At the interactive conference South by
Southwest (march 2013) the following session took place:
“Fashion and beauty bloggers have garnered much attention in the
media. They have the ability to influence consumer perception and
purchasing, like celebrities and models before them. How long will
they hold onto this mantle? What will the field develop into and/or
who and what will supplant them? Or will they supplant themselves
by evolving?”

I joined this session about fashion & beauty bloggers that was hosted by Caroline
Waxler, a digital strategist that also organizes Internet week in new York. Caroline’s presentation slides were interesting:

1. Bloggers as curators
For example fashionblogger Aimee Song from Song of
Style cooperation with webshop Piperlime. Retailers should connect
with bloggers, because the engagement bloggers drive with
their audience is really amazing. Read more about Aimee and
Piperlime on the GAP blog.
2. Bloggers as designers There’s tons of examples here
like Elin kling for Guess, blogger Jane van Sea of shoes for Urban Outfitters
and Man repeller with PJK.
Just like top-designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Roberto Cavalli designing for
H&M, now bloggers are asked for their abillity to drive
sails and offcourse for their good and popular taste.
3. Bloggers as models/muses
Examples are Rumi Neely for forever 21, Bryan Boy for Marc Jacobs, Emily Schuman for Estee Lauder.
4. Career blogger Becoming a
journalist like Brian Stelter for the New York Times
and Tavi Gevinson for her own blog The Style
Rookie and now publishing books because of her
popularity.

Bloggers got published and celebrated (sxsw session from EATPGH bloggers)

We talked about the question if blogging is journalism, the critique is
often given that it’s not. And I always say: it depends on the
blogger, a blog is journalism if all ‘rules’ of journalism apply to
what the blogger does and writes. Most of the time, it’s more like
a column, a one point of view. But sometimes it really is done with
a thorough research and you can call it journalism, for example
what Brian Stelter does now for the New York Times.

The business behind blogging
Ofcourse we also discussed monitizing blogs. Some bloggers make their
money off the assignments they get through their blog and not from
advertisements. Some join networks like Independent Fashion
Blogger, Style Coalition, Blogher and in Holland I am setting one up with Blogtoday (live in a few weeks!). Others earn money with affiliate links from Rewardstyle and Fohr
card. Super handy articles I found on the blog of Independent Fashion Bloggers (IFB) about the business of blogging.

Evolution of blogs
What’s going to happen with these blogs and
bloggers? Will they all still exist in 5 years or will they have
evolved to something else? It depends on the blogger and her/his
goals. We have bloggers that get bookdeals, bloggers that become
journalists, bloggers that start their own business with a webshop.
Some bloggers will always stay bloggers because it’s is their hobby
and passion and they have no need to monetize it. Some bloggers
will just stop, have a writers block or even a burn out. Everything
that happens to other human beings but also brands. But a big thing
I heard in Texas was taking your business offline, after you built
your audience online. That’s what bloggers can and what brands will
do in the future.

Remarkable blogger projects:

• Elin Kling’s
  exclusive bloggersnetwork Nowmanifest
• Beautyvlogger Michelle Phan vlogs for
  Lancome
• Pinner Joy Cho with 4 million followers started as a lifestyle
  blogger and when she became a mom she gained a whole new
  audience
• A Norwegian girl starts her blog Fashionforall on Instagram and has
  more than a million followers
• Beautyblogger Eva Chen on Google+
  being early is important
• Model Coco Rocha is the first model on
  Google+ and has almost 2 million followers

I would like to add some Dutch bloggers here in the
future with remarkable projects. There are some bloggers writing
books right now. And some bloggers have their own webshop or
business. In a few months I hope to write this blog about the
ducthies! Please help me with succes cases if you know
them.