For various reasons - including declining print sales, having to share freebies and the front row at fashion shows - fashion editors tend to not like bloggers very much. Fashion bloggers are no longer shocked when someone from the print world lays in to them, I suppose in some sense they're almost numb to it now. "Oh really, the editor of some fashion mag in Italy hates us? Shock."
However, when staples of the fashion blogging world turn on its curators, it is confusing. Confusing, because even notorious diva Jennifer Lopez remembers where she's from (The Block, of course!).
Take for example Scott Shuman of The Satorialist. He's fashion blogging royalty - he's done a book, hooked up with another fashion blogger, subsequently had their relationship profiled in The New York Times and did the obligatory, "deep thoughts with Scott Shuman" video with Intel, complete with plenty of lens flare and artistically melodramatic close-ups.
He helped turn "street style" in to a phenomenon, and caused other "street style" blogs to multiply quicker than bunnies in springtime. Or stray cats in Mexico.
He may indeed be at the top of a certain, fashionable kingdom, but it would be fair to say that without his loyal subjects, the serfs - those common bloggers - who praise him, mimic him, and respect his work so, he wouldn't be as successful.
And yet, Mr Shuman has opened up his heavily moisturized mouth to say that:
"I’m not really a fan of personal style blogs— you know, the ones [on which] these girls just shoot their outfits and all this stuff. I haven’t seen one that I really like or that draws my attention every day. The good and bad of that is that most these girls only have a limited wardrobe; they don’t have many clothes to shoot and I don’t think most of them have come up with looks that are that interesting, that draw me."
Thanks for the input, Shuman.
Of course these girls only have a limited wardrobe! They're normal girls! And unlike certain French bloggers whose parents work in the fashion industry, they don't have a lot of money, and a lot of them don't just beg PRs to send them new clothes every day. It's about personal style, and your average woman of fashion blogging age, which is generally early to mid 20s, simply doesn't have the funds to be able to photograph themselves in a new fucking dress every day.
Another member of the fashion blogging royal family, not so much because she blogs herself but because she has become the fashion icon of a digital generation, who has slated fashion bloggers recently is Alexa Chung. Alexa's look has be replicated time and time again on fashion blogs, and the community hold her in the same esteem that many music bloggers hold David Bowie in. Love or hate her, fashion bloggers have majorly helped build up Alexa's profile, level of notoriety, and the reach of her influence.
There was a collective "OMGALEXACHUNG" squeal when this month's British Vogue was shoved through every subscribing blogger's mail slot, as there she was, in all her quirky glory. Excitedly, they immediately flipped to her cover story, stared in awe at the photos, and eagerly started to read the feature, drinking in her every, boring word.
And then there was a collective "OMGFUCKTHATBITCH" when every blogger read the following flippant remark made by Chung:
"Blogs are ridiculous; they're must mood boards - unless you are Tavi."
Obviously, fashion bloggers everywhere freaked the fuck out and let Chung know what they thought of her on Twitter, and then the model-cum-presenter made some hilarious jokes on Twitter ("ooofff don't fuckkkk with bloggers, jeez. i take it back, every blog in the world is amazing and fascinating and brimming with great things.") and tried to sarcasitcally joke her way out of it, complete witih lolcat speak. (Srsly.)
Needless to say, the blogosphere is probably still pissed off, and next time they go to sling their "Alexa" Mulberry bag- the very bag they used up all of their birthday, Christmas and graduation money on - over their ridiculous shoulders, they will do so begrudgingly, if not down right miserably. They will curse their shaggy Alexa haircut and boyish peter pan collars. But they will, no doubt, get over it.
Obviously, the blogosphere can withstand criticism from both Shuman and Chung - and while both situations are clearly ridiculous (don't bite the hand that blogs, and all that) fashion bloggers, in all their ridiculousness and with their limited wardrobes, will still prevail, and keep on blogging. Whether Chung or Shuman are interested, or not.