Boston's Fashion Bloggers
by Rebecca Golub
Photo Courtesy of Instagram
If you are a fashion follower, chances are you keep up with the latest trends that are established both on and off the runway via your favorite bloggers. Most fashion fanatics know about and follow the various social media accounts of ‘It-Girl’ bloggers such as Chiara Ferragni and Kristina Bazan, but how about all of the local fashion bloggers that influence us?
As it turns out, Boston has its own reputable club of fashion bloggers. However, these bloggers are not all the ‘typical’ fashion icons one usually associates with the words; instead, their lives are more ordinary than glamourous.
For instance, blogger Tara West is a businesswoman with children. She runs her blog to promote her work as both a stylist and a personal shopper. She displays the looks she puts together for her clients as well as her own personal style and OOTD options on her blog Tara West Fashion.
“A lot of people want to see what I’m wearing and how I put things together,” said West.
Aside from business promotion, West uses her blog to build relationships with stores for future styling opportunities: the most important part of blogging.
As West forges relationships with stores, they offer her clothing she can style for her blog: that is the beautiful win-win of cross-promotion.
Other bloggers like Boston It-Girl Vanessa Gatlin keeps her blog, A City Girl’s Guide, as a hobby. Filled with a variety of content ranging from fashion news and personal style to food hotspots and unique stories, Gatlin’s blog serves as an outlet for her own self-expression rather than a portfolio-type design.
“I like to call it a life and style blog," said Gatlin.
Alternatively, bloggers like Meghna Sharma, Snazzy Bellanista, utilize their fashion blogs to promote upcoming fashion lines and to “[create] awareness about being self-confident by having an independent and healthy lifestyle using fashion and styling as a medium,” said Sharma.
Regardless of the differences in their reasons for blogging, each blogger likes to maintain their own sense of following and community established through blogger events, general fashion events and social media.
Bloggers thrive off of both hosting and attending events to further their outreach and strengthen their networks within the fashion community. Some popular Boston blogger-attended events include Saks 5th Avenue events, fashion-show fundraisers, Boston Fashion Week, Boston Winter and the Harpoon Fest.
For anyone and everyone who blogs or is considering starting a blog, there are a few things Boston bloggers believe are imperative to blogger success.
When starting a blog, Sharma believes it’s crucial to know your goals and to establish a plan before your start blogging.
“You have to do it for you, not for the perks and freebies,” said Gatlin. “Be prepared to evolve.” Gatlin has changed her blog’s name and theme over time—from food to city—before she finally landed on style.
West had similar advice to give when discussing her blog’s success, onto Gatlin’s point. “Stay true to who you are in your branding and be consistent,” said West.
Starting a blog can be the best way to express and brand yourself, but you need to be willing to dedicate your time and attention. If you do take on the task, however, you can create something that may help you find yourself, explore your interests, inspire others and deepen your love for fashion and the city that pulses around you. So, check out some events and get to know your Boston because who knows? Maybe you will become a ‘Boss’ blogger, too.