A talk on personal style blogging


'What is style?' Photography: L.March Styling: Fran Tyler MUA: Mia Hughes Model : myself 

I have been  suffering from a rather  painful swelling  due to some dental problem and also had to deal with a stolen wallet (which meant getting a police report, blocked cards etc) but I really could not miss the talk given this evening by Rosalind Jana and Dr Rosie Findlay at London College of Fashion (LCF) on style blogs, entitled "Strangers in Style: Digital Intimacy and the Self Becoming on the Style Blogosphere". It  was a conversation, rather than a talk, led by Dr Agnès Rocamora, who asked probing questions, later opening it up to those in attendance.
Oxford graduate writer, poet, style blogger and model Rosalind Jana,  currently digital editor of the magazine Violet began blogging in 2009 at just fourteen, whereas Rosie Findlay, lecturer in the Cultural and Historical Studies department and Dissertation Coordinator at LCF,  blogged while doing research on style blogs for her doctoral thesis at the University of Sydney, which has now been published as a book - Personal Style Blogs: Appearances that Fascinate. 
The event was well attended, indeed I was very lucky to be able to get a ticket. I really relished the discussion which addressed a number of topics, from creative blogging to communities, hidden labour, commodification and, naturally, the concept of 'influencer', a word that has entered our vocabulary, globally,  but whose meaning is not fixed.  Different sets of people understand being an  'influencer' in ways that can be poles apart.  What does being an 'influencer' really mean? Is it about consumers and brands, is it about being aspirational, is it about the number of one's followers?
The conversation around such issues was stimulating and I felt really inspired to do some soul searching and engage in some reflection on what blogging has become and what it means to me, as I too am a blogger, though not exactly a fashion style blogger.

Agnès Rocamora, Rosalind Jana and Rosie Findlay

Findlay no longer blogs, Jana still does from time to time. Both speakers noted that style blogging now is very different from what it was a decade  ago, when blogging was a creative endeavour rather that a commercial one. Blogging has become professionalised and the relationship of bloggers with brands is all important, there is also a convergence between fashion journalism and style blogging in that brands sponsor magazines and expect content that promotes their products, so that fashion journalists are placed in a position similar to that of professional bloggers.
I personally believe that the efflorescence of creative style  blogging that we have witnessed is definitely on the wane. Blogging as such is undergoing a major transformation, Instagram seems to have taken over and the stories bloggers told through their disciplined writing, giving vent to their creativity though the written word is now being translated by the very same individuals into the visual narratives of Instagram. Instagram  has greater immediacy, it cannot be denied. Through their Instagram accounts, style bloggers and former style bloggers can pay greater attention to  images,  curate content by adding short write ups under  photos to complement their visuality,  ensuring  that the right hashtags are used. This is, effectively, the death of blogging as such, as we have known it.
I have often toyed with the idea of wrapping up my blog - I started in May 2010.  The Real Does Not Efface Itself has been a personal exploration of modelling, of the visual image, and the written word, leaving behind my academic persona. I have never accepted to collaborate with any brand, to me blogging has to be first and foremost a way to express myself.
But I have felt the lure of Instagram and I can see its potential, the opportunity it affords to use the written word in a different way. I am of course aware of the commercial uses of Instagram, but  I am not particularly interested in that.

1960's inspired. Styling: Suzie Coulon. Photographer: Scott Salt

I know of bloggers  who  are really making the most of Instagram, through short videos and photos - not just of themselves -  in a creative way, using their images sometimes as social and cultural commentary, sometimes in a humorous way, sometimes to promote themselves. They may occasionally write a blog post - some have ceased to do so altogether: overall their creativity has been channelled into   a different medium .
So why should/would I carry on blogging?
 I shall continue, integrating it more with Instagram perhaps, but I shall definitely continue. It is to do with the discipline of writing, something that came up in this evening's discussion. I do not know how many people read what I write - I used to get comments, not so much now. But blogging is still deeply satisfying and as I have now  done it for a period of eight years, going nine, it gives me an overview of significant incidents and/or issues with which I have engaged  over a considerable time span, including research notes. A sort of public journal/notebook, if you like.
This alone makes it worthwhile to carry on.


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