362. Some quick thoughts on IFB’s Evolving Influence conference, such as the disturbingly narrow gap between lived life and performed life, as well as very calculated and mercenary definitions of ‘artist.’
September 10th, 2010 § 39 Comments
Hi, I’m back from the IFB conference and Amy Odell‘s impassioned speech on the importance of being fast as a blogger (if you wait two minutes, you’re too late) must have gotten to my head (which conflicts perfectly with another panelist’s advice to not blog about the same thing that every other blogger is going to blog about.) Just kidding. Gala Darling suggested that bloggers are both artists and businessmen and business women. Someone else said not to write long theses on serious subjects. All the panelists did the best they could, but I did have to leave midway through three talks (I won’t say who!) to get a soda, water, and energy drink because the level of discourse began to feel as hopeless as listening to a toddler trying to explain the global economy.
I noticed:
+ The conference was so professional and beautifully organized! Jeanine from The Coveted and her busy bee helpers were tremendous and on their A+++++ game.
+Wendy Brandes is hot! More on that later.
+ Every panelist spoke on the importance of being original and how no blogger will ever get anywhere if he or she simply copies what’s already out there. This made me feel a little gloomy for the conference participants (how handily I exclude myself!) because the sad truth is that people attend these conferences to learn from someone else. Maybe that isn’t quite the same as ripping off someone else’s mojo, but it’s hardly using originality and cleverness to figure out one’s own specific and idiosyncratic path to success. I thought of writing conferences I’ve attended in the past and even the creative writing classes I’ve taught at Iowa. I’ve always suspected (and sometimes confirmed) that the students who end up being the most successful and go the furthest with their talent (or maybe it’s the other way around–they had the most talent to begin with) are the ones who ignore my advice and do their own shit. Which is basically what most of the panelists were saying anyway, but in a roundabout and sometimes elliptical way because who wants to pay money to hear someone say: Hi, do your own shit and if you happen to already be talented, you should be fine. Bye.
+ Are fashion bloggers contributing and encouraging the normalization of heteronormative, pre-second wave feminism, socially conservative relationships between men and women? I think EVERY single successful personal style blog has 1) a two-person team consisting of a female personal style blogger and her steady, long-term boyfriend or husband, who was already a photographer or willingly became one over the course of time 2) who is also willing to bring the camera everywhere in order to help capture and stage photos for said personal style blogger who performs some aspect of her personal style over the course of hundreds of photos so that the final product looks totally effortless, spontaneous, and gives reader the illusion that they are actually peering in this style blogger’s life even though we are only seeing a planned and performed aspect of this blogger’s public life which masquerades as private life, which then entices and tillitates readership who are increasingly voracious to experience more of this blogger’s authentic private life.
+ The crazy thing is that celebrities have been doing this for ages. For example, when Britney burst into the scene, we were all transfixed because we had this young lady who was performing a totally sexually uninhibited character in all of her videos which we took to be her public persona, while in interviews, she performed an entirely different character–a virginal, innocent, down-to-earth Southern girl who would rather stay home and bake with her mom than go out and be wild. The contradiction is intriguing, even though both her public and her private self are performed within a fairly safe distance from the real Britney (although we also saw that space disappear and the window to her mental health became increasingly transparent.)
+ The only difference is that a blogger’s public persona (and the corresponding public persona masquerading as private persona) is usually entirely developed and conceived by the blogger herself/himself, as opposed to an entire publicity team madly brainstorming to come up with the perfect pop star to sell to the American public–e.g. Britney Spears, the professed virgin who never does anything wild except for when she has a snake hanging down from both her arms and is tonguing Madonna after passing her off to Xtina for sloppy seconds.
I think after writing this blog post, I may have inadvertently stuck my finger up the butt of all today’s panelists’ advice (except maybe Ms. Odell.) Large chunks of logorrhea-addled text, and hardly any visual accompaniment or cleanliness of form, and nothing in here that helps the monetizing crusade. Thank goodness. A more frivial, (which is my own Palinesque neologism for when something is both frivolous and trivial,) write-up of today’s conference in the coming days (including plenty of booty shots of my kitten pockets thanks to the Mandate of Heaven onesie I romped around all day in.)
Oh right, I forgot to touch on the disturbing definitions of ‘artist’ brought up in today’s panel. May I suggest to anyone who wants to call herself an artist (Beyonce, you are almost excused): please read Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist,” first? Because I’m starting to feel the horrific weight of life crushing my fingers into broken pods of pain every time I hear someone refer to herself or himself as “an artist.” Let your work precede you. Don’t be the self-laudatory prologue to your own boring novel, dudes.
My favorite panelists:
Phil Oh from StreetPeeper
Susie Bubble was real classy and well-spoken.
Mattias from Bloglovin‘ had the most astute analysis of how and why blogger’s have become influential. Graphs are always helpful and remind me of my favorite sociology teachers from university.
Love, Jenny
I’m choking on dust and dirt and am half blind from spending a day involved in the rigorous cleaning and rearranging of my bedroom but I want to let you know that I really enjoyed your review of the conference! You could write about a poop and it would be an enlightening and fascinating read.
I hope you’re planning on attending the “blogger park meet-up” tomorrow!
xo
<3 <3 <3 multiplied by a centillion
Hah, I so definitely agree with Hannah!
And also definitely agree with everyone calling themselves ‘artists’ these days, I cringe when people refer to themselves as such while, in fact, they’re just drawing/photoshopping/…/or even worse just randomly snapping pretty pictures. Although because I do find that art and therefore the term artist is relative and entirely subjective to someone personally I should accept people doing this, but I cringe anyway. I just can’t help it! Likewise I also cringe when people refer to me as an artist whereas I just think I draw random shit.
Also so true, your comment on pre-second wave feminism. I never thought of it that way.
Although I like peeping into someone’s life online, I mainly pay attention to what bloggers are writing to look into their persona and so on and when the pictures and writing don’t match I feel a certain disingenuous about it all and I end up being sort of averse to said blog(s). I find the main important factor in good blogs (I am not actually talking about ‘succesful’ blogs) is realness.
Also also also I saw you wearing your H&M dress in your previous post and coincidentally I have the same one and you totally inspired me to wear it today. Too bad I don’t have an awesome oversized blazer though, I could’ve creepily been your Belgian equivalent today.
I’m so happy to think that we wore the same thing in the same week! I feel like a snotty, pretentious ass when I get all hell no that person is not an artist! But maybe I’m just worried about calling oneself an artist for the purpose of legitimizing one’s desire to basically get famous and make money. Are you devoted to your art or are you devoted to your perception of yourself as Someone Important And Creative, AKA An Artist?
Your review kind of quelled my frustration that I could neither be at the conference nor watch the 3 dollar live stream. Your point about the speakers overall message of “doing your own thing” was well conceived. I understand the message, I mean for goodness sake, we’re all creatives right? The general goal is to do our own thing, that’s why we create in the first place. And of course I use the adjective identifier “creatives” because calling bloggers artists can be a stretch at times. I too cringe at that word being thrown around willy nilly, Eline. I write, does that make me an artist, no, it makes me an effing writer. I model (on my blog only) does that make me an artist, no, a model and an amateur one at that.
The point that you brought up on second wave feminism is one that I think should collectively be explored further. I’ve been thinking about fashion blogging as a branch of feminism lately and have been personally trying to shape some sort of critique there. At first I thought that my applying the word feminism to fashion blogging was a device that I deceived in order to make myself feel less ‘vain’ for having talented photographers take pictures of me so that I can pursue the very personal activity of styling my way and writing about myself; but the more I think about it the more it does seem like a new wave of feminism, or at least a branch of it.
Can’t wait to read the full review…really interested to hear what you have to say about Rumi Neely’s presentation.
later.
1) I’m happy you used the word willy-nilly because David Brent from The Office (UK version) says it all the time and he’s brilliant.
2) I guiltily wish someone with greater critical faculties would explore the uneasy and sometimes exciting and sometimes disturbing relationship fashion blogging has with feminism. I can only offer very rudimentary thoughts…
3) I really appreciate your level of critical self-awareness and willingness to interrogate your own intentions and relationship with fashion blogging. I think I need to do that more often. I don’t, of course, because it’s unpleasant to consider unpleasant things. But I also agree completely that there’s always something empowering about creating your own images, of participating in living fashion, rather than being shown fashion that is dead on the page and dictated from up top.
4) I’m not sure if I’ll ever post a more in depth review! I’m honestly over saturated in my blog reader with recaps about the IFB conference and I don’t know if I want to annoy readers with more NYFW stuff. I’ll definitely post a little about Chictopia and some fun photos of other bloggers.
5) Sorry I made a list. It seems so clinical and rote.
6) Thank you for your comment!
Your are fashion bloggers contributing paragpraph is really interesting to me because I’ve always seen blogs and blogging (and when I say ‘blogging’, the majority of what I read is fashion-centric) as being pretty socially progressive. I guess I don’t read the big names, so to speak, so maybe I’m missing the stuff that’s being reinforced by society at large (via monetisation, print-press, etc?)..?
Assuming that that’s the case, even then I think it’s less straightforward than regressive gender politics. The male half of these duos is the sidekick, right? The blogger is the main event, and the photographer is pretty much a lackey whose purpose is to build her rep. It sound a bit Old Hollywood perhaps, the producer with the starlet wife? But in these modern cases he isn’t even controlling the image – just documenting hers.
I’m not going to argue that mainstream fashion blogging is super feminist or politically active, natch, or that there’s nothing creepy or off-balance in a lot of bloggers’ spaces. And I do think it’s a bit weird that a lot of bloggers (because they write for themselves) basically have no responsibility of representation.
Claire, I’d love to get my hands on your blog reading list because it sounds like you’re reading some pretty fly blogs. And yes, I agree it’s definitely more complicated and entangled than simply oh god, fashion blogs are taking us back fifty years. I’m really interested in what you said about who is controlling whose image and how in a strange way, it’s almost empowering for women to exercise control over their own perfected image, even if their notions of perfection have come from a place that is maybe antiquated or even regressive (the importance of appearances–a perfect home, a perfect plate of food, a perfect outfit, etc.)
Y’know, now I consider it, when I say ‘socially progressive’ I possibly actually just mean ‘not aggressively pro-hetero-monogamy’. Hmm.
I wasn’t thinking of anyblog in particular at the time, but a brief sampling of my favourites off the top of my head would be..
HAIL MARY, Nogoodforme, Fatshionista, Rabbit Write, Being Manly.. within whom you have four unmarried unattached implicitly straight girls, two married women (one bisexual), and one implicitly straight married man. But they are all pro-do-what-you-want, which I think is what I meant.
I guess there IS a big difference between priviliged-liberal and line of fire-liberal though; I’m gonna have to keep my eyes open for fashion bloggers further outside of heteronormativity.
My experience with boyfriend-photography vs tripod photography is that there’s no difference at all, apart from boyfriend-photography is more likely to include someone saying “this camera is really heavy!” – for me, I decide where I want to be, set up the camera, and then either set the timer or instruct when to press the button. I do wonder, with the bloggers who have regular man-snappers, what the process of image capturing is like. Model and photographer? Human tripod? True collaberation? I do kind of wish that people talked more about everything involved in the outfit photogaraphy, beyond which item came from where.
Awesome post and coverage. Love it!
[...] Critical analysis of the conference by Fashion for Writers [...]
I don’t think I’m an artist. I’m a wannabe photographer. Also, I’ve always wondered about joining IFB, but I don’t feel like my blog is fashiony enough. But on the topic of fashion blogs, I feel like not only are a lot of the blogs the same, but a lot of the bloggers seem to have the exact same sense of style. As if they all browsed Lookbook.nu one day and decided that that’s how they were going to dress.
Hey girl, I know just what you mean about lookbook.nu. I think you’re totally an artist, and I feel like I shouldn’t have been so stringent and judgmental about the definition of artist and who can and cannot apply to him or herself, because now I feel like no one is going to want to identify him/herself as an artist! And you should because I love your photographs.
I was just thinking the other night about how most (not all, I guess) of the fashion blogs I’ve come across are v. heteronormative (obvs. not their fault per se, but still, it kind of kills me a bit inside.) Along those lines, I also find the lack of politicization of fashion within the blogosphere disheartening, because I know how smart some of these people are, & real dialogues could occur if placed in the forefront of the medium.
I love you for bringing up Kafka’s Hunger Artist. I think regarding bloggers as artists is going a bit far; the contemporary splashing round of that signifier is problematic in general, & there is a big old line between say, Nan Goldin’s self-portraits & so&so’s outfit photos, though I like that personal photography is coming back into the fray a bit. It is so hard to determine what is ‘real’ & what is conjured when it comes to some fashion blogs, which kind of sticks in my throat as phony (though at times v. charmingly so, a la Morrissey.)
As a smallest-of-small-fry blogger, I feel a bit on the outskirts of all the hubbub regarding the business vs. personal end of blogging, & find that I have a bit more freedom than say, the powerhouse bloggers out there & can be completely honest & discuss things that aren’t Zooey Deschanel & pretty dresses, because when a blog is yr business, you can’t alienate followers (even if you really want to have an in-depth discussion regarding GLBT & fashion, or the sociopolitical context of high-end design.)
Wow, anyway, didn’t mean to rant so long; must see yr kitten pockets! Time for authentic crepes.
Hi Hannah! You are so freaking right about everything, and I love YOU for bringing up Nan Goldin. I also wish that more dialogues could occur across the blogosphere, but it’s hella hard because, as you so smartly mentioned, it’s hard to write anything particularly interesting when you’ve branded yourself, or are sponsored by one because you risk alienating your readership/client base.
your paragraph about fashion bloggers reinforcing heternormative pre-second wave feminism is interesting. i follow quite a few bloggers who aren’t in a relationship (time enough for drums, the clothes horse, idée géniale, etc.), but it is interesting to see how big the marriage/relationships of some bloggers is to the life of their blogs.
Hi Kenda! I was totally writing sloppily and briskly and generalizing like crazy, and you’re right that a lot of bloggers don’t at all fit into this archetype that I’ve pointed out. I’m really fascinated that this archetype exists at all and seems to be one of the dominant models of personal style fashion blogging. I’m a little terrified to see it grow further!
You make an interesting point about how gender relations are presented in fashion blogs. I follow a few fashion bloggers, both attached and unattached, who take their own pictures, but having done it myself I know that it’s a giant pain in the ass. Personally, I prefer having control over the process, but maybe I’d change my mind about that if my boyfriend weren’t a half-blind psych major (whom I adore, of course, but still). And I can think of at least one blogger who didn’t really take off until her boyfriend took over the photography and it markedly improved, as a result. Do you think this is a result of fashion blogging being a part of the larger world of fashion, where it’s usually men behind the camera and women in front of it as well?
Reading “The Hunger Artist” was a bit of a traumatizing experience. Remembering it makes me want dinner.
I think maybe the big name fashion blogs are sort of self-selecting. If you happen to be thin, if you happen to have a model’s physique, if you happen to be a stable, long-term relationship that affords you free time because your significant other can work, if you happen to have a boyfriend who doesn’t mind taking your outfit photos and has loved you long enough to know how to best capture you in photographs so that you look your most beautiful and natural, then you will probably end up with awesome photos and the kind of life that is easily enviable. That’s my very very very crude analysis of it all!
excellent post. May begin to spread the word frivial.
Please help me turn it into a meme! Just kidding.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Jenny, for being you, both doing up your own shit, and being hella talented.
What you write about here is why I have lately felt the need to focus my blog more as a practical etsy shop booster, a happy peek into my new Singaporean home.
I discovered a few months ago that I don’t really feel comfortable taking pictures of my outfits in the morning and then walking around all day, going to work, accomplishing tasks, enjoying life, as a sincere human. It’s a performance that did not ring true to me. I love pretty things and I dress up every day. And the pictures on so many blogs are a sweet treat for the eyes. But, the activity of checklisted style documentation is not for me. For example, I spent the last five years working 12 hours a day, teaching in the most poorly funded state in the U.S. Carefree and perfectly poised I was not during that time. And to use my blog to broadcast images of just me in clothes for the sake of just me in clothes felt embarrassing. I am not shy. And it’s not that I believe beautiful costumes are “frivial” (love it, Jenny). Not at all. I love beautiful costumes. Fashion tells many stories, as our wise friends at Threadbared say. But the form is what I rebel against–daily outings with my boyfriend behind a tripod, snapping pictures of me, un-self consciously posing like a 40′s pinup, just because that’s what so many other bloggers do? No. Would my boyfriend take outfit pictures of me everyday? I guess. But I wouldn’t want to conscript him. And where is the dynamic nature of such a daily task? Returns? Diminishing.
I’m with you. This form of blogging is many things, but art is not one of them. Let’s aspire to a higher art. Offline?
I’m writing my Statement of Purpose for MFA programs next Fall. There’s so much silly stuff that we believe must enter into a successful SOP, and an aspect of performance in that piece of writing too. My dear lovely friend and I have been exchanging our drafts over the interwebs and offering feedback and praise. And what our readings and re-readings of each others’ words come down to is this: Do Your Own Shit. Highlight Your Real Passions and Talents. Anything else feels ingenuous.
xoxo,
Gina
p.s. And style bloggers who do take the cute outfit pictures everyday, I’m not hating on you. I enjoy your pictures greatly. And many of you have great style and have talented photographer boyfriends. But there are so, so many of you, and the ones of you I read and enjoy, I read and enjoy on a very specific, individual level. I like your kitty-cats and personal flourishes and when you teach me something new and your silly stories more than I love you for the fact that you mentioned Alexa Chung’s new Madewell line and I wanted to click on it even though I already clicked on the Alexa Chung Madewell line link in 7 other blog posts from today. Not hating on Alexa either. I like her clogs w/ socks. But I love it when you Do Your Own Shit.
Hi beauty,
I love your comments and sometimes I think I secretly write blog posts just so I can look forward to your comments! I’m so excited that you are applying for MFA programs. We must email about this, and I must get my hands on your writing because I already know that I love your taste in fiction, longstanding love for Secret Garden and ambivalence for Infinite Jest (although I love his non fiction, and I’m not sure of your opinion on his essays?)
I think it’s beautiful when you share photos of yourself looking like the saucy beauty that I know you are, but I also know that there is something immensely beautiful about private life, including the private life of wearing clothes that you don’t have to pose in or show anyone, except maybe your sweetie, or your mirror. I love your notion of feeling revolt against the form–could you be more any eloquent, my lady?
Oh and I have the same I love you but wait, ohnostopsending me to that website I already clicked on seven times relationship with personal style blogs. I will send you a solicitous email shortly. Watch out!
Love,
Jenny
[...] Posted on September 12, 2010 by Millie| Leave a comment Jenny of Fashion for Writers has a thoughtful post up on the recent Independent Fashion Bloggers conference, and it’s well worth a read. The [...]
I don’t know you personally, but can I send you a cyber kiss for your “artisti” call out? When I heard the blogging is an art comment at the conference (from a speaker who was well-prepared and entertaining, god bless her), I was tempted to stand and yell “Hell, no!” I haven’t read the Kafka, but it’s now on my list, thanks.
Let’s cyber hug and we can cyber kiss too, of course.
YEOW! So impressed that you brought out some Kafka on the blogosphere. I’m all about a wide definition of art/artists and I think many “elite” definitions of art are crap, but I also think that painting all kinds of creativity (blogging) w a broad brush (pun intended) and calling it art is a bit of a stretch. Good statement there, for sure. And Kafka is an badass, so you get points purely for that.
I’ve also thought quite often about the representations of women in the world of fashion blogging and how I feel about consuming them, producing my own, etc. The fact that so many successful bloggers are romantically involved w men who routinely participate in their blogs in some manner does present this notion of a charmed life, of a women who “has it all.” And along with that, the notion that she’s missing something who is single, who isn’t straight, who doesn’t subscribe to the mainstream life of “yay, my boy loves me and takes my picture and my clothes are so cute and the lighting just happens to be perfect!”
I don’t think that most bloggers consciously subscribe to this ideology or that it’s present in the blog of all married women (for instance, Kyla of Blue Collar Catwalk). However, I’ve really come to question that ways in which having a man frame, document, and provide the perspective for a woman plays a potentially negative role in fashion blogging. But then, I’m also an academic and a nerd and therefore suspicious by nature and made worse by training.
This is a great post. Thanks for reporting back to those of us who are too lazy to attend such fascinating events.
You’re not lazy for not attending these events–if anything you’re smarter than those of who went (you are certainly smarter than me!) I’m happy to read your comment and this “However, I’ve really come to question that ways in which having a man frame, document, and provide the perspective for a woman plays a potentially negative role in fashion blogging,” perfectly sums up all of my hesitations, ambivalence, and uncertainty about fashion blogs (both consuming and producing.) I wish you could write the full recap/criticism of IFB for me, your brain is vast and infinite!
Aye, Aye, Aye! Just another reason why I love you Jenny. So much insight to a bloggers perspective on these conferences. I feel like we just touched so many of these topics in a cave the other night, but I’m so glad to see all of your super impressive readers offering up their opinions. Truly wish I could say more, but I’ve got a monster of a French test tomorrow and a blog that I desperately need to tend to! But seriously, you are uber smart and like Hannah said, you could write about poop and I’d cling to every word.
PS I wrote a letter on the plane that I need you to look over. I’ll send it your way once I find a free minute hiding in the couch cushion.
Aw, I miss you so much & I miss our private session in the cave… let’s make it a yearly ritual, please?
This post makes me sad that I’ve only just started reading your blog. Because frankly, everything you said was so eloquent that I can hardly stand it. Your thoughts on bloggers and gender roles are particularly interesting. I’m sure that most bloggers who rely heavily on their boyfriends/husbands aren’t conscious of the gender roles they are reinforcing. But it’s interesting that readers are drawn to style blogs run by women who embody a certain stereotype of feminine perfection. They go on adventures in picturesque locations wearing beautiful clothing and accompanied by their loving boyfriends. (Obviously, I’m not speaking about *all* bloggers, but still…)
When I was in college (fellow Literature major here), I explored the notion of performativity constantly in my papers. (I am a huge fan of Judith Butler.) In my own life, I’ve begun to realize that I am very careful about crafting a certain public image (through my clothing, activities, etc.). To me, blogging takes the idea of “performing identity” to the next level. Now, we have people “branding” themselves and sharing carefully curated photos and writings on the Internet. Frankly, I think it’s fascinating. Life is performance; I really believe that. But how “genuine” can blogging really be? Or does that even matter?
Anyways, really interesting post. Thank you.
Goodness, I agree with everything you said, and I’m really excited that you wrote about performativity in college. It’s something I wasn’t smart enough to grasp at the time, and I’m only now understanding how important performance is in our culture. I also find the idea of bloggers performing identity in a way that is both divergent and convergent with how a brand performs its identity as totally fascinating. Fascinating in the way that a bar fight or a car crash is fascinating or fascinating in a much purer way? That I don’t know, yet.
My oh my… why am I just now discovering your blog?! I wasn’t able to attend the full conference, but I find your review spot on. This writeup was very thought-provoking (much more so than the conference, actually). Thank you for sharing.
Kendra
Wow! This post got me analyzing every detail of why? And who? Is it really benefiting to be a “blogger”. I certainly think you have a great point. If in order to be successful one must create the “newest, most interesting” content and quite possibly some other blogger has already done this, then why should I bother? Which brings me back to… Isn’t blogging supposed to be about creating your own voice, not about having well focused pretty outfit pictures?
Definitely agreed!
Oh, and I love this site! Haha thanks for having great content!
XO
I surely do hope that blogging is about sharing your own voice, because as cliched as it is, that’s my favorite thing about my favorite blogs!
[...] Fashion for Writers: 362. Some quick thoughts on IFB’s Evolving Influence conference … [...]
awesome insight… I attended and after I think about it…….yeah you have spoken the truth
I have been stumbling upon your comments on other blogs that I love and I notice four things 1) Were both named Jenny 2) Your comments are so sincere 3) You write about fashion 4) For writers. Are of these things are so right down my alley! Gonna follow your blog regularly!
Fashionmademefunky.blogspot.com
i’m super late to the party but i just want to tell you that i absolutely loved reading this! you are phenomenal.