The New Front Row and the Longtail of Fashion Blogging - Say Media

Another Fashion Week has come and gone Wipe the lipstick off the champagne glasses fold up the chairs catch up on the prettiest Instagram feeds and read yet anotherstoryabouthow fashion bloggers took over the front row The same story has been recycled since 2009 when Gawker declared 39I hereby declare the fashion bloggers39 39front row39 trend piece over39 Clearly the media world did not heed Gawker39s callThere is a story here Fashion is an influencedriven industry where the opinions of a handful of connected writers and designers in New York Paris and Milan drive billions of dollars in product It used to be that those writers resided exclusively at the headquarters of magazines like Vogue W and Elle As we all know from reading regular stories about the new power center emerging online things have changed Digital denizens are gaining access collaborating on designs and influencing purchase decisions in a meaningful way They39ve brought welcome new perspectives into what was once a cloistered industryBut things haven39t changed that much and the rise of a very select few onlineonly creators hasn39t replaced the traditional influencers Anna Wintour Caroline Roitfeld and Robbie Myers are still front and center The ones sitting next to them is what39s new The arrival of these newcomers has created new stakeholders that brands must cater to in order to reach their targeted audiences consuming fashion news on Instagram Facebook Twitter and blogsTo reach those audiences brands should be careful not to lump all fashion bloggers together In the past five years fashion blogging has split between the front row and the peanut galleryThe ones actually sitting front row represent less than 01 percent of fashion bloggers This is rarified air They might be represented by Next Management which was primarily a modeling agency until it started taking on bloggers such as Andy Torrest of StyleScrapbook Rumi Neel of FashionToast and Chiara Ferragni of The Blonde Salad They might be part of NowManifest the Conde Nastowned blog and ad platform for creators such as Elin Kling and Neel They might be the upper crust of a larger grouping of bloggers represented by Say Media which reps Tavi Gevinson of Rookie or DBA which reps Jamie Beck of Ann Street StudioFor most of these top fashion bloggers their blogs have become an afterthought It39s how they started but is now just a means to the invitations junkets free swag product collaborations speaking gigs book contracts paid social and content placements television shows and front row seats of course With a few notable exceptions such as Emily Weiss39 Into The Gloss Tavi39s Rookie or Erin Kleinberg and Stephanie Mark39s The Coveteur this toptier creator class is not trying to build the next great digital publication Instead they39re using their sizable social channels as a more powerful distribution method than their sitebased one and accepting the creative constraints inherent in social channels in exchange for the lower overheadIn truth 999 percent of fashion bloggers get nowhere near the front row The closest this group gets to the celebrities and big magazine editors is what they see Man Repeller post to Instagram each September These bloggers amp8211which comprise the longtail are passionate authentic writers and photographers who love clothes accessories and shoes They have small but rabid followings On their own they don39t move the needle for a brand But taken together they can be a potent complement to a campaign seeking a social component or niche targeting To address this need platforms such as Fohr Card have emerged to aggregate and organize fashion bloggers and then connect them to brandsA few will graduate to the front row in the coming years A small handful may launch sustainable digital publications Most bloggers however will write for a few more years before moving on to something else But don39t fear Another passionate and literate fashionista will emerge to take their spot You see in the world of highfashion everything eventually comes back into styleJosh Jaffe is Vice President of Media and Business Development for Say Media Say Media is a digital publishing company that creates amazing media brands Through its technology platform and media services Say enables its portfolio of independent content creators to build passionate communities around key consumer interest areas such as Style Living Food and Tech For more information visit wwwsaymediacomRead all Say Media39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Say DailyCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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