Top fashion bloggers are exerting a big influence in today’s fashion industry with their widening viral power – in just one click!
By Kornkanok Yongsakul.
We live in a fast-paced world today when everything can be easily connected by just one click – as in things such as pop-up “live feeds” in Facebook or Instagram screens. How do these advanced technology applications and gadgets affect the fashionista in us? We are getting busier and busier each day, just checking out the “Fashion Live Feeds.” Me included.
We all have to belong to a Social Network, with a working account to keep us abreast of what’s happening around us, especially via what is probably the most popular apps these days, Instagram. To those who are still cyber dummies, Instagram is an online photo sharing and social networking service that enables users to take pictures, apply digital filters/effects to them, and eventually share them instantly on Facebook or Twitter. The operative phrase is “in an instant.”
Available on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices (but not for Blackberry) Instagram – launched only October 2010 — now counts over 100 million users around the world. Getting an Instagram, or IG, account is very simple and easy. And any photo posted in Instagram will be seen right away by followers, who can click “like” or add “comments” just as quickly.
Instagram has boosted that relatively the new trend we call blogging – and that relatively new professional we call the fashion blogger. There are bloggers from virtually every segment of our lives today: travel, lifestyle, photography, food, health, and beauty, — you name it. But it seems that those who are enjoying such heyday these days, getting the most attention, are the fashion bloggers.
Fashion bloggers have become big names indeed; they have become celebrities in their own right, a reflection of how ultra fashion-conscious most of us have become whether we admit it or not.
In fact, popular fashion bloggers today are exerting considerable influence in the fashion industry; they are being interviewed, reviewed, and quoted in every mainstream media — from New York to Nairobi, from Milan to Manila.
This is because the most successful fashion bloggers can create the so-called “buzz” and germinate more effective viral marketing for products in their live feeds. Such is their following today that many fashion and beauty companies are now shifting toward Instagram for their marketing. They use celebrities/bloggers to endorse their products.
Indeed, by posting photos in their accounts, the fashion bloggers make them more credible than maybe a hard-sell advertisement does. That’s why fashion blogs must be as realistic and authentic as possible. That’s why bloggers try to keep their accounts updated, with photos of something that is just happening, such as the latest styles from an ongoing fashion show; what piques their interests presently, even what they are wearing and where they are at the moment.
Successful fashion bloggers make it all feel immediate – as if their follower is experiencing the moment with them. They make other people feel more alive; and they do it with such unique personal pizzaz and style.
Here are some of the hottest fashion bloggers at the moment:
BLOND SALAD
The “Blond Salad” is a fashion blog created and run by lifelong fashionista Chiara Ferragani, a fulltime law student at Bocconi University in Milan. Chiara is a modern fashion icon with a distinctive sense of style. She is always very glamorous and always very chic – and so are her photos. Her blog was driven by a passion to pursue her own fashion interests, and she did it with such aplomb that Chiara became an established Internet “It-girl” at age 24.
How popular is Chiara? She now has over 667,000 followers engaged by her 4,000 photos in her Instagram account. She keeps her followers updated with her activities by posting photos in Live Feed every day: from the high-end fashion shows she attends (she’s always in the front row by the way), to her latest Valentino bags and shoes collection, to her own shoe line.
Her photos are fun to look at and they make one feel more alive, and each photo she uploads usually gets about 12,000 likes from followers.
The trendsetting Chiara has become a bonafide style icon in just one-click and whatever she wears and promotes become a “musthave” item for girls worldwide. Without having to invest anything at all, Chiara has become such as huge success that virtually all the famous designers are more than willing to deliver their latest items to her, so she may wear them and post their photographs on IG.
GARYPEPPERGIRL
Apart from “Blond Salad,” there is also Garypeppergirl. Originally from Australia, she owns a vintage clothing line at www. garypeppervintage.com. The account motto is “A Small Glimpse into the whimsical world of Gary Pepper.”
Her profile boasts 1,200 photos and in just a year, she has accumulated almost 400,000 followers. Her Instagram photos reflect her passion in life: cutesy artsy food, fashion, trends, interesting people, even her trips in different cities of the world which captures the joys of her journeys. Looking daily at her beautifully filtered photos — from the afternoon light over the Brooklyn Bridge and the micro shots of freshly cut fuchsia flowers on Valentine’s Day to the live feed photos of a Tommy Hilfiger show at “New York Fashion Week” — followers feel more “alive” and refreshed. Besides browsing through her fun photos, followers can not only admire her style but also shop for her vintage line.
MIRADUMA
From the fun, lively “Garypeppergirl,” let’s talk about the most uprising fashion icon of the moment: “Miraduma.” Now a major fashion international icon, Miraduma has her own fashion blog (www.buro247.ru. ). Her profile in Instagram has 1,800 photos and 212,000 followers.
Miroslava Duma, her real name, Miraduma was formerly editor for Harper’s Bazaar Russia. Now she’s a freelance writer for numerous publications such as OK Magazine Russia, Tatler, and Glamour. The 25-year-old socialite is the daughter of Russian senator Vasilay Dumal. In the autumn of 2012, Mira participated in the shooting of “Small is Beautiful,” a mini-film for Louis Vuitton worldwide.
Mira has earned an international reputation as a fashion icon because she is a regular presence at all the major fashion shows in Europe and elsewhere. She can often be found looking straight off the runway from her favorite designers such as Stella McCartney, Lanvin, Miu Miu, YSLI, Prada, and Ralph Lauren.
Her unique individual style is mix and match, and this is most obvious in her photos. Every day she would post (in live feed) fashion photos straight from the show she is attending, if not a fashion she sees on the street so people can see them as though they are actually where she is at, witnessing what she sees and experiences. Her look — and outlook — is always fresh, interesting, and polished, making her a remarkable fashion inspiration for young women around the world.
These three are among the most-talked about fashion and style bloggers in the world today. But there are many other bloggers in the social network as there are many blogging categories. And this makes our lives more interesting and exciting, if you ask me.
It is fun to look at what other similar minded people are doingand sharing with you, especially as pertains style and fashion. It’s worthwhile to know what new products are being endorsed and promoted that we can use in our daily life. And really it’s great that we can access them now — in just one click.
Fashion, as many other stuff in the cyberworld are, is not only information about trends, styles, and fashionable people. It is also entertainment. We enjoy knowing about what makes other people look good and how they do it. It is a source of much inspiration. We want to know what’s ‘hot’ and what’s ‘not.’ It is also a means of sharing in a dream that others actually live, which can transport ordinary people like us beyond the realm of mere existing to really living.
More outstanding fashion blogging please!
