City Research Online

Abstract

In the two decades since fashion blogging emerged as a distinct sub-genre, a generation of early fashion bloggers has risen to prominence as writers and editors in the media industries, despite not starting their blogs – as many later did – as a route to a fashion-related career. This study traces the career histories of one such networked group of writers. All participated in early fashion blogging and now work in media, mostly in New York and Toronto.

Drawing on nine interviews with individuals from the early North American fashion blogipelago, this article argues that their professional success is not simply attributable to personal skill or the visibility of digital communications. Rather, an interplay of several factors gave rise to the opportunities leading to their established media careers: the affordances of blogging to develop professional skills and confidence; participation in networks of ‘blogfriends’, and proximity to one of North America’s media centres. This aspect, dubbed ‘proximity privilege’ by one participant (Mlotek 2019), demonstrates how enduringly geographically embedded the cultural industries are. By inhabiting one of these fashion media centres, even temporarily, the interviewees benefitted from proximity to existing networks and opportunities that consolidated the visibility and skills afforded by fashion blogging.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article that will be published open access by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Cultural Economy available at: 10.1080/17530350.2025.2465555
Publisher Keywords:	fashion blogging; proximity privilege; blogfriends; networks; fashion cities
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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