brands. This is why we don't exactly have to point guns at PR people's heads to be invited to shows. It's a reciprocal situation, and it's up to each fashion house who they decide to put in their front row. There's no "should" that applies to all of them. It only depends on how interested they are in global online coverage and promotion.

(I mentioned editors as "targets" in the first paragraph because I've heard ambitious bloggers say front rows should be bloggers-only, which is ... not how this industry can work.
The other side of the coin and all, though more harmless than the one I discussed.)

I've put together a list of my 10 best posts of 2011. Some of them were chosen by popularity, others by personal preference. Excluded are fashion week posts (photos and reviews of shows and presentations), which you can find in the show directory. Enjoy the wrap-up!

Elegance in Exile exhibition in Venice, Italy

It's not what you wear, it's how you wear it
I like it when clothes from H&M, Asos or Zara look like Dior. It pokes fun at high fashion's exorbitant cost and proves that the impression given by clothes depends entirely on the wearer.

Prada Men's Spring 2012 collection: Golf parody
Leave it to me to fall in love with Prada Men's Spring/Summer 2012, a collection decidedly out of touch with masculinity in favor of parody.

The battle of ultra-thin models and our sanity
The problem with skinny models/women/anyone lies in the subjectiveness of "thin". What is thin? Where do you draw the line?

Elegance in Exile exhibition: Russian expat fashion
The exhibition portrays the influence of Russian émigrés on fashion, displaying costumes of Ballets Russes (The Russian Ballets) as well as dresses worn by aristocrat Russian women who fled to Europe after the October Revolution in 1917.
See the exhibition at Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice, Italy, until February 29, 2012.

Do fashion bloggers care about anything else but clothes?
Bloggers often face prejudices because there are still many fashion people who believe we, mostly lacking formal fashion education and industry experience, don't know enough about fashion to comment on it, that we get too much attention for the "fluff" and narcissism we share with the world.

Hats off to summer!
Heat is the only thing Ljubljana and seaside have in common in summer, and in heat what a girl needs is a good dress and a good hat.

20 sarcastic tips to become a popular fashion blogger
1. Wear Jeffrey Campbell Lita boots (this is a MUST).
The most popular post of 2011 according to the number of views and your Facebook likes!

Notes before New York Fashion Week
I'm not sure I could live in one city all my life, but I would like to spend at least a few years in NYC, preferably before I am very old. Interestingly enough, one of my many "visions of future" is a very old black-clad myself, going to the Met (the opera, not the museum) and Carnegie Hall every evening.

Sens(n)ation Maison Martin Margiela exhibition
The Sens(n)ation exhibition at Ljubljana's Galerija Jakopič showed a retrospective of Maison Martin Margiela's first line (défilé) collection from 1989 to 2011, as well as garments and accessories by renowned Slovenian designers.

Vogue India racism: Only light skin is beautiful!
I was shocked to discover that like the Western media, Vogue India too promotes an extremely narrow standard of female beauty.

Read my 2011 fashion blogging recap here.

2011 was an exciting and fruitful year for me as a fashion blogger.

In February I attended my first major runway show, Emporio Armani F/W 11/12 at Milan Fashion Week. Envisioning myself working in fashion before I started blogging, I thought I would have to spend years interning and assisting at magazines before my boss granted me a privilege to attend shows and write about them. I am my own boss at Dressful so nobody showers me with benefits, but thanks to the "democratization of fashion" we bloggers have become regulars at fashion weeks, be it catching street style photographers' attention with eccentric outfits or reporting from shows.

Concept Korea Spring 2012 presentation at New York Fashion Week.

In September I attended New York Fashion Week, which turned out to be a much bigger deal than I had expected. It's the collections shown in Paris and Milan that get the most international attention, but New York is the most blogger-friendly fashion week (Reuters claims that 40% of the press at NYFW are bloggers) and a great place for networking. As opposed to Milan and Paris, all shows take place under one roof in New York, which means you can hang out with people in-between events instead of wasting your time getting stuck in insane traffic jams.

When I started going to fashion weeks, I quickly realized there would be no way back, i.e. if I attend, I have to return next season to see more shows, meet more people and do better work. Due to unexpected health problems I didn't create as much content as I wanted to at NYFW in September. I will be attending NYFW again in February and I'm tickled pink to have a chance to improve. I haven't seen wintry New York in three years.

Invitation to the Emporio Armani Spring/Summer 2012 show
Celebrating Halloween with a Chanel pumpkin carved by my dad

Dressful has gained many new readers in 2011. I receive charming, encouraging emails from those of you who find it inspiring and I wish such perceptive and intelligent readers will accompany me in 2012 too. Constantly working on ways to reach more fashion enthusiasts, I'm satisfied with the direction Dressful is developing in. I've discovered that in my case, sharing original and quality content is the way to go. People like words and images they won't find elsewhere and I feel good expressing myself in different creative ways.

In 2011 I rejected various proposals that would have brought me money but didn't align with Dressful. I've been hesitant with monetization because I find some methods largely inefficient and because this blog is my personal space where I only recommend what I absolutely love and know well.

I have seen bloggers rush into monetization without thinking it through; in the end, they were not compensated fairly, the brand or product they promoted didn't fit their blog, the banner ads looked out of place … If done wrong, such deals can do more harm than good to the blogger, despite the money they earned. That being said, there are several types of collaborations I am interested in; I will soon create a separate page to outline them more precisely.

Sens(n)ation Maison Martin Margiela exhibition in Ljubljana.

I would like to thank everyone who takes time to comment on my posts; your comments are not of the "nice shoes check out my blog" variety; rather, they contribute valuably to the post and discussion. I truly appreciate it when you share my posts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms – this is the easiest way to help me reach more people. Next to providing quality content, expanding my audience is my number one goal for 2012.

Though the world is far from perfect, the opportunities I've had in 2011 make me grateful to live here and now. Five years ago it would have been impossible to jumpstart my fashion career with a blog.

The blog is just the beginning.

I wish you happy holidays and lots of health, love, creativity and success in 2012.