Bloggers, street style and the fashion industry

This is meant to represent blogging.

I just read this article on the impact of bloggers on London Fashion Week - is it cool that bloggers are being given respect or has the inclusion of amateurs diluted the status of the event? As far as I could tell, there were two ways in which blogging impacted on LFW:

1. I saw a few people around who I recognised from my Google Reader. I was too shy to say hello to any of them.
2. Everywhere you went, streetstyle bloggers were asking people for pictures of their outfits.

Issue 1

In the article above, BitchBuzz criticises bloggers who’ve been given access to LFW shows and then fail to take advantage of it, don’t post about it on their blogs and instead view the experience as an opportunity to get freebies and “be seen”. I don’t think this is true, although I’d agree about some quality control being in order. But maybe everyone will get around to posting and this is a speediness issue rather than a lack of care?

I have tried to do as much coverage as I can while writing things up for my internship as well, and Mademoiselle Robot has run an exemplary blog, covering loads of shows and getting photos and descriptions out there in double-quick time (but bear in mind she has help and a lot of access to popular shows). Hardly any other media outlets have done; it’s not just bloggers, working alone, who are slow, the big guns with huge teams are too.

It didn’t even occur to us at Disco Nap to ask for tickets to fashion shows. We need to start asking for more stuff instead of having like, integrity and shiz.

Issue 2

Street-style blogging, much like every other type of blogging, is available to anyone with the internet and a camera but it doesn’t make you good at it. I don’t love any particular street-style blog but I know they work hard at what they do and have an eye for an interesting photo. Crucially, people want to be photographed by the Sartorialist, Facehunter (see a look from the blog below) and Garance Dore. The teenaged style police hovering around the entrance may be just as talented but they definitely aren’t as polite.

Write your blog address on some slips of paper so people know who you are. Don’t just snap people who look like models wearing Topshop and imagine you’re capturing the zeitgeist. Also, style comes in more than one look at a time and in every shape and size. It started being a bit like school, with people assessing how cool you look/are, rather loudly while you stood there minding your own business.

In summary

Clearly I would love it if I get invited to Luella and Eley Kishimoto shows in the Spring so I am pretty biased about whether bloggers descending on Fashion Week is a good thing or not. We put loads of effort into the blog so I think it’s reasonable that we get some press access. But on the other hand, I don’t want blogs to go pro – it’s the ramshackleness and diversity of it that I love. I’m happy that bloggers don’t owe the PRs anything. You’ll get more honest commentary from a catty message board than you will from journalists with advertising to maintain. Let’s just all try and get along.

S

Disconnected thoughts on the theme of White

Image courtesy justjared.com

January Jones from Mad Men at the Emmy’s t’other day finally lifted me out of my bored state of mind when it comes to the red carpet. Clearly what we need is more “pretty robot” style. After Christina Hendricks, January Jones is my new Prettiest Girl in the World. Mad Men is superlative and she just looks more and more beautiful as episodes go on.

Obviously I won’t be popping out to the shops in white robo-gowns but there is something beautiful about an all white, snuggly wool outfit in the gloom of winter. I saw a girl last year in white and gold with beautiful cream-coloured hair done in a crown of plaits. She was standing at Lewisham bus station but really deserved to be going to the Crillon ball, dressed by Chanel.

Image courtesy justjared.com

At the other end of the scale of amazing TV, Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl is in white too. COINCIDENCE? Yes.

I wish designers would hem everything though as I am very tired of the deconstructed, flyaway threads look.

Osman

I went to this show but decided not to review it as I wasn’t very inspired by it other than this look, although I sat next to a really nice girl who was in raptures. You can read my burblings on it over at Amelia’s Magazine. It did show that white isn’t just for little girls or the bridal look you often see on American TV actors. I personally have an absolute yen for white cotton frocks, although this is a summer past-time so I am safe for the minute.

S

High tea with Lulu Guinness

Not Lulu herself, sadly, who was called away at the last minute, but her very charming minions. Ten or so lucky bloggers were invited to eat this beautiful tea at the Metropolitan hotel and A and I got to sit next to Katie and Joe from What Katie Wore. Katie is really beautiful in real life, as was Kathrin of Fashionista Diary who sat on my right (you can see Katie’s snazzy yellow Cos outfit from the event here). I have my charms but they are very much reduced after I have been caught in a major rainstorm. I was in good spirits though, as you can see.

Katie and Joe pronounced themselves winners of the cake-eating contest and I really wish I hadn’t tried to out-do them as I may have overindulged a little. It emerged afterwards that this is a low-fat “healthy” tea; those glass jars contain delicious “bread-free sandwiches”. I am suspicious of low-fat cake alternatives as a rule but these were nice and I guess it is aimed at Fashion Week nibblers and not bloggers. As RetroChick notes in her report, there were no bird-like eaters at this tea and everyone left with a doggie bag of extra cakes although I fed mine to hungry friends as I may have exploded and died if I ate any more.

I had already started on this biscuit because I am a greedy piglet.

What started off with earnest chats about online media etc inevitably got silly with some of the signature Lulu lips biscuits. It’s great being a blogger sometimes.It was cool to meet other bloggers and I found it quite amazing how generous Lulu Guinness were to us, laying on such a lovely tea. We do Disco Nap mainly for a laugh after all, as you can probably tell.

S

p.s. I want to clarify that my hair looked amazing when I left the house, and that despite the cliche, London actually has lower than average rainfall compared to most large cities in the world.

New magazines

I know we’re all very excited about the new Dasha Zhukova-edited Pop magazine but frankly, I spent my magazine money on Love a few weeks ago and I am bitter about it, so we will discuss it no further, except to say that I saw a couple of the beautiful Klimt-esque Tavi covers at the Tate Modern shop and I wanted them. But I walked away, and instead Sting’s daughter keeps looking at me from where I have placed her by the bed, ready to tear out all the good pictures when I have time.

Chosen purely for being "intriguing", Coco is undeniably beautiful and as quick-witted and silver-tongued as the average garden snail.

What I really like about Tavi is how eloquent she is. She does all fashion blogs a favour by writing in a coherent way without emoticons, about topics she is passionate about. I think she dresses well according to her own tastes and that’s good enough for me. As well as being photographed in her now trademark standoffish pose, she wrote a little blurb and it was much better written than a lot of the rest of the magazine, much of which was dross in need of a spellcheck.

Tavi in Love.

I had little to no interest in the heirs to the Playboy fortune, and I really didn’t need to hear about how boring lesbians are when they’re not busy being skinny fashion plates. It seems as if whoever wrote that article for Love hadn’t actually read Beth Ditto’s awesome cover story the issue before. The message of this little article was that lesbians should stop conforming to stereotypes or being political. Truly, under this banner slogan from a straight, married person, lesbians of the world can unite. Cats will be left to die in the street and sensationally talented but non-skinny vocalist kd lang will be declared bankrupt.

In other mag news, I actually spotted one I’d never seen before while prowling around WH Smith’s the other day (I spend quite a lot of time hanging out near magazine racks it seems). Why would anyone launch a magazine now unless it’s going to be amazing? The main question that needs to be answered is why anyone would launch this magazine at all, because look at it:

What does the title mean? It is clearly not a home or design magazine, it’s a fashion magazine. I was going to scrawl comments on this picture in MS Paint but they would all have been “?” as I am confused by everything. What are these bumps that lingerie can solve? Were there no better pictures of Cheryl Cole available? Have they been banned from using pleasant fonts?

I’m not averse to a personal makeover magazine. A long, long time ago there was a magazine called Looks that was all about “making the best of yourself” and it actually wasn’t too soul-destroying: as a young teenager I found a lot of the advice in it rather helpful. But then it didn’t look like someone decided a knock-off hybrid between Yours and Look was a brilliant commercial venture.

Saucer of milk for the S-drive today. I’m going to go and have a lie down now.

x S

Signposts

Hi guys! We’re still reeling from getting linked on the front page of WordPress and have loved all the attention. Here are some little bits while we get our blogging act back together in the aftermath.

• Friend of the blog designer Brooke Roberts gets interviewed by Amelia’s Magazine. A owns some of her amazing bedazzled leggings.
• Style Bubble is the first to get House of Holland tights, which look really fun. As well as the “Pantone” ones she plumps for, I really like these fake suspender ones. They are on the list of stuff to buy when I get a job. There’s a whole line available at My Tights.

 

S

Signposts

Sadie

• Sadie’s Wardrobe is a classic “what I wore” blog of the type I love so much. Sadie is a cutie with a penchant for perfect vintage pieces. Look at her above; is this not delightful?
• Deena over at Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too has done a really in-depth post on the Beth Ditto for Evans collection, with the classic “changing-room photo montage”. I love the dedication.
• Daydream Lily is a beautifully-designed image blog run by a photographer with an eye for beautiful, atmospheric pictures. If you like Loveology, you will probably dig this. It directed me to the website Aspiring Couture, which features these amazing wedding dresses from ecofriendly designer Blushless. Although there is no law stopping people from wearing white dresses every day, these are thousands of dollars worth of couture-standard dress. I wish I could see bigger pictures.

Have a good weekend.

S

Thigh-high boots

They’ve been around for a couple of seasons and although I’ve always liked the look of them on others, they still had too much sex industry baggage for me to really get into them. Plus, literally no one seems to have bought any. The continuing devotion of Queen Michelle has given me a little pause for thought. I think a large part of why they would work on her is to do with how slim she is and how un-pretty-pretty her style is a lot of the time. Unlike how they are styled on Rachel Weisz in her Harper’s Bazaar shoot, it would be imperative to remove as much sex or allure as possible from the rest of one’s apperance. I’m not dissing sex workers but I don’t want to take this look too literally.

I probably worry about this too much, but I definitely try to steer clear of anything too form-fitting or low-cut on my top half because of all the attention it immediately attracts. I’m never looking for male attention. So perhaps the best way to wear thigh-high boots would be just to emulate the classic skinny jeans/volume top silhouette we all know and love so well (I am incredibly dedicated to this personally). Will jeans go under these boots? I can’t wait to see Michelle’s take on them because the concept does rather intrigue me.  I just don’t think that Rachel Weisz, or anyone, could walk down the street wearing them this way.

On a side note, Rachel Weisz takes an incredible photograph.

S

Signpost – Le blog de big beauty

I am loving yet another French blog and slightly bemoaning the fact that I am bringing the jeggings to Biarritz and generally looking out of place AGAIN in the South of France. Why do French bloggers make our high street clothes look so much better than we do? A case in point is Le Blog de Big Beauty, whose author Stephanie Zwicky sports a fetching array of Dorothy Perkins and New Look – among which these Faith bow, slingback bootie things:

…which remind one of the Chanel ones, non? (RESPECT THE FLUENCY) as seen on Chung and Diane Kruger.

Le Blog de Big Beauty (catchphrase: “Style is not a size, it’s an attitude” which is absolutely embodied by the lovely, whimsical Madame LBdBB). She knows all about proportions and may have finally tipped the balance for me getting a blazer.

Oh god, bring on Autumn. It’s too hot here and I want a blazer.

S

Signposts

Some little bits:

• The Style PA testdrives the new strapless Wonderbra, declares it good. I can also add that Triumph does a brilliant strapless bra.
• LibertyLondonGirl discusses what on earth to wear next when one has reasonable curves. I hear her! Also, check her post on the topic of said curves from last year.
• This isn’t about underwear, but I want this flower headdress:

The headdress also reminds me of this seal. That’s good.

S

Whiter shades of pale

This is my blonde ambition right here:

From Elinkan, a Swedish blogger (well…clearly), who embraces her natural pallor. I would like to get my hair this pale and squeaky clean. Where has this urge to be entirely white all over come from? Looking back at photos of myself with brown hair feels really weird now.

I am getting myself used to have tiny roots because I can’t afford to have them redone every three weeks as I would like. I realise that the above ghostly goodness is probably not possible but I like looking. The blog, which is in Swedish but worth looking at for the pictures (or if you read Swedish I suppose) shows that it is all about the Swedish colours blue and yellow and not red for blondes.

S