How Blogs and Social Media Are Used in The Fashion Industry

      When was the last time you opened a fashion magazine? Most people these days would answer that they haven’t. Of course that question relates to those interested in fashion in the first place, but regardless within our digital world print media is going extinct. Instead to take their place are blogs and social media.

      Jane Aldridge currently at age twenty-three has designed several custom shoe collections for stores like Shoe Mint and Urban Outfitters, has been featured in most major fashion magazines, and has been sponsored by Chanel. It is rumored that she can earn up to about $5,000 for a sponsored post. How has Jane accomplished all of this so far in her career in fashion? The answer: blogging. Jane began blogging in April of 2007, when she was just fifteen years old. Her blog called “Sea of Shoes” features Jane mixing and matching luxury clothing and shoes in a way that was very uncommon compared to the average teenager her age. Jane represents the new “face” in the fashion industry. 

A photo of Jane from the post "Pinstripes & New Shoes" posted September 1, 2015

      Blogging is where a person or group of people post entries (“posts”) typically in reverse chronological order on a website. The word “blog” comes from a truncation of the expression web log. Posts can be made up of a multitude of material. For instance a post could be made up of photos from another fashion website and then the blogger would synthesize the trends of that specific season or look.  Most popular in fashion blogging, however, is the outfit post. The outfit post is where the blogger posts photos of their everyday outfit and then explains which clothing and accessories were worn, as well as their reason behind styling those specific pieces, or what they did that day while wearing that outfit.

       Fashion blogs are blogs that cover the fashion industry, clothing, and personal style.  What makes fashion blogs different than other blogs? One distinct difference is that fashion blogs are laced with advertisement and consumer recommendations. Meaning that there is a larger opportunity to make money from this kind of blogging than with other genres of blogging. In fact now designers and clothing companies are seeking out bloggers to promote their clothing because they see a new audience to market to.

       It is no surprise that blogging has changed the fashion industry greatly in the past decade. Before the rise of blogging, when the Internet was just beginning to boom in the 1990s, clothing companies advertised their clothing primarily in magazines. They would advertise both overtly in a full-page advertisement or they would send samples of their clothes to the magazines to be featured in an editorial spread.

"Fairytale Story" post published on February 12, 2015 sponsored by the designer Chloe

       However, it appears as though digital media tools have disrupted the exclusivity of fashion promotion. Nowadays bloggers, like Aldridge, are a new financial stream for advertisers seeking to sell the latest fashion. The advertisers and PR companies will send bloggers samples so that they can wear and write about the pieces in their posts. Unlike magazines, which produce one issue per month, bloggers post new content daily and in return receive hundreds of thousands of views per month. This has become a brand new way for advertisers to have access to more viewers than ever before. Fashion blogging has become a brand new way to profit for advertisers.