Let Slip the Blogs of Wore - Lara Zamiatin - Sydney Morning Herald - July 27, 2006

In this article, Zamiatin explores why fashion blogs have attracted so many readers in the past few months. She attributes their growing popularity to two major factors: a sense of immediacy (blogs respond to what is happening currently, and provide updates more frequently than magazines, which are generally issued once a month) and a candid, often humorous writing style not found in fashion magazines. She briefly discusses the recent efforts among fashion bloggers, such as the editors of Coutorture, an online fashion blogging community, to bring together all fashion blogs in one place where users can find them all quickly and easily. Such a community would help democratize fashion by allowing for a multiplicity of voices and allowing readers to leave feedback.

Zamiatin comments that some of the more popular fashion blogs concern themselves with celebrity fashion, thus treading on ground traditionally covered by the mainstream fashion press. However, Zamiatin does not think that fashion blogs will eclipse traditional media such as magazines – instead, will they supplement mainstream media by providing new, current information for fans to consume and discuss.

Zamiatin’s discussion of immediacy and style as two distinguishing features of fashion blogs can be widened to describe much user-generated content created in today’s participatory internet culture: YouTube videos are known for their quick stream-times and often satiric content while web comics such as Achewood or Toothpaste for Dinner are updated daily and offer ridiculous, humorous content. A fashion blog community, such as Coutorture or ShareYourLook.com (see entry) would act as a sort of YouTube for the fashion industry, allowing the best blogs to rise to the top and gain the most pageviews, thus placing fashion even further into the hands of the masses.

Zamiatin is probably correct in arguing that blogs will not displace traditional fashion reporting, but she misses one of the more obvious reasons why this is so: the advantage of an actual (as opposed to virtual) magazine is that you can roll it up, toss it into a backpack and read it in the park or on the beach. While Sidekicks and other devices that allow users to access their email remotely are growing more and more popular, there is something about curling up with a magazine that can not be replicated with a tiny Sidekick screen.

Furthermore, while Zamiatin argues that fashion blogs democratize fashion culture, one could also argue that by focusing on celebrities, many blogs actually reinforce the cultural distance between celebrities and the greater reading public. Instead, it seems more likely that street style blogs, who random stylish strangers, have the potential to democratize fashion by portraying it as something exemplified by ordinary people.

Red Carpet Diaries: Confessions of a Glamour Boy - Steven Cojocaru - Ballantine Books - 2004

The memoirs of industry insider Steven Cojocaru, Red Carpet Diaries traces Steven’s rise from a blurb writer for People to the host of the Oscar Review and the Today Show’s fashion correspondent. Cojocaru’s voice is varied and descriptive, shifting quickly from bitingly critical to blissfully in awe, depending on the fashion or fashionista at hand. A no-nonsense, trend-obsessed expert, Cojocaru flippantly throws out the names of top designers and galas, touting each celebrity run-in as just another day in his exciting and dramatic life. Style-conscious from birth, Cojocaru developed an interest in fashion from his mother, an Elizabeth Taylor look-alike, while growing up in Canada. Yet his high style helped him rise to the top, where he spends his free time hanging out with celebrities and providing viscous commentary on what others are wearing.

An artifact arising from popular culture, Cojocaru’s book is aimed at fashion lovers and fans of Cojocaru’s (or Cojo, as he is often called) television segment. The result is the snarky combination of affect and criticism that fans have come to love. In adopting such a voice however, Cojo portrays the fashion world as an exciting exotic place only accessible to a chosen elite. While speaking (ostensibly) to the greater reading public, Cojo still maintains a distance from his readers, as one with superior knowledge and experience. This approach is strikingly different from that adopted by Navarro in his interview with fashion blogger Scott Schuman. Navarro portrays Schuman as a regular guy, comparable to any of his readers, yet Cojocaru asserts earlier on in his book that, “I was ‘different’ from the get-go…I was convinced that I was Princess Grace and Prince Rainier’s love child” (6). Through such choices, Cojocaru chooses to distinguish himself from his readers, rather than relate to them.

Published in 2003, Cojo’s book now seems trite and outdated. As the democratization of blogging allows both fashion insiders and experienced coolhunters to seek out cutting edge news and trends via the blogosphere, “confessional” accounts such as Cojo’s seem self-important and irrelevant. Why read the boastings of an industry insider when you too can become an insider, by browsing the blogs for free from your own home? Cojo’s knowledge is no longer privileged, and as a result, it is less valuable. Surrounded by a world of voices commenting on fashion and celebrities, Cojocaru’s voice blends in with hundreds of others commenting on the same people and trends.

Reviews of Cojo’s book were mixed; posted reader responses on Amazon.com alternate between praising Cojo’s witty style and berating the book as trivial gossip. Even among the star’s fans, it seems that the democratization of fashion blogging has diminished the power of industry insiders such as Cojo, making them appear self-important and boring as a result.

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Let Slip the Blogs of Wore - Lara Zamiatin - Sydney Morning Herald - July 27, 2006

Red Carpet Diaries: Confessions of a Glamour Boy - Steven Cojocaru - Ballantine Books - 2004