The rise of Fashion Blogs

by Elizabeth Marchetti

There was a time when bloggers waddled in obscurity, but not any more. It just so happens that the fifteen minutes of fame professed by Andy Warhol in the Sixties are easily within anyone’s reach - all you need is an internet connection, a computer and a good dose of creativity and you just might land the job of your dreams and create enviable connections in the business.

Take fashion bloggers, for example. The past few years have seen the rise of this type of blogging amongst others as the fashion industry craves creativity and everyday people on the street are bound to inspire designer's catwalks and editorials for their original look.

Here are a few of the most influential blogs in fashion these days:

The Sartorialist 

In a way, this is the blog that started it all. Back in 2005 Scott Schuman, a veteran of the industry, took to the streets of the Big Apple with his camera and started snapping pictures of stylish New Yorkers - from preppy upper east siders to retro looking decadents and punks in Soho.

The Sartorialist now does the same thing, but all over the world, and the blog has been nominated one of the most influential for designers by Time magazine, for its fresh and affordable trends off the catwalk. A book is also being published.

Fashiontoast

A few years ago, Californian Rumi Neely, was just a girl with good looks and a lust for fashion. She started taking pictures of herself, working high street and vintage pieces.

Today, her blog is followed by adoring hoards of girls trying to imitate her look, which is very much West-Coast heroin chic. Rumi has also landed a few modeling campaigns, is a regular at fashion shows from Paris to New York, inspires designers and has collaborated with Erin Wasson on original designs. Not bad for a 23-year-old.

Stylerookie

This might give you an inferiority complex. At the tender age of thirteen, Tavi Gevinson has already been nominated the true star of New York Fashion week Spring/Summer 09 by The Guardian.

Precociously obsessed with fashion, Tavi who describes herself as a "tiny 13-year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats," is highly critical and observative of trends and favors original and creative designers.

She gets sent clothes regularly by the likes of Yohji Yamamoto and has landed a job at Katie Grand’s POP. I say it’s time to switch the TV off now!

Stylebubble

Blogger Susie Lau is 25, lives in north-east London and everyday, 10,000 people read what she thinks about clothes on stylebubble.typepad.com.

Here she photographs her outfit, raves about a new designer and inspires her international fanbase. Now editor of dazeddigital.com, her outfits are colorful, loud, eclectic and scream to be noticed but remain demure. Susie has become a true British fashion icon.

Sea of shoes

Jane Aldrige, a Texas high school student started blogging in 2007 and descirbes fashion as “the best form of escapism.”

She loves vintage and everyday is an occasion to showcase her unique bohemian rock’n’roll inspired looks, mixed with the season’s trends: tailored and body-con today, loose and floaty hippy gowns tomorrow. Her blog is a statement of a truly unique style. Even Teen Vogue couldn’t help but notice.