Fashion Week and the impact of the bloggers THE arrival of Fashion Month and the fashion industry's biannual expedition to New York, London, Milan and Paris has put bloggers back in the spotlight, and photographers are the latest to weigh in on the debate over blogging versus traditional journalism. Speaking anonymously to the New York Observer this week, professional photographers covering the runway shows at New York Fashion Week, who make a living through the licensed images disseminated by newswires to the media, have complained of iPhones held aloft blocking their views and photo-bloggers monopolising the space inside and outside the shows, in ignorance of the accepted photographers" etiquette of moving on once you have your shot. The paper reports that one plans to draft a letter of grievance to designers highlighting their perceived devaluation of their work by competing bloggers, "to explain to them what it is to be a photographer" and to tell them that the flooding of the market with non-professional shots of their wares does them no favours. Fern Mallis, former senior vice president of IMG Fashion, which runs NY Fashion Week, told the NY Observer: "I can't speak for the brands but I hope they would care. They spend a lot of money to put out a fabulous show and that's a significant investment and I hope they would want the very best photography and the very best pictures coming out. Everyone who has an iPhone or an iPad isn't a photographer. Nor is every blogger a writer or a critic who has the knowledge and the history to edit, digest and communicate what the collections are about. The backlash against bloggers is nothing new, and was in fact almost concurrent with their meteoric rise. Former Grazia style director Paula Reed, now fashion director at Harvey Nichols, famously complained that she could not see over Tavi Gevinson's Philip Treacy headpiece when the 13-year-old blogger was seated in front of her (which many speculated was the real reason for her dissent) at Christian Dior's 2010 couture show, and tweeted a photo of her obstructed view with the caption: "At Dior. Not best pleased to be watching couture through 13-year-old Tavi's hat. Vogue.com editor Dolly Jones has criticised designers" courting of bloggers, saying: ""PRs plant stories with certain bloggers who are influential. Those have a ripple effect. It's a really powerful selling tool," while fellow Condé Nast editor, Robert Johnson of GQ, was quoted as saying: "Bloggers are so attractive to the big design houses because they are so wide-eyed and obsessed, but they don't have the critical faculties to know what's good and what's not. As soon as they've been invited to the shows, they can no longer criticise because then they won't be invited back. However, practices that were seen as the domain of bloggers, such as iPhone photography, are now being employed wholeheartedly by the industry itself. Dominant wire image site Getty has for the first time started selling Instagram photos, taken by professional photographers on their iPhones. It is now standard practice for fashion editors and reporters, hair and makeup brands and artists, models and even the designers themselves to post photos and tweet prolifically from the front row and backstage at the shows. Coverage of the shows by the traditional media of magazines and newspapers is increasingly shifting to their online platforms. While this is of course following the pattern of a wider shift towards online media by newspapers and magazines, when it comes to fashion coverage it is arguably a move that was in part pushed by the popularity of blogs and a sense of "can't beat "em" acceptance. However, alongside the fashion industry's somewhat delayed embracing of the internet as a medium, and the affordable high street/designer collaborations that are now ubiquitous, blogging has arguably played a role in the democratisation of fashion. The accessibility and instantaneous nature of the blog, which allows it to bring fashion to the masses, has seen an explosion in interest in the industry over the past decade, when previously following fashion (as distinct from merely enjoying shopping for clothes) had been something of a niche hobby. The exclusivity of the rarefied world of fashion shows has undoubtedly been diluted as a result of these changes, and the positivity or negativity of this development is in the eye of the beholder. Queen Michelle, of Glasgow-based fashion blog Kingdom of Style, said: "Bloggers are here and here to stay and that's that. Designers and labels feel they have great value, so until that changes they are going to be part of the industry. If photographers feel what they do is threatened by Instagram photos, then they really need to take a long, hard look at the quality of their work. When something becomes "democratic," it's natural for those who have done it professionally for a long time to feel put out and under-valued. "Editors and "real" journalists were exactly the same when bloggers first started getting the same level of access to designers as them. Suddenly, they must have felt like all their hard work seemed pointless when some random teen with a blog could come along and take a seat beside them at a show. But if people - the public, designers - are as accepting as they have been of the new, then it means change must have been due and wanted. Edinburgh-raised Imogen Roy, who has recently stopped blogging at former domain Eight and now plans to create a multi-genre arts, culture and fashion site, is in agreement that fashion bloggers have not negatively impacted upon traditional coverage, but feels that the phenomenon of the big name-blogger has had its day, saying: "As far as I have observed, there is no threat to the professions of the trained journalists in the industry. A select few bloggers had the foresight and professionalism to adhere to the traditional codes of the industry and do their jobs well. Other bloggers were not so clever, didn't properly fulfil their responsibility as reporters, and were responsible for generating a bad reputation amongst bloggers as a whole. There have been accredited bloggers reporting on shows for several years that have been welcomed into the fold at the international fashion weeks. But those positions have been filled for some time now. There will be no more big bloggers. Blogging is not dead, but the death rattle has been sounded. For Roy, original content is key to a good fashion blog: "A "good" fashion blogger is very different from a popular or successful fashion blogger. In my eyes, a good blogger is someone who is writing, illustrating or photographing their individual and researched view point on fashion from an interesting standpoint: their life as a rural teenager for example, or whose day job is as an education lawyer, or is an industry insider. These examples are all real fashion bloggers I know. "It's all too easy to take catwalk pictures off the internet and then write "love this" underneath. There are hundreds of thousands of so called "blogs" in existence, but most of them are not blogs, they are personal picture libraries." Queen Marie, blogging partner of Michelle at Kingdom of Style, highlights integrity as another vital ingredient, saying: "Obviously it is really important for content to be written in an authentic and honest voice that reflects the personality of the blogger. Many blogs accept paid advertising, and as result they may not be as outspoken as they once were. On Kingdom of Style we write about what we like, not because someone has paid us to do it. Obviously both being involved in design means we cherish white space and are keen to ensure that the blog looks good but equally important is easy to read. So many blogs are so cluttered with adverts and flashing banners that it is almost impossible to find the content contained within [them]. Ubiquity is another common complaint; blogger events organised by brands, retail outlets and other companies are a standard way for bloggers to access information in order to generate content, but, particularly in a market as small as Scotland's, reading the same unstintingly positive review of the same event, product or place across a multitude of blogs quickly becomes tiresome. As do repeated sightings of items so beloved of bloggers that they have become clichéd: there are only so many ways to style Jeffrey Campbell's Lita boots and Yves Saint Laurent's Arty rings, as anyone familiar with fashion blogs and the outfit sharing site Lookbook will be aware. Opinionated, well-researched and original content and reporting; a high standard of writing (all too many bloggers seem to view proper spelling and use of grammar as an optional extra); good photography; interests and inspiration from outside the world of fashion, and a unique stance or selling point are all things that have served successful blogs well. So with that in mind, here are ten of the best fashion blogs to follow: Kingdom of Style The best of the Scottish fashion blogs, Kingdom of Style is informed and intelligent, and, just as designers do, looks elsewhere for inspiration, with recent posts on ballet, Manchester band Everything Everything and what your name means to you sitting alongside instructive outfit posts and an examination of London label Preen. Another Garçon Photographer Jonathan Daniel Pryce, who along with Daniel Stern started Scotland's first, and still best, street style blog Les Garçons de Glasgow (lesgarconsdeglasgow.com), was named photographer of the year at this year's Scottish Fashion Awards, a mark of how far the reach of influence of his own blogs, and of the blogger in general has progressed. Pryce has an excellent eye for style and detail, and his shots are beautiful in their simplicity. His side project 100 Beards (http://100beards.tumblr.com), in which he aims to photograph 100 beards in 100 days, has received well-deserved media attention from Dazed & Confused and Radio 1. Style Rookie Now 16, Tavi Gevinson is infamous for having started blogging at the age of eleven and attending New York Fashion Week from the age of 13, but there is nothing gimmicky about her blog The Style Rookie. Gevinson is a gifted writer and aesthete, for whom fashion is entirely personal, and merely one element of inspiration alongside her encyclopaedic knowledge of pop culture references. Rookie (http://rookiemag.com), the online magazine for teenage girls she started last year, is where she is most often found posting these days, and is one of the best online publications anywhere, whatever your age or gender. Frassy Audrey Rogers, also known as Frassy, is an American-born girl living in Paris, and quite possibly the most positive person on the internet. Her enthusiasm and unashamed, unfaltering love for the fashion world shines through in every post and never fails to make you wish you could join her in her happy world, in which she has turned twirling through the streets of Paris in various combinations from her seemingly vast wardrobe into a social media empire. Making Magique Haleigh Walsworth of Making Magique refers to herself as a "silly American in Paris" and her blog is indeed a celebration of the silliness in life that is so essential to happiness. Encompassing photography and video (she has a considerable talent for both); exquisite outfit, travel and interior posts and highly personal guides to Paris, her blog is sweet, dreamy and unashamedly girly without being twee, thanks to her thoughtful and emotionally honest writing. Much like her friend Frassy (who rather sweetly refers to Walsworth as her wife), she has cleverly turned her image as projected through her blog into a marketable concept, having recently opened an online shop, Shop Rebelle shoprebelle.com. Jeanne Damas Jeanne Damas is the fashion blogger you want to be: the ultimate personification of the much-mythologised nonchalant French style and effortless sex appeal, her blog is a glimpse into her world. A model by day, Damas is also an accomplished photographer and her exemplary outfit posts and images of travels, parties and the streets of Paris, populated by her (almost) equally attractive friends and impossibly handsome boyfriend, acclaimed artist and photographer Ludovic Zuili, are prone to inducing serious cases of life envy. The Sartorialist Photographer Scott Schuman's is the original street style blog and still the best. Beautifully shot and with an eclectic selection of styles, it displays Schuman's infallible and instinctive eye for beauty. His work now hangs in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and he is the blogger who has done the most in making the medium credible. Advanced Style Inspirational and utterly joyful, Advanced Style is New York street style photographer Ari Cohen's homage to the sartorial savvy of the older generation, and a masterclass in respecting your elders, as well as a mine of wholly-original styling tips that have stood the test of time, and a reassuring resource for those who fear that ageing means the advent of the elasticated waist. The Man Repeller The soi-disant Man Repeller is New Yorker Leandra Medine, whose USP is her coining of the phrase that captures the true fashion fan's complete lack of interest in what the opposite sex thinks of her outfit. Referring to her clothes as "sartorial contraceptives," Medine is a talented writer, whose snarky tone is never alienating, and injects much-needed humour into the business of reporting and experimenting with fashion. Anna Dello Russo Fashion's favourite maniac Anna Dello Russo, bombastic editor-at-large of Vogue Japan, and former editor of both Vogue Italia and L'Uomo Vogue, relaunched her blog yesterday, and it is a bazaar of the eccentric, eclectic and enthusiastic, as one might expect from the woman who has declared daywear a waste of time; believes "Nothing succeeds like excess"; dresses like the embodiment of the exclamation mark; and released a song entitled "You need a fashion shower" to mark her collaboration with H&M.