Fashion blogs come in many shapes and sizes. The iconic street style photographer Scott Schuman, aka the Sartorialist, inspired a generation of DSLR clad fashion enthusiasts to hit the streets and take pictures capturing the outfits of random passerby. The history of street style photography dates back to the pre-internet era, though–think Bill Cunningham’s photos in The New York Times. A relatively newer type of fashion documentation is the personal style blog. Seaofshoes.com by Jane Aldridge is a prime example of this blog genre, one that consists of presumably wealthy females who post pictures of their daily getups followed by a list of the brands featured. A hybrid of these types, and a personal favorite of mine, is that of the Man Repeller. Her witty and intelligent commentary originated as an effort to celebrate those fashion trends women love but men hate: think harem pants. Man Repeller has exploded beyond the realm of the blogosphere into creative collaborations with well known designers (PJK, or those Del Toro flats). Author Leandra Medine even landed a book deal as a 23 year old. Needless to say, fashion blogs are immensely popular. Given many people’s preferences for digital media over print, the relevancy of fashion blogs is perhaps on par with that of magazines.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW ISSUE OF RVA MAGAZINE!
Fashion blogs come in many shapes and sizes. The iconic street style photographer Scott Schuman, aka the Sartorialist, inspired a generation of DSLR clad fashion enthusiasts to hit the streets and take pictures capturing the outfits of random passerby. The history of street style photography dates back to the pre-internet era, though–think Bill Cunningham’s photos in The New York Times. A relatively newer type of fashion documentation is the personal style blog. Seaofshoes.com by Jane Aldridge is a prime example of this blog genre, one that consists of presumably wealthy females who post pictures of their daily getups followed by a list of the brands featured. A hybrid of these types, and a personal favorite of mine, is that of the Man Repeller. Her witty and intelligent commentary originated as an effort to celebrate those fashion trends women love but men hate: think harem pants. Man Repeller has exploded beyond the realm of the blogosphere into creative collaborations with well known designers (PJK, or those Del Toro flats). Author Leandra Medine even landed a book deal as a 23 year old. Needless to say, fashion blogs are immensely popular. Given many people’s preferences for digital media over print, the relevancy of fashion blogs is perhaps on par with that of magazines.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW ISSUE OF RVA MAGAZINE!
As a Virginia native and 2011 transplant to Richmond, I never expected to find many fashion blogs based in the river city. The first Richmond fashion blog I encountered was Dirty Richmond. Here I found a blog akin to other global street style blogs, but one decidedly youthful, and so very, very RVA. [This magazine ran a story on Dirty Richmond’s Brian McDaniel in 2011.] Aside from this discovery, though, I spent my first year or so in Richmond assuming there weren’t any other local fashion blogs worth perusing. Here, dear reader, I confess that I fell into the trap of believing that oft-repeated myth: “New York and LA are the only places in this country that REALLY matter for fashion.” But while those cities do hold the largest fashion weeks, people everywhere wear clothes. Richmond has a large creative community, so it follows that we must have some creatives in the realm of fashion.
Sure enough, I eventually managed to discover a thriving mecca of local bloggers, particularly the RVA Fashion Bloggers group. As the official group of fashion and lifestyle bloggers in the area, RVAFB boasts a blogroll of over 50 bloggers. Created to help bloggers “not only find other bloggers like themselves but be able to ask for advice from each other, find out about local events, and more,” the group has evolved into a cohesive community. Almost a third of those involved attend group meetups. These meetups take the dialogue on Richmond fashion beyond the bloggers’ respective laptops, out into the city. One can expect a recap of said events on the members’ blogs, recaps that provide a digital homage to the Richmond’s sartorially inclined. Larissa W. runs RVA Fashion Bloggers, as well as From The Runway To RVA (fromtherunwaytorva.com) and a personal style blog called RVA Fashion Girl (rvafashiongirl.blogspot.com). She keeps RVAFB interactive amongst the community through events and special postings on the blog–for example, a “Tuesday top ten” which reviews selected posts from the previous week, as well as a Saturday spotlight on one RVAFB blogger via individual interview.
I spoke to other members of RVA Fashion Bloggers as well. Owen, who runs The Style Whale (thestylewhale.com), is currently a fashion merchandising major at VCU. He hasn’t attended any of the meetups, but loves that RVAFB allows “many people who have different taste in their blogging styles, so we each bring something new to the table.” He specifically cited an RVAFB post where Larissa had each of the bloggers contribute their two favorite shows from New York Fashion Week. “Everyone featured something different,” he says. His blog offers a commentary on fashion, primarily the high-end variety, peppered with instagrams of his own outfits. I found it to be incredibly well curated for a tumblr blog–many of which tend to be busy and a bit fluffy, if you will.
Anett’s blog, Frshsqueezed (frshsqueezed.com), features beautiful collages of various clothing and accessories, as well as pictures of her own outfits, seamlessly merging commentary with personal style documentation. Written in both English and Hungarian (she’s from Budapest, a beautiful city that she travels back to as frequently as possible), Anett’s blog is one of my favorites of the local crop. The layout is simple, the photos beautiful, and the curation mature. She explains frshsqueezed as “a mix of my international take on fashion.” Given her unique perspective, I asked Anett about her thoughts on fashion in Richmond, as her opinion on this matter isn’t quite clear from the cosmopolitan tone of the blog. In her opinion, “Richmond has an extremely interesting blend of hipster influence that reminds me of Brooklyn, yet it also shows subcultures of everything from hippies, college preppy to the surfer/skater culture. I enjoy seeing something new every day.” Following in the wake of Man Repeller and other bloggers who collaborate creatively with brands and stores, Frshsqueezed recently collaborated with Dillard’s at Short Pump Town Center to style and shoot an editorial based on their spring clothes. This business-minded approach takes Frshsqueezed out of the realm of mere hobby and shows that opportunities abound for the motivated blogger.
For Larissa’s personal blog, RVA Fashion Girl, she posts pictures of herself posing around town, self described as a “personal fashion diary.” She mentioned that she wants to increase the amount of locally bought clothing featured on the blog, in hopes of driving viewers to shop in town. We agreed that retail in the city has improved immensely over the past few years, and it’s worth making the effort to seek out local boutiques, as opposed to the “all you can eat” format of the great American shopping mall. She knows all of the blogs in the area, and mentioned that one of her favorites belongs to Bella Styles (bellastyles.com). Bella blogs about and styles clothing for plus-sized women. I love that this blog exists, as seeing the same cultural beauty norms enforced by the fashion industry replicated repeatedly on fashion blogs can be quite grating. Richmond bloggers, in my opinion, keep it real by way of promoting a healthy body image, not solely the body types that fit into runway sample sizes.
Larissa’s efforts to post regularly on her personal blog as well as RVAFB have not gone unnoticed. The RVAFB network continues to grow. Anett claims that attending “the RVAFB meetups are one of my favorite parts about being a blogger in this city.” When asked whether Richmond blogging community could benefit from this collective approach, Larissa explained that “the community is proactive in its desire to increase networking. I think the next level of this is to figure out how to grow bigger platforms of creative expression in Richmond, and to let everyone living here know about it.”
