Fashionista By Shalini Seth
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thesartorialist.com Spotting a well put together look on the street, outside fashion week and in world capitals, on people walking to work, sartorialist has found himself a place on the first rows of all major fashion weeks across the globe. Many years, an anthology and much fame later, he still retains a neat turn of phrase and an eye for the aesthetically pleasing.
| Spring/Summer 2012
fashioning.com He made being a fashion curator a lifestyle choice. The blog says, “Late one Oxford night, Daniel P Dykes set about creating a fashion publication that would go some way to being an arbiter on fashion as it appeals to the emerging power generations: those who don’t remember a world without the internet and for whom work plays second fiddle to pleasure.” The blog has other contributors and allows participation. Expect to see a complete guide on how to wear a crop top, sleeve tattoos and the day’s most popular photo shoot. It’s so structured, it’s a magazine.
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n the road in a Mumbai suburb is an autorickshaw – pink hood, yellow body with a leaf green trim on wheel guards. On the pages of the lookbook of a fashion brand is a model striking a pose in a pink jacket, yellow top and leaf green trousers. You can trust fashion blogger Manou Tyagi of wearabout.com to not only notice the similarities but to put a photo of the two on his blog. He says, “Anything that I think is important for the sake of documentation or would make sense later if not now,” is his mantra for selecting posts. Calling himself “a photographer documenting streets and fashion in India,” Tyagi, the blogger is no more and no less than that. Staying far away from ramps and first rows, he will, through diligent application of his eye, be the first to know if a skirt on a fashionista is made of the same material as the cover on a suitcase spotted at a railway station. Tyagi is one of the fashion bloggers gaining prominence in India with his news, views and trend reports on the fashion industry. Schoolgirl blogger, Arushi Khosla of Bohemianlikeyou.com confesses to being clubbed with the media and gets invited to not only the Lakmé Fashion Week and Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week in India, but also to some events in New York, since she has readers there. If nothing else, she is certainly a shopper of the products she is talking about. Pune-based software engineer and fashion blogger Smrithi Rao of vintage-obsession.com has to give invites flooding her inbox a miss because she has a day job. The need to connect and comment has been the starting point but as with all writing, content is king. Blog how-tos are full of information on how to increase readers and make an impression. Ironically, the best and the most popular ones remain focussed on their voice. Rao, whose latest update, Geometrify, documents local inspiration on wearing ikat style textiles, says, “I haven’t done anything aiming particularly at increasing readership because I have always thought if people identified with me, they will read and come back again. There is no point forcing me or my blog on somebody.” While she got hooked to blogging after a surge of attention thanks to an article in a magazine, Tehelka, three months after she launched the blog, initially it was the projects that got her readers. “Initially I took up a lot of DIY projects like, for example, I made a pair of suspenders from suitcase straps. Most of my DIY projects went viral and a lot of people got hooked on to the blog because of that. I was called ‘the DIY Queen’ in a publication – my favourite title,” she says. Khosla, whose profile indentifies her as “17, student, style blogger and fashion writer,” says, “I started with fashion news blog writing
Blogs to Follow
| Spring/Summer 2012
Fashion bloggers become influencers quickly. We profile a few of them who are turning down front row seats at major events
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