Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I’m addicted to the affordable fashion favorite, H&M. My love declared, I have to admit, I do have one major qualm with the bargain retailer: H&M doesn’t offer online shopping for its U.S. customers.
Let me clarify, as much as I love online shopping, I hate online buying. Fabrics and colors look different in person, clothes never fit you as well as they fit the models, and returns are always a hassle. So why do I check my favorite retailers’ online sites, then? To see what’s new, to see what’s trendy, and to stay connected.
I, like every other modern day fashion addict, have become dependent on technology for my style.
This modern development in the fashion world has seeped past the limits of online shopping, though. I, like many others, find myself not only turning to my preferred retailers’ online sites for fashion advice, but also to fashion news sites and blogs. But technology’s role in the fashion world doesn’t stop there; it not only has played a crucial role in relaying information from the fashion world in recent years, but it has also provided consumers with the autonomy to share their personal style as well as influence others’ style, ultimately working towards breaking down the barriers of exclusivity within fashion.
The Rise of the Fashion Blog and the Impact of the Fashion Blogger
Of my laundry list of favorite fashion blogs, Dianna Baros’s “The Budget Babe“ is at the very top. Baros not only has an eye for trends but also pays close attention to providing budget-friendly options for her readers. Her blog has attained substantial success, with over 1.6 million page views per month, numerous awards and significant nominations, and features in everything from The Wall Street Journal to People Style Watch.
Baros has a background in online media, as prior to taking on the role of “The Budget Babe,” she spent six years producing content for Oprah.com. She explains her motivation for creating her fashion blog: “The moment I started blogging, I felt I could turn it into something ‘big’ – I just had a ton of ideas … so I poured all my energy into making The Budget Babe the best budget fashion blog I could make it.”
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One of the strongest aspects of “The Budget Babe” is Baros’s relationship with her readers. This bond is fueled by her ability to listen to her readers’ questions and feedback as well as her dedication to keeping her readers updated through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. “I’m not a personal style blogger but I will occasionally share an outfit just to show readers a great find and to let them know I’m an average, real person,” she says. She acknowledges that this freedom, to both personally interpret and share fashion, has been made entirely possible through the internet.
Aside from the freedom that the internet offers, Baros was drawn to blogging in response to the shortcomings of print publications. “Sometimes magazines leave you feeling ‘less than,’” says Baros, “because you can’t afford anything in them and you can’t achieve the perfection of models.” Instead of offering “glossy, photo-shopped product shots,” Baros attempts to “show people what stuff really looks like.”
One of the ways that she accomplishes this is by visiting affordable fashion retailers and photographing and occasionally trying on their clothes. “I usually comment on the quality of said items after handling them in person – you need to touch fashion and try it on to really get a sense of it, and so far, technology can’t do that for us.” She touches upon one of the ways that the evolution of technology has forced the fashion world to adapt, which has resulted in a bridge in the gap between impersonal, e-commerce sites and more personal, fashion blogs.
The influence that bloggers have had both on personal style and the fashion culture is immense and extends past the growing connection between retailers and fashion bloggers. Baros says: “The pace has sped up considerably in terms of trends. At the same time, anything goes. Everyone’s style is so unique, there’s no limits on what’s in or out, it’s all about how you wear it.” Yet, with this creative freedom and industry independence comes responsibility to one’s self and to the fashion community, in general. “We have the fashion world at our fingertips,” says Baros, “so it’s always a shifting landscape of trying to carve out your own niche.”
As successful as The Budget Babe has been, though, Baros knows that keeping up with the changing and intersecting worlds of both fashion and technology is a never-ending commitment. She says, “My challenge now is engaging with readers independently of brands…things like Facebook allow brands to interact directly with their customers…but… they have an agenda, namely, to drive sales.”
And in the true spirit of the ever-changing, technological developments in the fashion world, she adds, “Adapt or die.”
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The Democratization of Fashion through Style Communities
Another category of fashion blogging, one that The Budget Babe touches upon at times, is that of a fashion and style-related news site. This category hits close to home for me, as I’m currently interning at Styleite, LLC, which provides its readers with the latest news of the fashion world, among many other fashion and style-related topics. Prior to the creation of websites like Styleite, readers turned to print publications for their fashion news (I’m sure, for many, Vogue will come into mind). That being said, print publications are, of course, still in business. Like websites, though, they too have had to adapt to the changing fashion world. As Baros so aptly puts it, they have had to “carve out their own niche,” just like every fashion-related website that has popped up in the past decade.
While Baros’s specialty is connecting to her readers through, in her own words, “unpretentious” and “fun” posts regarding affordable fashion, Verena von Pfetten, the Editor-in-Chief of Styleite, focuses more on news from high-fashion brands and industry titans – with, of course, a heavy dose of wit.
Von Pfetten, like Baros, has had substantial previous experience with writing for a website before her start at Styleite. As the former Living Editor at The Huffington Post, as well as from her past experience writing for Jezebel, The Daily Beast, Yahoo and more, von Pfetten is well-versed in the fast pace of online journalism.
Her extensive background with the modern fashion world aside, von Pfetten oversees an aspect of Styleite that’s separate from news sharing, namely Styleite’s StyleSheets. StyleSheets are essentially an online style community, in which members of the website can upload images of their own outfits, and tag the items that they’re wearing with the items’ brands. Viewers can then browse StyleSheets either by the images or by the brand tags, allowing them to have the ability to control which brands are included in their hunts for outfit inspirations.
In today’s realm of fashion, one that is increasingly more dependent on access to the internet, technology has played a crucial role in giving individuals the authority to express their personal style in a way that is both inclusive and influential. Von Pfetten is familiar with this evolution, “When we launched Styleite, we wanted to create more than just a fashion blog, we wanted to create a community. And if there’s one thing we wholeheartedly support, it’s the democratization of fashion.”
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As von Pfetten suggests, the internet has done more than just allow consumers to witness the goings-on of the fashion world, it has allowed them to participate in, interact with, and sway the creative ebb and flow of style. Von Pfetten says, “Fashion has become incredibly democratic and accessible. Magazines like Vogue, though still incredibly influential, are no longer the gatekeepers to the industry. Websites and blogs have helped bring fashion to the masses, which is great.”
Perhaps the greatest shift within the online fashion world in recent years has been away from online shopping for an item towards online shopping for a style. Rather than the directors of retail powerhouses dictating what to wear and how to wear it, authority – though not all – has been transferred over to personal style bloggers or participants in online communities like StyleSheets, causing buyers to be influenced by more than just the industry-paid styling of models.
“We hoped StyleSheets would be a place where people could both share their style and be inspired by others…While the shopping aspect is great — instant gratification! — the best part [about StyleSheets] is being able to look at a staple of your wardrobe and see all the different ways a diverse group of people have worn it,” says von Pfetten. “The best style and fashion communities on the web aren’t just about browsing, they’re about interacting and that’s what we hoped to foster with our StyleSheets.”
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The Fashion World’s Response and the Future of Technology in Fashion
As one might expect, large and small retailers alike have noticed shoppers’ trends, namely the influence that personal style bloggers and participants in online style communities have had. “Instead of fighting against bloggers and websites and instantaneous coverage,” von Pfetten explains, “they’re going straight to the source by livestreaming their shows, creating engaged Twitter and Facebook profiles, and interacting directly with their fans and customers.”
So what does this mean, exactly? For starters, fashion, though still vastly hierarchical, is no longer oligarchic. Anyone with access to the internet has a fighting chance to influence fashion as much as world-renowned style titans like Rachel Zoe or Patricia Field. Look at Tavi Gevinson, who started her fashion blog, Style Rookie, in 2008 when she was just eleven years old, and has since risen so far to the top that she was even seated next to Vogueeditor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, in the front row of a New York Fashion Week show last September.
The mentality of the online fashion world seems to be, as von Pfetten puts it, “Aspirational, but…never…exclusionary.” And, without the glitz and glam of editorials and couture, what could be more democratic than fashion?
Fashion, or much more simply, the way in which people choose to dress themselves, is applicable to all people, in all cultures — worldwide. The existence of an exclusive society of dictators of fashion is, in a word, unnatural, because style is above all else, personal. Everyone, everywhere is faced with the daily choice of how to dress him or herself, and that choice should not and cannot be reliant on the opinions of a few individuals. The internet, and the communities and outlets that it provides, has opened the floodgates to the rest of us, the rest of the world, who, like the top tier in the fashion industry, have to dress ourselves, one leg at a time, every morning, and decide what we want to wear, and how we want to wear it. The difference is that, unlike before, we now have the opportunity to share our decisions, and most notably, to influence others.
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And it doesn’t just stop at blogs. Yes, technology has allowed for more effective means of participation in the world of fashion, but it also has paved the way for new means of communication and creative sharing. One that’s worth noting is Luminate, formerly known as Pixazza, which offers the world’s first platform for image applications, essentially creating interactive images that can be used for commerce, advertising, information, sharing, and more. Luminate recently partnered with Hearst Magazines Digital Media, and it will be launched on Redbookmag.com and HouseBeautiful.com before being used across Hearst’s online network. This new technology, which is backed by Google Ventures, will transform the way in which we view and use images. Luminate CEO, Bob Lisbonne, explains, “Just as phones evolved from merely voice calls to Smartphones with apps, now consumers can enjoy relevant apps inside every online image.”
Luminate will open the door for further democratization, which will undoubtedly impact the fashion world, since, as an aesthetic industry, it will be forced to adapt to the changing scene of visual communication.
And the shift in the way that we use communication won’t stop there. Google recently introduced its social media website, Google+, which, among its other features, offers group video chats, or “Hangouts.” While these chats will be used for communicating in settings ranging from personal to business, they will, inevitably find their place in the fashion world, as most technological updates have. For consumers, group communication, especially when it’s as visual as video chatting, will be crucial to the way in which people dress themselves, as they can now receive instant style feedback from more than just one person at any given time. Furthermore, such technology will allow for people to watch their favorite livestreaming runway shows, witness product launches, or discuss an interview of industry titans together, in one, communal space.
Above all of its other contributions to the fashion world, the internet has most notably transformed the industry into a community, which is only enhanced by interactive images, like those now offered by Luminate, or “Hangouts.” As it has with most things, the internet has made fashion available to the masses, which, considering the exclusivity of the fashion industry, is a major feat. Where the fashion world was once limited to those with bottomless pockets or limitless influence, it is now, whether willingly or not, open to anyone with access to internet and enough time to devote to participating in a rapidly expanding community.
The new world of fashion will be as democratic as it will be fluid, changing as quickly as a blogger can hit his or her “publish” button. With influences coming everywhere from the mind of a talented eleven-year-old to that of industry moguls, fashion will no longer live season-to-season, or even runway-to-runway, it will increasingly exist between those, morphing and adapting to the whims of the masses as they decide what to wear and how to wear it.
Sources:
Dianna Baros, Founder and Editor of The Budget Babe
Verena von Pfetten, Editor in Chief of Styleite, LLC.
http://www.itproportal.com/2011/07/28/luminate-brings-interactive-images-partners-with-hearst/ – ixzz1UHVLQVTL
Photo Sources:
http://www.manyfacesofbeauties.com/?p=685
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http://www.thebudgetbabe.com/archives/4039-What-Im-Wearing-LC-Lauren-Conrad-Ruffle-Racerback-Dress.html
http://www.thebudgetbabe.com/archives/3924-What-Im-Wearing-LOFT-Crossover-Shirtdress.html
http://www.dan-abrams.com/dan-abrams-websites-today-72/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/dan-abrams-launching-styl_n_481784.html
http://www.styleite.com/media/verena-von-pfetten-fox-5-royal-wedding/