INDIVIDUALITY VS. SIMILARITY: THE MYTH OF THE FASHION BLOGGER

The coolest thing about being a fashion blogger is you can showcase your individuality and style in your own space. Over the course of the past 5 years or so, personal blogging has become a force to be reckon with in the fashion industry, where girls who dreamed of styling Vogue photo shoots now style themselves and take self timer photos. It’s created a pool where those with notable talent and drive can rise to the top and establish their personal creativity entirely on their own.

But what happens when this pool becomes, well, a little too homogenous? When did fashion blogging go from individuality to similarity?

After thinking back to our post last month where we compared how certain bloggers actually looked alike, we noticed there has been an overall change in how bloggers look. When fashion blogging first hit the internet, personal style posts were about the quirky or unusual looks of forward thinkers like Tavi Gevinson, Susie Bubble, Gala Darling,Karla Delas, Kingdom of Style, Childhood Flames, Garbage Dress, Rumi Neely, and Bryan Boy, just to note a few. Those bloggers are still around today and majorly successful, however, it’s undeniable that there’s a trendy pool of fashion ‘it’ girl bloggers, with an overall likeness in dress size and economic status. Some of fashion’s most influential bloggers today can afford multiple Celine bags and fit into a size 2.

Everything in fashion is cyclical — and everything has their moment. But as we become more established as a community,  are we becoming more like the fashion industry in the sense that trends, advertisements, and essentially being ‘model-like’ will (for the most part) come out on top? It’s empowering that we as bloggers can determine our own content, but as we grow, should we be self evaluating how we mold to the standards of the fashion industry? Are we going to just end up being versions of high end magazines? Are we going to be ruled by advertisers? By trends? By the way we look in our bodies look in our personal style posts?

The fashion industry is based on appearances, so therefore it’s not unnatural that fashion bloggers are scrutinized on beauty, but does that mean the future of the fashion blogger predetermined?

Author: Chelsea Burcz

Source: http://heartifb.com/2012/06/20/individuality-vs-similarity-the-myth-of-the-fashion-blogger/