(Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love by Brooke Erin Duffy

Author:Brooke Erin Duffy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300218176
Publisher: Yale University Press

Content creators’ reflections on self-branding are a testament to the market logic that propels much activity in the online worlds of fashion and beauty. It is against this commercial backdrop that style pundits have bemoaned the seeming corruption of fashion blogging—from an arsenal of sartorially inspired musings created at whim to adeptly managed content compliant with advertising demands. New York Times writer Ruth La Ferla is among the most unabashed critics of the market-driven fashion blogosphere. In a rather contemptuous article timed to coincide with New York Fashion Week 2012, La Ferla detailed a shift from the internet’s halcyon days, when blogging was “fashion’s last stronghold of true indie spirit,” to the contemporary moment, “infiltrated by tides of marketers, branding consultants and public relations gurus, all intent on persuading those women to step out in their wares.”39 A centerpiece of her article was the surreptitious practice of content marketing, wherein designers “seed” clothes and accessories to bloggers who flaunt these goods before the fleet of photographers covering the event. Tom Julian, a fashion branding professional interviewed for the article, designated bloggers as “billboards for the brands,” adding, “People still think street style is a voice of purity. But I don’t think purity exists any more.” As evidence of “purity”’s ostensible deracination by financial self-interest, the article mentioned that style influencers can rake in as much as $10,000 for a single appearance in a designer’s merchandise.

Predictably, La Ferla’s exposition of the blogger-marketing system was a lightning rod for controversy. A spate of writings published in the wake of the article questioned such knotty issues as blogger transparency, fair compensation, and the evolution of street-style fashion. Importantly, though, the recognition of bloggers as brand billboards tapped into a zeitgeist where marketing partnerships are structured by the currency of social media visibility. Amateur cultural producers may publicly express loyalty for brands with which they hope to partner as part of a mutually sustaining system of entrepreneurial brand devotion.40 The blogger/vlogger/Instagrammer labor market is awash with young people eager to freely endorse branded goods in hopes of currying favor with desirable retailers and designers. Socialization resources—the Independent Fashion Bloggers network and various blogger how-to manuals—targeting this class of aspirants encourage them to make the first move. For instance, an online fashion magazine offered the following advice to aspiring style bloggers hoping to grow their impact: “Brands will not always know you exist until you show them. Tag, tag and tag them! Mention them within your posts and thank them.” Another article recommended that content producers “pay attention to your captions—they make a difference. … Mention brands, use appropriate hashtags and add humor or emotion whenever you can!”41 These discourses often play to the tune of the internet’s siren song: social media as a platform for getting discovered. And brands are tapping their feet to the music in cadence.

In recent years, a torrent of marketing campaigns has used social media to scout talent or crowdsource content—including blogs that focus on the fashion blogger community. For

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