The following is a magazine article assignment for a writing class. I received a 99% on it. I am really inspired to write more thought-out feature articles for the blog, too! Enjoy.
Fashion blogs booming in a once tech-driven World Wide Web, music waves broadcasting designer mania with a radio station’s “Pick Your Purse” contest, in all seasons of 2005, “fashion” is the new pink. It’s been a year since Carrie Bradshaw’s Sex and the City craze over “pure poetry” dresses and Manolo Blahniks went off the air, but the nation’s interest in such subjects is growing by the minute.
The sell of apparel was the number 1 booster of the growing economy across our nation for November, 2005. “It Bags” (the most coveted designer handbags) sell out from stores in minutes and generate long waiting lists. These are not inexpensive items by any means, but the populous is buying them.
“It wasn't that long ago that high style was only available to the very rich, but I think there have been many changes within the industry that have caused high fashion to become more mainstream, making it more accessible to the average person,” pointed out fashion blogger, Mallory Road, of the handbag blog, “Pursed Lips.” “The event of national chain stores, such as Target, signing contracts with designers such as Cynthia Rowley, Mossimo and Isaac Mizrahi, has shown that [consumers] don't have to sacrifice style just because [stores are] lowering the prices.” Target’s deals with these designers started in 1998 with architect and housewares designer, Michael Graves, but really boomed with Mizrahi, whose commercials for the store last year seemed to create a whole new route for fashion to turn–and indeed created a lot of buzz.
Now, even Wal-Mart attempts to cash in on “stylish” marketing attempts, which include celebrity endorsements and a very large advertising deal with Vogue, the magazine known as some women’s “fashion bible.” But Wal-Mart has higher priorities than style, and focuses on supplying low-cost toys and electronics. The chain remains out of the loop in this industry, while their fashions remain lacking in quality and design.
Mallory pointed out other supportive means to the fashion industry, “Also, shopping-oriented magazines such as Lucky and Shop Etc. have made it easier for fashion-challenged individuals, because these magazines take runway style and adapt it to fit the everyday person's lifestyle.
“Of course, with people becoming more interested in fashion, the development of fashion-oriented shows, such as ‘What Not To Wear’ and ‘Project Runway,’ continue to feed the fashion frenzy.” These two reality series inspired their own knock offs on other respective stations, and there is even a whole network, “Style,” devoted to design, completely.
The public’s cry for more style is spreading to other forms of media, as well. Fashion blogs, which started to pop up late in 2004, have recently become the biggest grower in the “blogosphere,” which is in whole, the “It” of the World Wide Web. Certain fashion bloggers reportedly make six-figure incomes from the craft, while many individual blogs bring in thousands of unique visits per day.
Fashion and accessories are creeping into mainstream broadcasting, too. Boston radio station, Mix 98.5, recognized designer purse fever so acutely, they started a contest to appease the “need.” With designer purses’ prices often in the multiple thousands, and the bags being filled with large sums of money, to boot, this content is the only way for many listeners to achieve the dream of owning a piece of such luxury. The original call-in competition, and its accompanying “Purse Party”, were so popular, Mix did it for a second time–in a row.
''It seems that each year what we're seeing in the women's fashion luxury market there has been a migration from one category to the next,'' said retail analyst, Marshal Cohen, of the NPD Group. ''A few years ago it was shoes. Last year it was jeans. This is the year of the handbag.'' With handbag prices, that makes this a very big year for fashion, indeed.
“New designers such as Bottega Veneta and Be & D are asking anywhere from $500 all the way up to $5000 for [bags from] their current lines, and the phrase ‘It Bag’ is something that far too many people understand,” said handbag blogger Julie Hall of “Pursueing.”
People feel a need–they have to have the hot styles they see, especially when it comes to high-end handbags. Despite rising designer costs to fight loss of money due to counterfeiting, and economy troubles over the last few years, people are buying higher and higher priced handbags.
Fashion journalism graduate and shoe blogger from across the pond, Gemma Cartwright, lent me some great insight. “One thing that’s struck me as interesting since I’ve started editing fashion blogs is the huge obsession many people have with emulating celebrity fashion. It’s not enough any more to have a pair of shoes that look similar to the ones Madonna / Jessica Simpson / Jennifer Aniston wore. They have to be the exact ones. People want authenticity and a slice of the high life, and that comes at a price. Five years ago, people scoffed at the idea of a handbag that cost almost £1000. Now it’s not just footballer’s wives who’re joining the waiting lists at Chloé, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. Since ‘Sex & The City’, even men know who Manolo Blahnik is. He was even the subject of a question on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’. ‘Sienna Miller boots’ and ‘Jessica Simpson shoes’ are two of the most popular searches we ever get on [my blog] Shoewawa, and I get asked almost daily about the boots / shoes Kate Moss has been wearing. To the mainstream market, those three are probably most influential style icons in the world at the moment. People are constantly adding the words ‘boho (bohemian style) Sienna’ to their eBay listings in order to get more hits.” Could it be that fashion has become so important in the eyes of women worldwide that they will pay anything for “the best” and get addicted to the hunt of “hot” designs they see and take to? There is a habit forming here among “fashionistas.” To start, it doesn’t take much for a style to become must-have, and then the crazed pursuit begins, whether that includes saving or blowing all savings, arduously tracking down deals or impulse buying. It’s big, but isn’t always economically helpful; in fact it can be a big problem, and not just for the broke.
Some are turning to the Internet’s bargain bins, such as eBay.com, for designer steals, and sometimes rip-offs, when they encounter realistic replica handbags selling as the real thing. The desire is so strong, unsuspecting shoppers often don’t put in effort to educate themselves on the matters of fraudulent handbags, and the details of the true designs. The Internet has caused a “Buy It Now” mentality, and fashion is affected. EBay has recently recognized this growing issue, and is allowing users to submit “buying guides,” which are purposefully in part an outlet for experts to describe marks of authenticity and point out counterfeiters’ own tendencies. Such experts have popped up quickly, who specialize fanatically on one designer. This care to analyze the details proves every angle of the obsessive cycle.
So, is this just a mindless, frenzied craze, alone? Julie Fredrickson, of the style-meets-intellect blog, “Almost Girl,” thinks there needs to be further improvement in terms of fashion legitimacy, “I only hope that we see fashion as a subject taken more seriously in the future.” Julie does her part to bring intellectual discussion to the fans of fashion as they commune online. Her blog rose to the top of the fashion circle’s list, with the help of her original idea for a team effort of “Black Friday Blogging.” Surprisingly, Frederickson’s goal was far from capitalizing on the commercialism of the biggest shopping day of the year. She chose to focus on insight and analyzation, over advertising products and scooping out the best deals (and, unusually, there is not an ad to be seen on her blog’s pages) . The movement even got others to play along in the same tune. “Almost Girl” did gain a lot of publicity for the event, but you won’t hear Julie brag.
It’s true that fashion is an art, when designed with the right mind set, and taken out of context with figures of sales, but it is not seen that way, by and large. Now, we’re either in the midst of a good start toward affirmation, or the high before burnout. I think that fashion will continue to diversify, and by doing so, both legitimize and over-saturate itself. Just like replica handbags attempting to be sold as designer, the lines of fashion could be blurred as such that the next issue could be a fight between different sides of fashion and its media. After all, in America, overdoing it is the new black.
Ella M.
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