The original blogs operated as little more than hobbies. Individuality was celebrated and bloggers' online diaries were a shop window for clothes they enthused about without any sense of editorial decorum. Bloggers either modelled the outfits themselves, or snapped others in looks they liked.
But as fashion sites proliferated, blogging became a genuine career for fashion fans. In 2010, US blogger Bryan Grey Yambao (who in 2008 famously had a Marc Jacobs bag named after him) boasted that he earned more than $100,000 a year from his website, bryanboy.com. Earlier this year, thesartorialist.com's Scott Schuman and Garance Dore were awarded a prestigious gong from the Council of Fashion Designers America.
But as fashion sites proliferated, blogging became a genuine career for fashion fans. In 2010, US blogger Bryan Grey Yambao (who in 2008 famously had a Marc Jacobs bag named after him) boasted that he earned more than $100,000 a year from his website, bryanboy.com. Earlier this year, thesartorialist.com's Scott Schuman and Garance Dore were awarded a prestigious gong from the Council of Fashion Designers America.
Early blogs featured stylish folk wearing clothes their own way – an interesting scarf here, a rolled up cuff there – but a distinct, almost cartoonish look has evolved. Bold prints, clashing colours, statement pieces and larger-than-life accessories became the hallmarks of the fashion blogger. This season, "blogger" has become trend in its own right: River Island has named one of its major trends Blogger, a look it describes as "organised chaos", with clashing prints and OTT pieces; and next month H&M launches a collaboration with Anna Dello Russo, fashion director at Vogue Japan and blogger extrordinaire.
Bethan Holt, of fashioneditoratlarge.blogspot.co.uk, defines the blogger look as "blatant – all about being high-maintenance and unashamedly fashion mad". Whether fashion fans actually write blogs, or just subscribe to the blogging look, is now beside the point.
Susie Lau, aka blogger Susie Bubble, says that, if there is a "blogger's look", it's a reflection of mainstream trends to which the blogosphere adds its own twist. "It can be a bit disheartening when blogs look exactly the same," she says. "When I started, the community really celebrated individual style, but it's interesting to see it as a movement and how that affects consumer tastes."
It is ironic that a term that originally defined and celebrated individual style has come to describe a homogenised, exaggerated look. In truth, some bloggers subscribe to the bold, ornamental way of dressing favoured by Dello Russo, but others prefer the quieter, worn-in T-shirts, bare legs and beat-up boots look of the Scandinavian school of bloggers.
Meanwhile, Dello Russo, godmother of blog chic, is proud to see the development of "the blogger" as a style movement. As she said recently of her H&M venture, "This is an important evolution in fashion and I am both thrilled and humbled to be the one chosen to lead it." Time was when Dello Russo fans were able to blog only about getting her look. From next month, they'll be able to buy it, too.
