Not Dead Yet: Stop Saying Fashion Blogs Are Over!

Fashion bloggers aren’t what they used to be. Ever since street-style power couple Garance Doré and Scott Schuman broke up, there’s been a spate of articles bemoaning the state of the fashion blog. These sites used to be so fun! So authentic! So untainted by the glamor and influence of free designer merch! Now they’re all business — quelle horreur!

The Financial Times is the latest publication to eulogize the fashion blog, pining for the days when Bryan Boy was pounding out his fanboy gushings in his tiny bedroom in the Philippines, when Garance Doré offered her illustrated musings only in French, when Tavi Gevinson was just the quirky fashion-obsessed tween behind the blog The Style Rookie (and not the head of a teen media empire), when the Sartorialist showcased not fashion editors — but moms, shop girls, and “sometimes even vagrants.”

Have fashion blogs really lost their charm, their edge, their smarts? Many of these “bloggers” — a term that feels so antiquated already — have actually grown to do more exciting, ambitious, and even authentic content. Just look at Gevinson’s Rookie — a grrrl-empowering, sophisticated, and completely unique take on feminism, pop culture, fashion, and just being a teen — that is a far truer expression of who its wunderkind editor-in-chief has become as a young adult. Garance Doré’s whimsical, oh-so-French drawings have gotten sharper without losing any of their effortlessly scrawled appeal. (And, I admit that I was first in line to snap up her adorable stationary and notepads when they launched.)

Furthermore, the Internet is bursting with even stranger, more creative, and smarter fashion content than ever. There’s Arabelle Sicardi’s Fashion Pirate, a fantastic personal-style queer-minded site with gorgeous shots and a healthy dose of feminist theory. Then there are the plethora of fashion-focused Tumblrs that range from the serious (like the aptly named It’s OK for Intellectual Feminists to Like Fashion) and the high-minded (see: Textbook, which imagines literary characters dressed in the latest runway clothes), to the irreverent (Fuck Yeah Menswear), and downright silly (the Cosby Sweater Project).

So, is the fashion blog dead? Hardly. (The Financial Times)