Fashion or Whatever: _Blogging is easy way to show personal fashion style_

When Yvan Rodic of the fashion blog Face Hunter came to UCLA as part of a Fashion and Student Trends event on Nov. 9, I had an internal freak-out.

I may have looked calmly nonchalant on the outside, but on the inside, I was hysterical with excitement.

To give some background on my decidedly uncommon thrill, I used to be a fashion blogger as a sprightly 15-year-old teenager. My crude, rudimentary postings of fashion or whatever ranged from the apoplectic dissection of “America’s Next Top Model” to the raving reviews of designer Marc Jacob’s latest collection.

As a wannabe fashion blogger, I saw Face Hunter as the premium diesel of fashion. Rodic didn’t simply use his blog as a vanity project to rant and rave but to showcase distinct street style all over the world.

Rodic said that he started his fashion blog with a simple digital camera to document people at parties. Little did he know that his site would garner millions of hits and work with venerable fashion mediums such as Style.com and coverage in the March issue of Vogue US as one of the “Power Bloggers.”

When Vogue starts noticing fashion blogs, then there is justification behind the medium, even though just about anyone can start a fashion blog and puncture the elitist world of fashion. For instance, Tavi Gevinson started her fashion blog, Style Rookie, at the age of 11, sharing her intellectual and witty fashion musings to the masses, and quickly became a prodigy in the fashion industry. After being featured in the New York Times’ T Magazine in August 2008, Gevinson appeared on the Fall 2009 cover of Pop Magazine, worked with design team Rodarte for its Target collaboration and styled a fashion editorial for Blackbook Magazine. Gevinson, now 14, is starting a magazine with Sassy Magazine creator Jane Pratt.

Seeing people like Gevinson become such sensations in the fashion world almost make me nostalgic for fashion blogging, although I know I wouldn’t be nearly as much of a savant at my current age.

However, the accessibility of the fashion blog has become kind of viral, where people start fashion blogs that just add noise and public relation shills to the Internet. But there is always that one gem, such as Style Rookie or Face Hunter, that stands out among the masses and has a distinct viewpoint.

Fashion and Student Trends assistant website editor Kourtney Kientzy said that she thinks fashion blogs are popular because they are so inspiring. And fashion blogs have become a source of aspiration, especially with personal style blogs, where people document their outfits and post them on their fashion blog.

The vitality of fashion blogs these days doesn’t just lie solely in fashion opinion or criticism but also personal style, since people are drawn to the visual and pretty people wearing pretty clothes.

While I sometimes think personal style blogs easily become vanity projects, I see the appeal. Personal style blogger Rumi Neely of Fashion Toast documents her seemingly nonchalant and effortless style almost daily, sometimes to the point that I think every outfit looks like a variation of the last outfit. But my opinion doesn’t change those of her fans and countless fashion outlets vying for her to model their wares. For instance, you can see Neely on the billboards as she models cut-off shorts and bunny ear headbands for Forever 21.

Alas, my days of fashion blogging are over, and I’m way too schleppy to even fathom a personal-style blog. But for the youth out there, it’s pretty simple, since all one needs for a fashion blog is a Blogger account and perhaps a tripod camera to take photos of outfits. Because who knows, someone out there in the middle of the suburbs could be the next Rumi or Tavi.

Obsessed with fashion blogging or sick of seeing people galloping around on heels for style blogs? E-mail Jue at tjue@media.ucla.edu.

“Fashion or Whatever” runs every Wednesday.