Wednesday, November 16

Democratization of Blogging

I need to tell you a secret: I'm utterly bored with the blogosphere

And you know what? I'm not the only one.  I've been talking to friends (bloggers and not) lately who are completely fed up with blogs. It's the same trends, the same contests, the same coverage, and even the same outfits. What happened to blog originality?

I think so much of this is due to blog democratization.  Blogging should be a creative outlet where you can learn, grow, challenge yourself, and meet others with common interests.  Now it seems more of a rat race to see who will get the most endorsements, party invitations, and free clothing.  It's inspiring to find someone with great style, but all too soon, they are wrapped up in blogging about a new line for a large company and they lose the pizazz they had originally.

I guess what I'm saying is that I am currently uninspired with the blogosphere in general.  I think I'm writing this also a little selfishly.  I liked having fashion as "my thing" back when I was younger.  Now it seems that the entire world is into fashion and knows the latest, upcoming designers.  I blame this partly due to diffusion lines, but that's a separate issue.  (It's true.  I am not a fan of the sacred diffusion lines.) Now fashion is no longer a secret but pimped out to the likes of celebrity lines and fast fashion.  It reminds me of a song...

7 comments:

  1. I don't like when I'm following a blogger who has tremendous style and they get absorbed by some giant advertising scheme. Too many times I've seen personalities melt away, the style vanishes, and it all becomes a generic cloned look that matches so many others. Or, the blogger gets so busy with events that their posts become half-hearted and sloppy and yet so many ppl still fall all over them. I think it's tremendous when a blogger grows, manages to maintain their aesthetic and creative control over their image even if they have to be less directly involved by hiring helping hands. Those are the bloggers I continue to follow and stay loyal to.

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  2. I'm a little bored with a certain part of the fashion blogging scene. A lot of the very successful personal style bloggers seem to be suffering from the C/O virus. When a company is giving out free stuff to the same women, we tend to see the same stuff on a lot of popular blogs. It's a little boring.

    Can you explain what "diffusion lines" are? Is it like Mossimo for Target, or more like Marc by Marc Jacobs? I usually don't like one-time lines for huge retailers, but I love cheaper lines from great designers.

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  3. Oops, I meant Missoni for Target! Clearly I wasn't a fan...

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  4. I hear ya. This happens with all sorts of blogs/bloggers, not just fashion blogging. It seems like once the blog gets some success, it turns from being about the person and into a business, losing what we originally loved about the blog, personality. There are exceptions though. I guess we just need to be that.

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  5. i hope this doesn't make you want to give up blogging! i haven't been blogging too long, so i haven't seen it evolve and change a blogger's style, but i have seen it happen on youtube. so sad.

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  6. Blogging (fashion and otherwise) has been both good & bad for fashion in general, I think. As we've discussed before, one of the things I love about fashion is that it has opened doors for the average gal to participate in an industry that can be pretty expensive and exclusive otherwise. I love that everyday women are becoming icons. However, I agree that, after a while, it seems like many bloggers lose what made them unique and interesting to begin with by falling prey to free shit, participating in campaigns, etc. Guess we have to take the good with the bad!

    www.chillairandperfume.blogspot.com

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