Who Benefits?

I read two interesting links concerning the rise of the streetstyle blog while going through my RSS feeds today.

The second link posed the question of how people react to and use these blogs personally. Do they go just to see the images, or to gain inspiration for their own dress? Do they try to copy the outfits showcased or simply look for ideas? Do they try to spot trends or spot pieces?

These are all very valid (and interesting) questions, but they all led me to a broader, more important question: who benefits from these blogs (to a lesser extent, fashion blogs in general)?

As a ballpark guess, I’m going to say that 90% of people who regularly read streetstyle blogs are well acquainted with the world of fashion; trends, designers, general style concepts. A large percentage of these people probably think about fashion much more than the average person (hence they are reading about it, regularly, on the internet), and probably has more experience with fashion than the average person.

This means that any learning going on here is likely to be anecdotal at best, little details and inspirations that may or may not be remembered. Personally, it’s hard for me to recall anything from these streetstyle blogs even a day after reading (unless a particular image spreads virally across the fashion blogosphere). I suspect the same is true for most readers.

The majority of streetstyle readers already have a fairly strong sense of personal style; we can see this in many of the opinionated, strong statements in the comments there. This means, once again, that people will accept and praise what they already liked, and dismiss the new things they don’t like. Every once in a while, we’ll see something novel that we agree with, and maybe we consider adding it to our repertoire. But I contend that this is rare.

It would seem, then, that seasoned fashionistas don’t get as much out of these blogs as one might expect from all the buzz about them. Paradoxically, I think it’s the person uninterested in fashion, or who has just a nascent thought of style who benefits most from these blogs. I recall stumbling across one a few years back (as I was just beginning to interest myself in this world) and marveling at how interesting and well-done some of the outfits were. I don’t remember any of them, I just remember that they continued to spark my interest and make me want to think and learn more.

Unfortunately, people like my past self generally don’t visit these sites but by chance, even though I believe they are the ones who get the most out of them.

An artist will respect and admire the work at an art gallery, but he can’t become a new artist from it. A young child who sees great art for the first time can be inspired.

-Barry