The catwalk on the Internet: Fashion blogs
Just like every year, the infamous Fashion Weeks were just around the corner this fall. Countless fashion enthusiasts—dressed as stylishly as possible, of course—flocked to New York, London, Milan, or Paris.
The visitors are no longer just celebrities, models or designers, rather the number of fashion bloggers who share the well-known "first row" at fashion shows with influential fashion journalists has increased. Online, too, fashion blogs are currently running at full speed, blogging, posting, sharing and linking for all they're worth. But this blogger invasion doesn't just apply during Fashion Week, because today fashion blogs rule the world of fashion on the Internet. Anyone and everyone can join in and start a blog, all they need is Internet access - and off they go. There are countless blogs and new ones are added every day. But let's be honest: what are fashion blogs really good for?
They write about all sorts of things, from lifestyle and design to beauty and fashion trends. The bloggers, who are mostly young women, publish the latest trends in short articles, announcing what they are currently wearing or where they are at the moment. The intended side effect? Companies and organizations become aware of fashion bloggers and send them promotional gifts in the hope of an entry in the blog.
Chiara Ferragni is a real fashion blogger star. The Italian runs a successful blog under the name "The Blonde Salad" (www. theblondesalad.com). She has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram (@chiaraferragni) and a whopping 370,000 fans from all over the world on Facebook. Of course, there are also some very successful international blogs in the Swiss fashion scene. For example, Sandra Bauknecht's blog (www.sandrascloset.com) caught my eye. The Zurich native has been investing a lot of time and effort in her internationally renowned blog for several years now. She is of course also represented on Facebook and Instagram (@sandrascloset).
In addition to these now quite professional players, there is an abundance of self-portraying amateurs. Small stages for self-presentation in countless possible and impossible poses. A tragedy of the vanities. Many turn out to be rather useless. Everyone can have their say, add their two cents, and suddenly everyone becomes a fashion expert. All too often, the writers get lost in too many topics and the website becomes confusing. Sometimes an article about cosmetics here, sometimes one about a store opening there. The main thing is to take part. The bottom line is simple. Even in the Web 2.0 era, quality content unfortunately remains thin on the ground. Or in other words: "You,re not deep. You,re not intellectual. You,re not an artist. You,re not a critic. You,re not a poet. You just have internet access."
Manuel P. Nappo, Director of Studies CAS Social Media
Management HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich.
www.fh-hwz.ch/smm
