So, you wanna be a blogger?
MANILA, Philippines - While there’s no definitive algorithm to a fashion blogger’s success, there is one element that this age of consumption demands that they perform effectively: sharing. Seamlessly incorporated in their runway-to-everyday looks are personal commentary and takes on trends, fashion news, and their latest sartorial acquisitions — therefore, deliberately or not, subscribing to the one-stop, all-in-one culture that the Internet breeds. While many stand out from the rest by resting on their good looks, designer clothes or their talent for thrift, many, too, tower over everyone else’s bandwidth of fame simply because they came in first. In a time where credentials are self-imposed or haphazardly earned, theirs is polished by tenure and experience, and Olympic-style swimming in a vast aquarium of big fishes and prolonged currents of schadenfreude.
They know everyone’s watching — but all signs point to them floating on just fine.
Tricia Went To Places: As the only Asian correspondent of Tumblr for New York Fashion Week, Tricia Gosingtian meets (and has lunch!) with Project Runway judge and Marie Claire fashion director, Nina Garcia. “Blogging was a hobby for very few people back then. I’ve lost count the number of times people asked me what a blog was,” says Bryanboy, the guy who can straddle continents as well as he does women’s heels. Bryan started his blog back in 2004 as a travel journal to document his Moscow trip, and since then has catapulted himself to larger-than-real-life ubiquity and front row permanence.
Less than seven years into fashion blogging and Bryanboy.com has made itself famous enough to grace magazines like American Vogue, to bear the name of a certain ostrich leather Marc Jacobs bag, and to be on first-name basis with two of fashion’s most celebrated Annas: Dello Russo and, of course, Wintour. “It’s an honor to be embraced by the same exact industry that I’ve loved and adored and made me dream since I was a child but everything else is icing on the cake,” he says.
Putting up a front: Bryanboy joins in on the Milan Fashion Week festivities at the front row along with celebrities, editors, and muses du jour. While Bryan has traded up his gas station photo ops on the SLEX to front row at Fashion Week, he’s still the guy whose primary identifier is “I’m so gay, I sweat glitter!” Only now, he also may directly exercise editorial pull, and boasts a circle of bigwig fashion affiliations that he contracted from sheer devotion, sneering sincerity and self-deprecating humor. “When I started my site, there was no deliberate intention or desire to make a change in the industry or the digital landscape,” he says. “Sure, I pushed the envelope and challenged the status quo to make a wide impact and to garner attention. I’d be a complete and utter hypocrite if I say I didn’t want my blog to be big — entertaining my readers was (and still is) the focus.”
The Place You Will Go
2004 seemed like a good year to be startin’ something, because prior to Tricia Gosingtian’s self-fulfilling prophecy that is Tricia Will Go Places, she was already sowing her Internet seeds in Pitas and LiveJournal. “It was something I got into because I was more interested in creating customized layouts and practicing graphic design. Chictopia and Lookbook weren’t popular at all then, but the concept of posting outfits online already existed,” she says. Her blog’s turning point was when, all of a sudden, the number of shoots featuring her as a blogger trumped those that featured her as a photographer — “which I am, more than anything else,” she says. “(It’s) awkward! I don’t think I have exceptional taste, so it’s always overwhelming.”
Excess baggage: Marc Jacobs named this ostrich leather bag BB after Bryanboy, who has always been vocal about his love for the designer. Bryan and Tricia both now enjoy the perks of wanderlust, plus local and international notoriety thanks to talent, strategy and, well, for being the early birds. No one would’ve thought that one could make a career out of it once, but now “blogger” is a tag that has launched a thousand (and more) urls. Though he highly doubts that he’s inspired people to blog, Bryan thinks it’s a promising shift of influence. “People started to blog because it was the thing du jour. We live in a digital age.” For the longest time, traditional media — which, in the case of local media, can be a bit elitist and political — dictated the information that goes out to the public, he says. “It’s great that there are many bloggers these days. There’s space for everyone.”
“The general public’s obsession with fashion is currently at an all-time high,” Bryan says as he points out the world’s affinity for fashion reality shows and red carpet style, which has already trickled down locally — and fast. “I confess I’m not really in touch with local fashion bloggers who tend to be very, very young. I have to admit I’m very impressed with what they are doing. All I had then was a cheap camera to take pictures of me. Fast-forward to a decade later, some of the new kids on the block produce images even better than some of the local magazines or newspapers! It’s crazy and good at the same time.”
Role model: When it came to picking the fast-fashion brand Forever 21’s ambassadors, it was clear that Tricia, with her online clout, would have to be one of them. Bryan could’ve easily been talking about Tricia, who, though taking her photography seriously, has been around long enough to not take everything else too seriously. “Perception is so relative,” she says. “Those who perceive me negatively after being swayed by controversies, rumors and gossip and those who still perceive me as their inspiration have naturally filtered themselves over the years by choosing to stay or choosing to leave. I’ve been on the Internet for so long and one thing I’ve learned is that… it’s only the Internet.”
