Essay

This essay is written with a sense of trepidation and skepticism, born out of a distrust of the blogger, a sense that anyone who purposefully sits down to air their views in the public domain of the ether, views that would previously be confined to a journal – views that no one would be subject to reading if they remained in said journal - is a narcissistic individual partaking in something akin to public wanking. However in the course of investigating blogs for this essay, I found that there are many blogs dedicated to subjects rather than the ramblings of persons and their inner-most thoughts. Sadly however, these blogs are still often authored by the aforementioned narcissists, so even when specific subjects are discussed it is the views and opinion of these non-authorities that we read. “Amateur hour has arrived and the audience is running the show” from Andrew Keen's book: The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy (Keen 2007) describes my feelings about blogs exactly.

The topic for this essay is fashion. Why fashion you may ask? Fashion is frivolous, its not really art – designers don’t labor like artists over conceptual ideas, produce sketches and spend countless hours sourcing the perfect materials to turn their conceptual ideas and 2D sketches into 3D realities which are then exposed to the harsh light of the public and the critics eye – oh wait that’s exactly what fashion is like. You may then be promted to ask: Aren’t fashion obsessions only for the narcissistic? Don’t I proclaim to hate the narcissistic? The truth is I do hate pointless expressions of self idolization i.e. blogs; but the reality is that fashion is the one topic I assumed the web could handle, cutting edge, constant updates and continuous access to pictures, stories, and news on the subject. Also fun frivolous fashion has many resources, out here in the real world to compare the blog sources to. The guide for the twenty-first century “fun fearless female” Cosmopolitan magazine being a favorite, especially since most girls start reading as teens, it is important to be able to hold a blog up in comparison to the magazine, that incidentally you really can hold. Fashion is also one of the few art forms to have an entire DSTV channel dedicated just to its exposure (FTV for the discerning satellite-decoder bound viewer). Films such as the “Devil wears Prada” and the “Sex and the City” movie as well as series, are all about fashion, even entertainment television shows like Top Billing are more obsessed with being fashionable as they review art than they are about the art. There is a reason why the ordinary (wo)man on the street can name more designer and/or fashion houses than they can artists. The topic of fashion is also one of the few that transcends national borders, something that is found world wide, something everyone is affected by regardless if they are aware of it or not.

The three blogs this essay will review are: Linea Academy-South Africa, from SA; The Love of Fashion, from Algeria; and Preppy Fashion, from India.

Linea Academy is a group blog, aimed at informing the South African audience of highlights in the SA fashion scene. One of their big projects is condom fashion, in an attempt to create awareness about HIV and AIDS. Other articles include commentary about the recent textile industry strike as well as reviews on fashion hotspots around the country. This site even includes reviews about movies such as the latest Coco Chanel film, as well as tips on how to better survive in the fashion industry in SA. Overall the site is vey informative and their wide range of topics will keep every SA fashionista in the loop. The Linea website is managed by The ReDress Consultancy-South Africa. Layout and design of the site is pleasant, the black background does become overwhelming though. All pictures on the site are good quality and high resolution and topics and discussions are easily accessible. All links provided on the site are informative and if one wishes to know more about “fashion education and development or more about studying fashion at one of South Africa's most prestigious fashion institutions” – fantastic self advertising – Linea Academy, one can do so through a simple e-mail. My only problem with the site, like all sites, is that the audience they reach is an audience with access to computers and the internet. Being a South African site I think they could do more to celebrate the spirit of SA and have more culturally diverse pictures and articles up on the blog.

The Love of Fashion is a really cool site, very modern and very cutting edge. One of my favorite articles is on the Leaf phone which highlights how the latest technology is being incorporated into fashion. This article proves that it doesn’t matter how cutting edge the world of the techno-geek is, if their inventions are not aesthetically pleasing: no-one will buy them. The site is an amalgamation of articles on fashion, some deal with specific fashion pieces, others about events such as fashion shows and others deal with trends. The site is however a bit simplistic which appeals to some but not to others, the images used on the site are of good quality. Overall this site is great. It does however have a very western out look and for a blog from Algeria I really was expecting more of a focus, or any focus for that matter, on issues or news dealing directly with Africa, if not Algeria itself. It appears that even though the blogs author finds himself in an African country the fashion focus remains on the UK, Paris and NYC, which is sad considering the wealth of textures, fabrics and colours we have in Africa, not to mention the distinct African fashion born out of the diversity of cultures we share here on the continent.

Preppy Fashion is an awesome blog in that it proclaims its Indian status and does so loudly. The site focuses on the fashion of India and issues and trends within the fashion found there. That is not to say that the fashion found in India is not influenced by fashion from other parts of the world. The blog deals with everything, from fashion shows and designers, to traditional textile weaving and key fashion pieces. Trends are discussed, both for young and old, as well as news on the textile industry; there is even an article on quick fixes in fashion emergencies. The sites layout is efficient. It is my feeling however that the images on the site are small and few, the reader would be more excited and better drawn in by bigger and more numerous images. One thing that’s great about the site is how it makes no pretentions to be anything other than what it is, a blog that deals with fashion, as it so cavalierly states “Fashion consists of a constantly changing trend, favored for frivolous rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons.”

Overall we find that these blogs are an amalgamation of information from different individuals and/ or sources. Each blog dealt with fashion news by reporting on and creating links to articles its authors felt important. Each blog had different news which indicates that each blog felt some news was more important and worthwhile to their audiences than others. However the blogs from SA and India seemed to be reporting news that they felt would be valuable for audiences from their own country whereas the Algerian blog had more of an international focus. Each blog achieved its aim of informing their audience about fashion highlights and trends. It’s just as well that these blogs only cater to those individuals who have access to computers and the internet, as everyone else wouldn’t be able to afford any of the fashion pieces on display anyway.

So perhaps my skepticism has abated somewhat, these three blogs were not so much an act of narcissism rather just a way of promoting the agendas of each of the authors – both individual and group. The Linea Academy aimed to inform its audience of its existence and promote its own curriculum. The Love of Fashion showed how anyone, including those living in deepest darkest Africa can stay informed about world trends and fashion. Preppy Fashion deals specifically with issues concerning the Indian audience and delivers. What helps is that many of the articles are sourced from news articles and are originally authored by authorities on the subject or at least authorities on reporting/ reviewing subjects. Group authored blogs also seem to be more credible and valuable as there appears to be at least some internal standard set for what appears on the blog. It is still however the opinion of this author that “if we are all amateurs, there are no experts” and I agree fully with Keen that “when anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards or editorial filters, can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented. Where Wikipedia meets MySpace meets YouTube, the democratization of information is undermining truth and belittling expertise, experience and talent” (Keen 2007: dust jacket).