Personal style blogger

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A personal style (or fashion) blogger is an individual who manages an online platform that covers several aspects of fashion. These blogs, often produced independently, post pictures of the blogger to show their outfits and lifestyle to a number of followers. They influence consumer taste and preferences, often functioning as an intermediary between businesses and consumer. [1] [2] From a company perspective, the blogger is perceived as a promotional tool. From the consumer side, high-reputation bloggers are considered opinion leaders. This often results in material benefits, [3] rewards, branded fashion clothing and paid sponsorship, as well as status in the field of fashion.

Contents

Fashion blogs background

Beginnings

The first blog created was Links.net in 1994, by Justin Hall, a college student. [4] At this period, Links.net was not referred to as being a blog but rather a personal homepage.

It was not until 1997 that the word Weblog was created, by Jorn Barger and in 1999, the word was shortened to Blog, by a programmer called Peter Herholz. [4] During the same year, Pyra Labs [4] introduced Blogger, one of the earliest blog publishing tool. After 1999, bloggers started gaining popularity.

A study published by Kaye in 2007 shows that in 1999 about 50 blogs were created, however, it reached an exponential growth and by 2005 about 8 million blogs were recorded. [5] Also, 27% of all the internet users accessed blog and about 12% have posted a comment or link on those site. The trend of creating and or reading blogs kept on increasing and in 2008, the blogosphere accounted 184 million blogs and 346 million readers. [4]

Evolution

In 2003, Not good For Me, the first Fashion blog, was introduced the web mainstream. Fashion blogging dominated the blogosphere with an unlimited access to social media platform open to anyone. It was around that period, where fashion blogs were becoming popular. According to a Survey conducted by AOL in 2005, 50% of American bloggers used blog as a therapeutic tool against 7.5% who used it for politics purpose. Moreover, a phone survey carried by Pew Internet Project, shows that bloggers used blog as a description of their personal experience. The platform Bloggers have listed more than 2 million as being within the industry of fashion. [4]

Therefore, after 2002, the blogosphere was mainly covered by fashion blogs. Starting from that period, fashion bloggers gain importance within the fashion industry, and mainly in playing the role of intermediate between businesses and consumers. Finally, the blogosphere had become a key space for the production, promotion, communication and finally circulation of fashion discourse.

Fashion bloggers trajectory

The fashion system in the early years, was highly restricted and limited to fashion professional. However, the introduction of WEB 2.0, access to information and the falling barrier between cultures, countries, and continent had created a globalization of taste. This recent phenomenon has enable ordinary consumers and fashion professional to reach a mass audience.

Therefore, until recently ordinary individuals lacked access to the mass media unless assisted by a professional institution.

From a personal diary to a taste display

Most of the Fashion bloggers, either famous or on the process of being so, will start a blog for a main purpose of posting a daily lifestyle. They start by being constantly connected and ready to answer follower's comments and follower request. [3]

As their followers keeps on growing, bloggers enter a stage of Taste display. In this specific stage, bloggers are in a position where their taste is used as a reference for their followers but also as a strategy of differentiation. A blogger acquire taste within the fashion industry through its cultural capital as mentioned by Bourdieu (1999). They exercise taste and make a display of it for public consumption and taste assertion. Therefore, a universally acceptable taste is highly required for a fashion blogger in order to succeed.

From a virtual community to a mass audience

Once the blog has become a well-established taste display space, the blogger starts with a very personal relationship with its followers, and answer their comments as an ordinary participant. However, as soon as the blogger stop answering its follower comments, he or she starts to build an audience and as they start to ignore their followers, their value within the blogosphere increases. This is where the Taste Leadership takes place and provides the bloggers with a mass audience. [3]

From curating to modeling

Most bloggers start their post with a selection and organisation of clothes using software. One software commonly used by bloggers is Polyvore.com. In the beginning of their blogging process, most bloggers barely appear in the pictures. However, as this specific stage of curating becomes redundant, the blogger needs another step to keep followers and provide them with new innovative posts. Therefore, the next stage is modelling. The blogger starts taking the blog seriously and invests in a professional camera in order to take pictures of themselves wearing several outfits that will later be displayed in their blog. In that stage, rather than posting clothing taste, the individual starts developing a professional lifestyle. [3]

Therefore, fashion bloggers go from curating to snapshots to modelling. In all three stages, the followers keep increasing. There is an ongoing investment in cultural capital, where not only connections get created but taste also starts improving.

Platforms

Several platforms are used for blogging, ranging from specific blog platform to regular social media platforms. The following list present the some blogging platform used by personal fashion bloggers. [6]

Influential fashion bloggers

Although self-established, fashion bloggers that reach a mass audience gain a significant influence on consumers and thus influence fashion trends each season. These bloggers are called influential bloggers.

Fashion magazine Fashionista listed some of the most influential personal fashion bloggers in 2016, the most notable being: [7]

Other notable fashion/lifestyle bloggers with large, engaged followings on social media include:

Fashion bloggers outcomes

Several incentives influence bloggers passion and enthusiasm towards their blogging activities. The two main incentive which are economical and social [3] were discussed by McQuarrie, Edward F., Miller, Jessica, Philips and Barbara J. and are listed below.

Economical

There are several form of economical rewards. The most common ones are Branded Fashion clothing, paid ad-placement, and paid sponsorship of their blog contest. This process enables them to become a key promotional tool for brand. Those rewards vary from small bloggers to large and influential bloggers.

Social

Using Bourdieu's idea of cultural capital, McQuarrie, Edward F., Miller, Jessica, Philips and Barbara J. have developed two sociological explanations to personal style bloggers social outcome: Taste of Judgement and Accumulation of cultural capital. Once they reach a mass audience and become famous, those personal fashion bloggers acquire a higher social mobility within the social strata of the fashion industry. For instance, many of them receive invitations to exclusive parties, Designer open houses, charity appearance mentioned in the media and so on. All these access to fashion professional, provide them with networking opportunity, helping them increase their social mobility. Therefore, a fashion blogger success comes from joining the traditional fashion system, rather than disconnecting it from it.

Impact on the fashion industry

Personal style bloggers have the potential to alter and confront the social norms constructed within the fashion industry. Fashion platforms allow for bloggers to freely express themselves and are not subject to the restricted binaries the fashion media content. [14] Personal style bloggers can differentiate themselves from mainstream fashion, by cultivating and broadcasting their styles outside of the influence of advertisers and large corporations. Therefore, personal style bloggers have more freedom to showcase their fashion and potentially disrupt the industry illustration of trends. Becoming a profitable full-time fashion blogger is very difficult, as the ability to generate revenue through consulting and advertisements is very inconsistent, resulting in may fashion bloggers to pursue it as an activity. [14] Although, the individuals who decide to self-brand themselves rely on social media and other platforms to build a brand and gain relationships with followers. Social media, therefore, majorly contribute to the impact personal styles have on the fashion industry.

Gay personal style bloggers

Previously, fashion was seen as more feminine than masculine, so when the male fashion industry started to develop, it tried to distance itself from femininity as much as possible, and one of the ways this was done was by excluding gay men from the demographic it was trying reach. [14] Men's fashion tends to showcase dominant masculine ideals, and although the industry has now accepted gay men, the style still tends to follow the typical heteronormative ideals. [14] Personal style blogs have allowed for homosexual men to include themselves back into the fashion world and gave them a platform to express themselves. This allows for a larger, more diverse representation of male style outside of the trends depicted in the traditional fashion industry.

Within the Fashion industry, gender is constructed into a fixed idea of what individual's appearance should be. These structured guidelines formed by society are largely enforced by the fashion industry to regulate what is deemed acceptable, thus, emphasizing the ideal ‘heterosexual man’. As a result, personal style bloggers attempt to break these gender binaries representing society's idea of masculinity. Moreover, personal style bloggers can differentiate themselves from print fashion representation, through personal takes on contemporary looks. As male models are continuously depicted in an unachievable way, fashion bloggers can present an alternative to the fashion industries typical portrayal of men. They offer different representation concerning height, weight, and physical appearance. This ends up promoting inclusivity in the fashion industry and allows for a more substantial demographic to relate to their content.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion</span> Stylish clothing

Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into outfits that depict distinctive ways of dressing as signifiers of social status, self-expression, and group belonging. As a multifaceted term, fashion describes an industry, styles, aesthetics, and trends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blog</span> Discussion or informational site published on the internet

A blog is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were often the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can publish their opinions and views.

Following a crackdown on Iranian media beginning in 2000, many Iranians turned to weblogging to provide and find political news. The first Persian language blog is thought to have been created by Hossein Derakhshan,, in 2001. Derakhshan also provided readers with a simple instruction manual in Persian on how to start a blog. In 2004, a census of blogs around the world by the NITLE found 64,000 Persian language blogs. In that year the Islamic government also began to arrest and charge bloggers as political dissidents and by 2005 dozens of bloggers had been arrested.

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, video sharing websites, and blogging sites. SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website. SMO's focal point is on gaining organic links to social media content. In contrast, SEO's core is about reaching the top of the search engine hierarchy. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites.

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are someone with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok or other online channels. Influencer marketing is when a brand enrolls influencers who have an established credibility and audience on social media platforms to discuss or mention the brand in a social media post. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising.

Fashion blogs are blogs that cover the fashion industry, clothing, and lifestyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street style</span> Fashion movement based on individualism

Street style is fashion that is considered to have emerged not from studios, but from the grassroots. Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture, and is most often seen in major urban centers. Magazines and newspapers commonly feature candid photographs of individuals wearing urban, stylish clothing. Mainstream fashion often appropriates street fashion trends as influences. Most major youth subcultures have had an associated street fashion. Street style is different all around the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryanboy</span> Swedish fashion blogger and socialite

Bryan Grey Yambao, also known as Bryanboy, is a Filipino-born Swedish fashion blogger and socialite. A former web developer, he started blogging at age 24 from his parents' Manila home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet celebrity</span> Someone famous because of the Internet

An internet celebrity is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large, global audience. Internet celebrities are often found on large online platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, which primarily rely on user-generated content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media marketing</span> Promotion of products or services on social media

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of social media marketing campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone".

The Indian blogosphere is the online predominantly community of Indian weblogs that is part of the larger blogosphere.

Blogging in New Zealand is dominated by a community of around 600 blogs that comment largely on New Zealand politics, society and occurrences. One list of over 200 "author-operated, public discourse" blogs in New Zealand suggests New Zealand blogs cover a wide range of ideological positions but lack female contributors. Blogging is an active part of the media of New Zealand.

Social media in the fashion industry refers to the use of social media platforms by fashion designers and users to promote and participate in trends. Over the past several decades, the development of social media has increased along with its usage by consumers. The COVID-19 pandemic was a sharp turn of reliance on the virtual sphere for the industry and consumers alike. Social media has created new channels of advertising for fashion houses to reach their target markets. Since its surge in 2009, luxury fashion brands have used social media to build interactions between the brand and its customers to increase awareness and engagement. The emergence of influencers on social media has created a new way of advertising and maintaining customer relationships in the fashion industry. Numerous social media platforms are used to promote fashion trends, with Instagram and TikTok being the most popular among Generation Y and Z. The overall impact of social media in the fashion industry included the creation of online communities, direct communication between industry leaders and consumers, and criticized ideals that are promoted by the industry through social media.

Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.

The Canadian political blogosphere includes political commentary using any social media technology. Its culture differs from that of Europe or the US. The term 'blogosphere' was first formed colloquially in 1999, and has since evolved to mean "the cultural or intellectual environment in which blogs are written and read."

Food blogging is a feature of food journalism interlinking a gourmet interest in food, blog writing, and food photography. Food blogs are generally written by food enthusiasts often referred to as a "foodies" and can be used commercially by the blogger to earn a profit. The first food blog launched in July, 1997 as a running feature on the Chowhound web site. Titled "What Jim Had for Dinner", Chowhound founder Jim Leff cataloged his daily eating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic fashion</span> Fashion in Muslim communities

Islamic Fashion as a phenomenon stemmed from the combination of a set of Islamic practices and of the rising need and desire to include these specific clothing items in a broader fashion industry. The global growth of “an Islamic consumer sector, which explicitly forges links between religiosity and fashion, encouraging Muslims to be both covered and fashionable, modest and beautiful,” is relatively fresh: Islamic Fashion as a particular phenomenon started appearing toward the 1980s.

The wanghong economy [internet celebrity economy] refers to the Chinese digital economy based on influencer marketing through social media platforms. Wanghong is the Chinese term for internet celebrity. Chinese wanghong celebrities attract the attention of internet users, which can translate into profit through e-commerce and online advertising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion influencer</span> Person who influences fashion through social media

A fashion influencer is a personality that has a large number of followers on social media, creates mainly fashion content and has the power to influence the opinion and purchase behavior of others with their recommendations. Brands endorse them to attend fashion shows, parties, designer dinners and exclusive trips and to wear their clothes on social media. If a salary has been involved, the influencer may be required to label such posts as paid or sponsored content. Before social media "they would have been called 'It girls'".

References

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  2. ↑ Kim, A. & Ko, E. (2017). "Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of Luxury fashion brand". Journal of Business Research. 65 (10): 1480–1486. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.014. S2CID   13323612.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 McQuarrie, Edward F.; Miller, Jessica; Phillips, Barbara J. (2013-01-01). "The Megaphone Effect: Taste and Audience in Fashion Blogging". Journal of Consumer Research. 40 (1): 136–158. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.1030.9845 . doi:10.1086/669042. JSTOR   10.1086/669042.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Zantal-Wiener, Amanda. "A Brief Timeline of the History of Blogging" . Retrieved 2017-04-06.
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  6. ↑ "8 Best Blogging Platforms Reviewed (Updated)". How To Start A Blog. 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2017-04-06.
  7. ↑ "The 20 Most Influential Personal Style Bloggers: 2016 Edition". Fashionista. Retrieved 2017-04-06.
  8. ↑ "The Story Behind The Viral Post: 'Beauty Comes In Many Different Shapes And Sizes'". Women's Health. 2017-08-04. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  9. ↑ AOL Staff. "Why you need to know Rach Parcell". AOL.com. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  10. ↑ "Disney Style Spotlight: Color Me Courtney". Disney Style. 2016-02-24. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  11. ↑ Bosker, Bianca. "Instamom". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  12. ↑ "How Fashion Blogger Cara Loren Maximizes Her Sunday". StyleCaster. 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  13. ↑ "Christine Andrew of Hello Fashion Talks Wardrobe Staples and Working with a Blogger Husband - VIVA GLAM MAGAZINE". vivaglammagazine.com. 2016-08-16. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Draper, Jimmy; McDonnell, Andrea M. (2018). "Fashioning Multiplatform Masculinities". Men and Masculinities. 21 (5): 645–664. doi:10.1177/1097184x17696190. S2CID   152229869.
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