A friend once told me a story about the most popular girl in his high school. It was your typical, she is beautiful, has the best clothes and everyone wants to hang out at her house after school, scenario. Apparently she wore actual glass (Lucite) slippers to the prom. And why was this relayed to me? Well guess who got to play prince charming at the ball? After I knocked him off his high horse we had an interesting discussion about popularity as a whole, and its role in driving so much in our society, from consumerism to views on the world. We look to the popular people in our lives for virtually everything, from what music to listen to, which books to read and what to wear, to political affiliations and views on social issues. And now that social media is paving the way for marketing success, the days of expecting the consumer to simply look at a billboard or magazine and fall in love with a product are virtually over. Brands are now relying on those popular people to not only share the products they love, but drive real sales.
All this made me consider the world of fashion and fashion bloggers in particular. Its shining stars, “the popular girls” – and the fact that high school is never really over. Except now instead of looking at them in the lunch room, dissecting every fashion detail, I look at them in my Instagram feed, wondering how I can get invited to sit at their table. The popular girls group at the virtual high school in my head consists of the following: Blair Eadie (atlantic-pacific.blogspot.com) my absolute favorite, and who I consider to be the “head bitch in charge”. (though she seems the farthest thing from the B word) Scrolling through her blog will make you lust after a midi skirt like you never have before. And her designer collaborations are unmatched. With 538k followers on Instagram I imagine she can sell out an item in a matter of hours, after posting a photo. Now that’s a popular girl! Sitting to her right is Rachel Parcell of the Pink Peonies blog (pinkpeonies.com) Looking through her colorful photos will instantly give you a mood booster and make you long for anything pink, except you probably won’t be able to style it as well as she does. That’s why she is at the popular table after all! On Blair’s left side is the beautiful Julia Engel of Gal Meets Glam (galmeetsglam.com) who commands a 334k following on Instagram and does a fresh effortless look like no other. With her sharing beautiful food posts at vegan restaurants around SF and amazing trips (most recent one to Europe) with her adoring husband and blog partner (@tberolz // bloggingbehindthescenes.com) you feel like you really know her and she is the popular girl that will say ‘hi’ to you in the hall and compliment you on your new shoes. And finally there is Jacey Duprie of Damsel in Dior (possibly the best blog name ever!) She strikes me as the super cool, smart chick that doesn’t care if she is popular and that’s why she is. Hers was one of the first blogs I discovered and completely fell in love with. She has a clear point of view, killer style and makes you want to keep along with her on her daily fashion journey to find out what she will be up to next.
Each one of these gals has some major selling power and it looks like it has not gone unnoticed by brands big and small. While haters are going to hate (just look at countless articles diminishing fashion bloggers and calling them out for getting paid to promote products), there are many more who see these gals and lots of others like them as not only daily fashion inspiration but as inspiration period. For those of us who dream of creating a name for ourselves in the world of fashion, having a daily spoon of motivation from the girls at the popular table gives hope, creates drive and keeps our haute dreams alive. And as everyone knows, when summer is over, and you come back to school, there is always a new popular girl at the table, and next year – it just might be you!
Who are some of your favorite bloggers? What makes them a stand out?
Thanks for visiting,
xoxo -V
