Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will be familiar with super blogger-cum-fashion editor Susie Lau of StyleBubble. She’s the ultimate defendant of the blogging community, a contributing writer for Business of Fashion and Dazed Digital, a fashion icon and a woman with intelligence, integrity and poise. Her unique voice is known and respected in both the journalism and blogging communities; this makes her something of a rarity.
I heard that she would be in conversation with Zhang Tseng, editor of Dazed Digital, to discuss the ever-changing face of fashion. An opportunity too good to miss, I tuxed-up and headed over to McQ on Dover Street to hear what she had to say.
Lau’s view of a truly global fashion industry means that, at least for her, the ‘big four’ (Paris, London, Milan and New York) are less relevant now. With an ever-increasing calendar of localised fashion weeks, the industry is becoming more and more fragmented. Kiev, Lagos, Shanghai: all are hosting exciting, fashion-forward runway shows – and fine, it’s not New York, but there’s promising talent being showcased at these condensed three-day fashion affairs.
It’s also worth noting that the runway is no longer the sole dictator of trends. More than ever it’s the bloggers, instagrammers and Google translated fashion magazines influencing the consumer. Even the most remote style blogger can have a global impact on trends. That is the world-shrinking power of the internet.
Take the Bleach London girls, the duo who specialise in dying hair in various shades of My Little Pony. Today, it’s catalysed a global hair colour trend. With their DIY dye packs, the once-Dalston based salon is now an international brand. That’s what a good social media presence can do for you.
Both Lau and Tseng described fashion blogging as having initially been something of a ‘cottage industry’; that is to say, a small, internally operated clique that began in bedrooms worldwide. Lau spoke about the supportive nature of fashion blogging in those early days (she began Style Bubble in March 2006), with regularly exchanged messages between the early players. It was, she said, “a way of showing fashion in a way that it hadn’t been seen before”.
Lau took great pains to differentiate between fashion blogging and personal style blogging – blogs solely dedicated to #OOTD and #fromwhereIstand posts. Of course personal style blogger aren’t journalists – and, to their credit, they usually don’t try to be – they offer a whole new form of communication, and one agents and brands are keen to get in on. These are brand spokespeople.
But what of the fashion blogs with editorial – like Girl in Menswear? Are we bloggers also journalists? No, not really. As Lau discussed, these types of blogs offer a new form of communication, which exists strictly online.
Susie Bubble represents something very unusual in the fashion world. Her blogging came first, her brief stint at Dazed Digital as editor followed, but ultimately she returned to blogging full-time. Lau proves that blogging can be a valid profession in itself. I guarantee there are bloggers on higher salaries than many fashion journos.
So what now? Who are the real influencers? For the time being it’s an intoxicating mix of bloggers and ‘the big four’…but perhaps change is imminent, with Lau leading the way.
Lizzie
Great post! I’m a big fan of Suzy. In a sea of ootd and personal style, it’s refreshing to read – actually read! – such a considered and often thought provoking take on the industry and its many and varied players. Plus, her style in all kinds of amazing.
Despite increasingly expanding my blog to encompass the reality of my interests and passions beyond fashion, I’m still intrigued by the direction of the blogging/instagram industry. One wonders how far it can go? At what point is the market saturated and for how long can these bloggers sustain real meaningful and engaged audiences – the very thing that makes them attractive to brands. Plenty of question, no clear answer. But I’m sticking around to see how it plays out!
Hiya Kirbybee, thank you for your comment.
I’m really glad you liked the post; thank you, too, for the compliments. Really kind of you.
Agreed, Susie’s style is absolutely on point. I really can’t think of anyone who looks like her, she’s carved her own path there. And, of course, she’s got a mind like a steel trap to compliment her look!
Very good point – surely there will come a time when nothing on Instagram is original any more? You have to commend the ones who got in there early and built up a serious following before anyone had even thought to utilise Instagram et. al. for publicity. But, yes, eventually it will become old-hat and we’ll all be sniffing around for the next ‘it’ way to engage. Snapchat, perhaps? Alex Wang has done a lot of interactive stuff with Snapchat of late.
I’ll be hanging around to see what happens too!
Thanks again, have a great day.
Lizzie xx