Fashion Blogs: Are we saturated yet?

Maya Villiger, of Australia’s Russh Magazine in reference to fashion blogs recently wrote that “more than a zeitgeist, street style has become a movement; you can barely open a weekend newspaper supplement without learning of yet another must-follow blog”. Indeed, the demand to capture fashion of the ordinary, by the ordinary has begun to rival high-fashion.

Why buy expensive glossys, such as Vogue and Harper’s, when you can get instant fashion online – I recently stated “the only benefit magazines have over the internet is you can read them in the bathtub without fear of electrocution and you can cut and paste your favorite bits” to which my friend replied “have you never heard of the “Copy” and “Paste” function on your computer?”.  The Australian magazine industry was hit exceptionally hard this year, with coverage of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week appearing instantly on hundreds of blogs and discussed in countless articles in a matter of days, while Vogue, Harper’s and Shop Til You Drop (which are printed monthly) published their coverage a month later – by which point those who cared had already had their fix online.

However, with Street Style photographers and fashion bloggers turning their passion for fashion into dollar signs, is there room in the market for more? Style Stalker, an Australian blog run by two young women, used their blog to launch a successful international fashion label by the same name, selling both online and wholesaling globally. Tommy Ton, who launched the blog, Jak and Jil, in 2008, achieves over 1.5 million hits a month!

The success of fashion blogs stems from two desires; 1. To be apart of the fashion industry working behind the scenes and attending fashion shows ‘dressed to the nines’. 2. To see how to interpret fashion in realistic and wearable ways. And I guess a third stemming from our own narcissistic desire to be photographed and seen by the masses and to compare ourselves to others – hence why the entrances of fashion shows these days are looking more and more like a family eating fish and chips on the beach while the young women hover like hungry seagulls trying to get their picture taken.

Candice Lake of the blog Style Magnolia described the change in demand perfectly when she said; “When I was doing the shows seven years ago as a model, there were never photographers outside the shows waiting to shoot us. Now, it is like a month-long paparazzi pit. Personal style bloggers are everywhere, models have once again become famous and the editors are now celebrities”. Consumers appear to have developed an insatiable desire to see how bloggers/editors/models are interpreting fashion – supported by the bombardment of reality television and photographs of young actresses and singers in their day-to-day life away from the red carpet.

Yet is there any room for more? I myself have been considering starting a fashion blog, if for no other reason than to show my point of view, share my knowledge, practice my writing and give my fashion-eye a workout. But what will I offer the saturated market place? What areas (if any) are open for fashion blog new-comers, or has the next big thing already began?