{"id":34164,"date":"2010-04-24T11:17:19","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T11:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=34164"},"modified":"2010-04-24T11:17:19","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T11:17:19","slug":"pret-a-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/pret-a-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Pr\u00eat A-Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indian fashion blogs, like their foreign predecessors, are fast reinterpreting fashion for the common people, finds\u00a0<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Aastha Atray Banan<\/strong>
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Bengaluru chic Bengaluru bloggers Faiza and Ruhi Sheikh and Smrithi Rao. Photo by Harris Backer<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nIT SPELLED<\/strong> change with a capital \u2018C\u2019 when 13 year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson was invited as a special guest to the Marc Jacobs fashion show at last year\u2019s New York Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. She even sparked an online spat when her giant bow-shaped headpiece obstructed the view of one of British fashion\u2019s most senior writers,\u00a0Grazia<\/em>\u00a0magazine Style Director Paula Reed, at the Christian Dior haute couture show in Paris. But Tavi remained unfazed, because her fashion blog,\u00a0Style Rookie,<\/em>\u00a0gets 1.5 million hits a month, compared to which\u00a0Grazia\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0circulation in the UK alone, which stands at 229,732, looks bleak. Back home, fashion bloggers Payal and Priyanka of\u00a0High Heel Confidential<\/em>\u00a0tasted sweet success when they were invited for the recently-concluded Lakme Fashion Week as part of the media. The message was crystal clear: the Indian fashion fraternity had finally woken up to the fashion blogger.<\/span>
\nFashion bloggers have recently become an influential posse. Though the first fashion blog appeared only in 2002, their number has grown considerably since then. Google them today and you will find more than 18,400,000 hits.<\/span>
\nThough still in its nascent stage in India, the trend is spreading like wildfire. The fashion-conscious youth of metros like Mumbai and Bengaluru are aching to get their point of view across. Payal and Priyanka of\u00a0High Heel Confidential,\u00a0<\/em>which chronicles Bollywood\u2019s style quotient, say, \u201cThis medium allows room for immediate reactions, opinions and comments. Designers, buyers, celebrities… know exactly what the people are thinking and bloggers are beginning to play as important a role as critics in swaying opinion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The biggest problem with Indian fashion is that there is no concept of pr\u00eat. There are no fashion houses like H&M or Zara, that bridge the gap\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, fashion bloggers have aided the democratisation of the fashion industry. The days of a small sect of fashion designers and editors calling the shots about what to wear are over \u2014 replaced by a space where the consumer holds power. Media professionals Sonu Bohra, 23, and Jasleen Kaur Gupta, 26, startedFashion Bombay,<\/em>\u00a0on which they list budget yet unique buys for Mumbai women. \u201cWe take pictures of each other dressed in the trends that we spot. We are far from size zero, and hence a reader of our blog can know exactly how a silhouette will look on their body-type.\u201d Much like 24 year-old Smrithi Rao from Bengaluru, who is a DIY queen on her blog\u00a0Vintage Obsession.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cAll my DIY stuff is something everyone can try at home,\u201d she says. Mumbai-centric blogs like 26-year-old Manu Tyagi\u2019s\u00a0Wearabout<\/em>\u00a0and 22 year-old Karishma Rajani\u2019s\u00a0Purple Peeptoes<\/em>\u00a0showcase ordinary people on the street with extraordinary style. Manu says, \u201cI think fashion is about creating different looks with what one already has \u2014 to make one\u2019s \u2018wardrobe staple\u2019 versatile.\u201d As Ruhi and Faiza Sheikh of\u00a0The Republic of Chic<\/em>\u00a0say, \u201cThese blogs mix designer wear with stuff from a little-known store.\u201d
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Mumbai motley Mumbai bloggers Sonu Bohra, Jasleen Kaur Gupta and Karishma Rajani. Photo by Garima Jain<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nTHIS HIP CLIQUE<\/strong> has very definite opinions on the latest trends that walk the ramps. \u201cThe biggest problem about Indian fashion is that there is no concept of pr\u00eat. There are no fashion houses like H&M or Zara, that can bridge the gap,\u201d says Jasleen. And though designer Little Shilpa\u2019s funky headgear is a hit with the front rows, socialites and editors alike, Smrithi couldn\u2019t disagree with it more: \u201cWho will wear a fan on their heads \u2014 that too one that is switched on. It looks as if it\u2019s all made of scrap!\u201d She would love to see the good ol\u2019 hide-those-hips harem pants on the ramps, and maybe some of those jumpsuits \u2014 like the ones by her favourite designer, Jean Paul Gaultier.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The biggest problem with Indian fashion is that there is no concept of pr\u00eat. There are no fashion houses like H&M or Zara, that bridge the gap\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Internationally, the diversity of perspectives has influenced the collections of designers. For example, Diane Von Furstenberg\u2019s spring 2010 collection showcased harem pants, capris and wide-legged trousers for the first time \u2014 a favourite with everyday fashionistas.<\/span>
\nHow do mainstream fashion writers react to the Indian fashion blogging phenomenon? Nonita Kalra, editor-in-chief of\u00a0Elle<\/em>India, India\u2019s largest selling fashion magazine, feels that bloggers could be useful for the industry as they are expanding its reach: \u201cThey communicate in a language that younger people understand.\u201d But\u00a0Mid-Day<\/em>\u00a0Fashion Editor Shweta Shiware bemoans the fact that serious fashion writers may be made redundant due to this: \u201cIt\u2019s not whether they make sense or not, but about how quickly their blogs reach readers.\u201d<\/span>
\nAlso, the phenomenon of the fashion blogger has been marred by allegations that the \u201cindependent voice\u201d may be in danger of being silenced. Robert Johnson, associate editor at men\u2019s magazine GQ, was quoted as saying: \u201cBloggers are attractive to the big design houses because they are so wide-eyed. As soon as they\u2019ve been invited to the shows, they can no longer criticise because then they won\u2019t be invited back.\u201d So will Indian fashion bloggers still retain their \u201cwe are the voice of the masses\u201d stance when they hit the big time, get front row fashion show invitations and brands start scrambling for ad space? We will just have to wait and watch.<\/span><\/p>\n

WRITER\u2019S EMAIL<\/strong>
\naastha@tehelka.com<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian fashion blogs, like their foreign predecessors, are fast reinterpreting fashion for the common people, finds\u00a0\u00a0Aastha Atray Banan IT SPELLED change with a capital \u2018C\u2019 when 13 year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson was invited as a special guest to the Marc Jacobs fashion show at last year\u2019s New York Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. She even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[5725,6067,5767,6068,6069,6070,6071,1076,6072,6073,6074,6075,6076],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}