Alyssa Taelman
Etude De Marché

The influence of Northern European bloggers

What influence do bloggers have on fashion?

Introduction

Nowadays, fashion blogs are all over the Internet, but what exactly is a fashion blog?
I will start out by a definition of a fashion blog and a definition of a fashion blogger.
Definition fashion blog: a fashion blog is an online medium where all sides of fashion are covered. This includes blogs about: Runway trends Fashion items, such as shoes and handbags Celebrity fashion Street style outfits worn by regular people
Definition fashion blogger: fashion blogger are ‘normal’ people, fashion fans, who decide to express their opinions about fashion statements giving their own personal interpretations of what trends are. The opinions may then become very popular world wide because of the medium they use: Internet.

Fashion blogs can be categorized in a number of ways: by writer’s expertise, by ownership and by theme.

1 By writer’s expertise

3 sorts of writers can write fashion blogs: insiders, outsiders or aspiring outsiders.

1. Insiders

Insiders are people who work (or have previously worked) in the fashion industry or for the traditional fashion media (fashion writers, fashion critics and fashion reporters). For example: Yara Michels from This Chick’s Got Style who is also a magazine editor for Elle Holland.

2. Outsiders

Outsiders are people who know a lot (or at least have strong opinions) about fashion, usually by virtue of being very dedicated consumers of fashion. For example Lizzy Van Der Ligt.

3. Aspiring insiders

Aspiring insiders are people who want to work in the fashion industry or media and believe their blog may provide a backdoor entry into a mainstream fashion-writing job.

2 By ownership

Fashion blogs may be owned either by individuals or by companies.

3 By theme

Most successful fashion blogs follow a particular theme or angle. Some narrow their field to one type of fashion item. Some specialize in a particular price point: usually either very high-end or very budget-conscious. Others may narrow it down to celebrity fashion, street style or may cover a mix of two or more of these topics.

It’s clearly evident that the presence of style bloggers, not only in visibility but also in influence, has flourished exponentially.
The rise of the fashion blogger has become a hot topic in the fashion community.
Why are bloggers so influential? Do consumers trust fashion bloggers more than established fashion authorities and magazines?
Regardless of their position, it is clear that fashion bloggers have become a new type of fashion authority. They type and the people listen… So why exactly is this?

In this paper I will try to answer these question as detailed as possible. To accomplish the answers to this question, I will consult as many sources possible and interview some of the bloggers I will discuss in this paper to get to known their point on view on blogging and the influence of bloggers.

1 What are bloggers? 1.1 When and how did fashion blogs get introduced in the fashion world?

Fashion blogs are a relatively new phenomenon, so no detailed published accounts of their history exist yet, but fashion blogs first appeared in the blogosphere prior to 2002. These early fashion blogs proved hugely influential to those who followed, offering personal opinions on fashion and inviting readers to comment.
In 2003, the first fashion bloggers were invited to New York Fashion Week but were not yet recognized by the industry.
Both the number of fashion blogs and the number of media mentions of fashion blogs has grown considerably since then. But there is considerable disagreement regarding the number of fashion blogs in existence.
In a February, 2006 Women Wear Daily article, Concoran stated:
‘There is an enormous, and growing, number of fashion and shopping-related blogs: about 2 million, according to Technorati Inc. Fashion blogs conclude slightly 10 percent of the 2.7 billion blogs the company tracks.
According to the website prezi.com there are approximately 10,769 fashion blogs.

1.2 What is their contribution to the fashion world? Before the presence of fashion blogs, we could only see the new trends on catwalks or in sparkling editorials and commercials on Vogue or in other magazines, where unreal models were shown like beautiful sculptures we could barely relate to. Nowadays fashion bloggers suggest new ways of wearing fashion pieces and trends. By this, fashion blogs have changed the relationship between the industry and the public tremendously.
Readers were looking for something that they could not find in the fashion press. Rather then being told what was ‘in’ by a magazine editor, blogs encouraged discussion and interpretation of trends showcased by a variety of shapes, sizes, ages and races.

Fashion bloggers influence their followers and readers thanks to their outfits in which they mix easily fast fashion clothes (such as H&M, Zara, Topshop and etc.) with high fashion brands or vintage accessories.
Fashion bloggers have the ability to build their own personalized brand and attract an audience that relates to the online journalists personal style and the voice in which they write.
Their accessibility aside, it’s fashion bloggers instantaneous response to fashion and their real time feedback that has changed the platform of fashion reporting. While long-lead media prepares their “books” up to four months in advance, bloggers have the ability to stay on top of trends and report on breaking fashion news promptly. Bloggers have forced print publications to significantly up their online editorial content in an effort to keep their readers intrigued.

2 What kind of influences do fashion bloggers have? 2.1 Bloggers and brands

There was a time when front row seats at Fashion Week were filled only with high-power editors from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, buyers from Bergdorf Goodman and A-list celebrities who were often considered as the ‘muse’ of the designer.

However, over the last couple of years things have changed, now front row seats are filled with influential fashion bloggers.
In 2010, ‘Why This Way’ (a consultancy agency specialized in business strategy, content development and digital innovation) published an article in which Macala Wright stated that 53% of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week’s overall coverage came directly from online articles and blog posts.

In a 2011 interview with Imran Amed (founder and editor of The business of Fashion website) Jack McCollough (owner and designer of Prounza Schouler) stated: ‘ Blog posting things about us, going viral, spreading throughout the Internet… it has an extraordinary impact on the business.’
The facts are indeed there, for example: American Apparel nets 25% of its profits to bloggers.
He also stated in the interview that how in the past, they would have to wait three, four days to hear a review on their line, but now the feedback comes almost instant.

2.1.1 Brands using bloggers as a marketing strategy

The last couple of years, more and more brands have started collaborating with fashion bloggers.
Because blogging is a fairly new phenomenon, many brands are still learning how to effectively work with bloggers.
Brands use bloggers as media channels and reliable intermediaries of information – in return bloggers get to wear the brand’s clothing, create custom blog posts or organize and promote events.
So how do brands choose which blogger they want to work with? Nowadays multiple initiatives exist to make this possible.
For example: SCX Influencer Exchange is an online network that allows brands to search throughout a database of bloggers by parameters like
• Readership
• Categories covered (home décor, health and beauty, types of apparel)
• Audience age
• Etc.
Bloggers can join the network and plug in their social media accounts so that brands can find to blogger that suites them best.
The company does ask 20 percent commission and 5 percent processing fee on deals brokered.

Another example is Fohr Card, which is a new initiative set up by ex-Tumblr employees Holly Stair and Rich Tong as a kind of blogger store for brands. Brands can subscribe and can then browse trough bloggers. Their choice is based on the blogger’s follower counts and traffic statistics. As Holly Stair says: “Our goal is to provide the tools to help brand identify content creators they would like to work with. This way, they can get the numbers before making the deal.”

Nowadays, many bloggers also work with agents who help them with these deals. The primary goal of the agent is to negotiate for the best financial deal, which can quickly make budget a primary concern when exploring a partnership.

By researching this topic, I found out that the main reason why brands want to work with bloggers is because they want to approach a new audience. And because bloggers have a certain connection with their readers that brands can’t create through advertising or traditional promotions. Readers connect with bloggers because they have similar interests or similar style. When a brand is introduced by a blogger, people will be more attracted to buy the brand then when they see it on a celebrity or model.
It is however very important to note that not every brand wants to collaborate with a blogger. A brand will only collaborate with a blogger if their objective is to gain a new audience. If their objective is completely different, say for example stronger ecommerce, they will use other strategies then collaborating with a blogger.

2.1.2 Collaboration between brands and bloggers One of the first collaborations ever between brands and bloggers was in 2007, when Chanel invited a couple of bloggers to come see Coco Chanel’s apartment in Paris. After that more and more bloggers were invited to private fashion events and parties. Slowly, fashion bloggers began to be accepted by the industry.
Under ‘collaboration between brands and bloggers’ we can understand a lot of things:
∼ Being invited to a fashion show, a fashion event, a fashion party, etc. This can go from a store opening to being invited to Cannes Film Festival for example: Chiara Ferragni from The Blonde Salad.
∼ Being invited to visit the showroom, the atelier or the store of a certain brand.
∼ Being invited to specific blogging events, for example the bloggers brunch that Vogue Holland hosted.
∼ Do a series of short films to promote a new article or simply to promote the brand. For example:
∼ Putting together a number of looks to feature on a brand’s website. The looks those bloggers created are then featured on the retailer’s site, where viewers can pick up style inspirations, learn about the products featured, and of course, buy them.
∼ Designing a capsule collection for a certain brand.
∼ Hosting fundraisers for charity.
∼ Being invited to test out new products before they are presented to the large public.
∼ Etc.
Later on in this work, when I describe the most influential Northern European bloggers, I will give examples of collaborations they have had with brands

2.2 Bloggers and their followers

A study was conducted to gain a better understanding of how bloggers influence their readers and how that may lead to the adoption of fashion trends. The article “ The Influence of Fashion Blogs on Consumers” stated that fashion bloggers are important opinion leaders because they present ideas to a social network of blog followers, and can influence the diffusion of new ideas or fashion trends.

According to the Technorati Digital Influence Report of 2013, a study that surveyed 6000 influencers, 1200 consumers and 150 top brand marketers, blogs are the 3th biggest online service to influence a purchase.

As you can see on the chart, blogs came in third with 31,1% after retail sites and brand sites. This makes sense because people who visit a brand or retail site are visiting to buy.
Blogs are probably ranked so high because they help consumers discover new products.

Sometimes when a product is largely exposed on blogs, it can drive a bigger demand for this product. For example: ever since the Moschino letter belt appeared on several fashion blogs, the demand for it has risen enormously. Even though this product has been on the market since the ‘80s, because of its Internet visibility is has become popular again.

Another example: Ever since well-known bloggers began to wear the Kenzo tiger sweater has been sold out everywhere.

These two examples illustrate perfectly the effect of high visibility on blogs on consumer behavior.

One of the main reasons why fashion blogs have such an impact on consumers behavior, is because blogs offers retailers an instant report on what’s hot or not. While magazines only appear once a month, the fashion blogs have become a daily source for many shoppers when it comes to trends, items of the season as well as daily information and tips.

3 Description and characteristics of the most influential Northern European bloggers

2.1 Belgium (similarities between Belgian bloggers)

2.1.1 Sofie Valkiers from Fashionata (+ interview)
Sofie Valkiers started her blog in 2008 because she wanted to build up a place where she could express herself. Since then she has been working as a stylist and freelance editor for numerous magazines and projects.
1 year after she started her blog, she got more and more visitors and since a couple of years, Sofie has been invited to numerous fashion events.
Not only does she get invited to Paris and New York fashion week, she was also invited to Firenze4Ever by LuisaViaRoma. This event takes place once a year in Firenze, and is one of the biggest fashion events for bloggers. A selected number of bloggers are being invited to spend the weekend in Firenze. During this time, numerous activities take place:
∼ During two days the bloggers have to put together a couple of looks. They can choose between dozens of brands in the LuisaViaRoma store. With these looks they then have to do a photo shoot where photographers, make-up artists and hairdressers assist them.
∼ There is also a dinner and party that take place.
Last month, Sofie also organized a fashion event herself: “Fashionata Ladies Night”. To be invited to the Ladies Night you had to subscribe to attain an invitation. The event took place at Renaissance in Antwerp, one of the biggest multi brand stores in Belgium. The night was filled with a fashion show, workshops, giveaways, etc. More and more bloggers are setting up these kinds of events to meet their followers. It is also a good opportunity for the store or brand to get more visibility.
According to her latest interview in Vogue ‘Holland’ Sofie said that her biggest income comes from collaborations with brands.
One of her latest projects was collaboration with jewelry brand Diamanti Per Tutti.
For the last couple of months, ‘Vijf’, a Belgian television channel is following Sofie for a new reality soap called ‘Shoot’ where they follow 4 trend watchers.

2.1.2 Thomas Vanden Bogaerde from The Fashionistic Lover (+ interview)
Thomas Vanden Bogaerde started his blog The Fashionistic Lover 2 years ago. As you can read in the interview he had the opportunity to attend several fashion weeks and wanted to share his experiences with the world.
I think this blog is a perfect example to show that European bloggers are indeed influential in some kind of way, because else there would be no reason to invite European bloggers to fashion week. I think the reason why so many European bloggers are invited to fashion events is because they want to attract a new audience. Not only Belgian or European people because Thomas has followers from all over the world; going from Belgian followers to Japanese followers.
I had the opportunity to go with Thomas to both Milan Men Fashion Week and London Men Collections. I thought the most striking thing was that it was no longer the opinions from important editors that mattered but also those from bloggers.
After several shows and presentations designers were really interested on Thomas his opinion about their collections. This was one again a proof that European bloggers are indeed in a way influential.
In the interview I did with Thomas, you can see his opinion on all the topics I discussed in this presentation.

2.1.3 Marie Taevernier from Yesterday Meets Tomorrow (+interview)

Marie started her blog last year to share her interests with the world. The blog is a mix of fashion, art and lifestyle and focuses on topics that will matter tomorrow.
One of the main reasons I choose Yesterday Meets Tomorrow is because Marie Taevernier is currently doing her internship at Vogue ‘Holland’ and I thought it would be interesting to know what her colleagues thought of fashion blogs.
In the interview I did with Marie, she explains that Vogue ‘Holland’ tries to maintain a certain relationship with bloggers. For example: For Vogue’s 1-year anniversary they organized a bloggers lunch. They see bloggers as their collaborative partners, which cannot be said about all magazines.
Marie also said in the interview that to become a professional blogger, you should’ve started a blog five years ago because these days there are too many blogs posting the same things.

2.2 Sweden (similarities between Swedish bloggers) When I did my research for this presentation, I noticed that Swedish bloggers are really popular. Not only Swedish bloggers but also Swedish labels are making their way to the top. For example: Acne, Cheap Monday and not to forget H&M.
Swedish bloggers have a specific style and I believe it’s for that reason they are so popular. I will talk about 2 Swedish bloggers: Elin Kling and Caroline Blomst.

2.2.1 Elin Kling from Style By Kling

Elin started her online career in 2007 when she launched her fashion blog Style By Kling.
Style By Kling is now one of the world’s largest fashion blogs. After the start of her blog, she got involved in several fashion jobs such going from fashion editor for lifestyle magazine SOLO to stylist for the Swedish version of IDOL (singing program).
She is now the co-founder of Fashion Networks International, the owner of NOWMANIFEST; one of the world’s leading online platforms for fashion, which was recently sold to Conde Nast. She is also fashion director of her own magazine called STYLEBY, which she founded together with Sweden’s largest media house Bonnier.
In Spring 2011 she was the first blogger to create her own collection for H&M.
This year she joined forces with Guess by Marciano to create the brand’s first ever design collaboration.
She was also featured in NET-A-PORTER’s spring 2012 campaign.
This summer, she will be the face of Louis Vuitton online campaign ‘Small is beautiful’ with Miroslava Duma and Hanneli Mustaparta.

Looking at her accomplishments, it is more then obvious that when having a good and professional blog you can have a huge influence on the fashion world.

2.2.2 Caroline Blomst from Caroline’s Mode and Stockholm Streetstyle Caroline Blomst is the force behind one of the most successful street style blogs; Stockholm Streetstyle. She founded the site in 2005 with her boyfriend and photographer Daniel Troyse. What started out as her hobby went to a full-time job in just six months.
In an interview (with Emily Royal for oystermag.com) Caroline says that she doesn’t know where blogging is going to be in two years, because the Internet is such a fast media.

When looking at these two Swedish bloggers and even other Swedish bloggers you can see that they have a specific style. ‘Less is more’ definitely describes the style of Swedish bloggers. I think this one of the main reasons why Swedish blogs are so popular and why brands are interested in working with them. They can bring new interpretations and ideas to the table

2.3 The Netherlands (similarities between bloggers from the Netherlands)

2.3.2 Andy Torres from Style Scrapbook
Andy Torres started her blog Style Scrapbook almost 5 years ago. Throughout the years, she has built her blog to one of the most popular blogs these times. Her first collaboration was with Kipling, Belgian brand that offers bags for all occasions.
Kipling is brand that I know from when I was a little kid, every one used to have a Kipling backpack to go school. However, the brand hasn’t had a strong reputation for the last couple of years, it was really considered old-fashioned and not up to date (I speak as a Belgian, I don’t know what their reputation is in other countries).
But when Andy Torres designed 2 collections of camera bags it blew new life in to the brand. She gave to brand that fashionable twist it needed and the results were there: the first production of camera bags was sold out within a few hours.
This proves once again that bloggers can have a huge influence on a brand, bringing new life into the brand. Mainly because bloggers know what consumers are looking for.
In 2011, Andy also started the concept brand WERELSE, together with bloggers Chiara Ferragni and Carolina Engman. The brand has already collaborated with Happiness is a $10 tee and did a capsule collection for Mango.

4 Comparison between bloggers then and now 4.1 How have bloggers changed over the years?

The biggest difference between blogs in the past and blogs now is that blogging has become a business, while before it was just a hobby. What used to be a creative outlet is now often part of a business plan.
Before blogging became a business, bloggers actually had a normal job next to having their blog. But then in 2009, brands became interested in blogs because they thought it could be good for business.
Since then bloggers are being paid to present products of brands, or to place advertisings of brands on their blogs.
Nowadays, a lot of bloggers made their career out of their blog and there are only a few left who have a blog without it being part of a business plan.

4.2 Has the purpose of having a blog changed over the years?

It really depends on the person but it is true that for a lot of bloggers their purpose has changed over the years. Ever since they realized you could make money out of a blog, it has no longer been about being a creative outlet but about making money.
The bloggers I interviewed (Thomas and Marie) agree with this. According to Marie, she thinks that a lot of people nowadays start a blog to get a lot of free stuff and to get invitations to fashion events. However Marie thinks that to become a professional blogger, you should’ve started a blog 5 years ago because these days there are just too many blogs.

4.3 Can people still relate to bloggers or are they becoming more and more like celebrities?

This again depends on the blogger itself. It is true that a lot of bloggers have changed their style because they get free clothes and accessories but there are also a lot of bloggers who remained the same over the years.
For example: Andy Torres from StyleScrapbook, she started her blog in 2007 and her biggest strength was that she offered outfits that were accessible. And this is something that is still one of the biggest strengths her blog has nowadays.

5 Conclusion

5.1 My opinion about bloggers

I personally love looking at blogs; I think it’s great to see all those different styles and interpretations of fashion. However, I do think it’s sad that blogging is become a business instead of a creative output, because of this reason a lot of bloggers have changed a lot. They are now dressed in high-end fashion brands instead of brands that we (the followers) can actually afford. So I think the whole meaning of having a blog has changed completely over the years.

5.2 Will there still be bloggers in the future?

In think that blogs will continue to exist in the past, however I share Marie’s opinion that to become a professional blogger it is already too late to start a blog because nowadays there are just too many. Blogs are a new kind of media and have one big advantage: it is constantly up to date and therefor I think it has become an essential medium in fashion.