For fashionistas and sartorialists, 2014 was ushered in with a flurry of debate over the (ir)relevance of the fashion blogger — the controversial country mouse guest that some think has overstayed its welcome at the fashion industry’s buffet.
The kerfuffle began in December, when a New York Magazine article touched on industry-insiders’ frustration with what they saw as a rag-and-tag crowd of amateurs taking over fashion shows at the expense of qualified fashion editors, industry buyers and other professionals. High-profile designers like Oscar de la Renta have announced that they would take steps to only show their collections to an “intimate” group of “those with a legitimate professional purpose.”
The article spurred a bevy of responses both defending and mocking the fashion blogging trend, which has grown to have a tremendous amount of influence on the industry over the past decade. Since Budget Fashionista blogger Kathryn Finney became the first blogger invited to New York Fashion Week in 2002, and photographer Scott Shumann launched his enormously popular The Sartorialist showcasing street fashions, fashion houses have fervently courted internet stars like child-prodigy Tavy Gevinson of Style Rookie or Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller, who seemed to have a special ability to spot trends and predict what buyers would want before designers did.
But if some Stateside are starting to warn that fashion blogging may have already jumped the shark, here in Egypt, the trend is only just starting to take roots.
Back in 2010, economic analysts were predicting that Egypt — which has lagged behind its regional counterparts in generating demand for domestic labels and high-end clothing manufacturing — was poised for a fashion industry boom. But the 2011 revolution interrupted the growth in that sector. Between the revolution, the constant protests, ongoing labor strikes and increasingly wary investors, the industry was hit hard. Those conditions have paved the way for the growth of a safer shopping environment, online retailing. Many online retailers have surfaced recently, such as souq.com, Jumia and Style-treasure.com, which feature mostly locally made merchandise.
And as the small niche of local fashionistas turns online to buy, they’ve also started to use the web to explore and disseminate their own ideas about fashion.
“I started posting on Instagram about a year ago,” says Aliaa Elesseily, a makeup artist and stylist who is becoming one of Egypt’s most popular trend setters with Loushe Glitz, her daily Instagram fashion diary.
For Elesseily, it all came together when she started a journal of what to wear on daily basis, which helped her to “see how my personal taste and style evolved over the years.”
But it’s been challenging to communicate what she was doing to a local audience.
“I had people asking me if I was trying to be a model, while some thought that I was showing off my clothes,” Elesseily explains. On the contrary, blogging is a vehicle where she can inspire people to dress differently and take risks, she says.
Elesseily is inspired by many of her counterparts all over the world, such as Miroslava Duma and Chiara Ferragni: “Duma for me is an icon. She takes risks and inspires others with her impeccable style, and she pushes others to try new things.”
Nour Aboulela, a young mother and aspiring fashion guru who comes from a long line of fashion designers, started the lovebyn fashion blog June 2013.
Aside from her 83,000 followers on Instagram, Aboulela has 2,000 followers on Facebook and between 50,000 to 80,000 visitors a month on lovebyn.com, says the young fashionista, who finds inspiration in blogs like The Blonde Salad and Peace Love Shea.
“Followers are a direct result of good brand work,” says the blogger, adding that good networking and well-shot photographs of edgy outfits have contributed to her success.
But that success hasn’t translated locally yet.
“Unfortunately, the bulk of followers are mostly around the US and Europe,” Aboulela says. The young fashion expert aspires to influence local readers; but with few domestic labels to work with, Aboulela has been making a stronger impression on the European and American crowd with her outfits.
“The fashion industry in Egypt is poor in quality and taste; the Lebanese are doing a much better job,” Aboulela claims, arguing that in Egypt the industry itself lacks vision; she points to Azza Fahmy, the renowned jewelry designer, as the only local business with a clear marketing and business plan.
She doesn’t see any prominent Egyptian designers on the horizon yet, except for Marwa Sayed, the designer of Three Fifty Nine Degrees. “I featured a few of her designs on Lovebyn and look forward to our next collaboration,” she says.
Elesseily concurs; no locally manufactured goods have been featured on her daily Instagram fashion diary.
Up until now, the local followers for these blogs and fashion diaries are individuals who can actually know and afford international designer brands, a tiny fraction of the local population.
Disappointed in local fashion, both women have set their sights on obtaining wares from major international fashion houses and PR agencies, who often send items to high profile bloggers for promotion — a practice that has fed into the criticism of fashion blogging in the west.
“I’m dreaming of Chanel,” says Elesseily with a sigh.
Aboulela shares the same dream, and may be starting preliminary talks with the PR agency of Chanel and Maison Michel for hats. “I am keeping my fingers crossed,” she says.
Aside from the larger issue of the health of the local fashion industry, both bloggers say they face challenges in the basic mechanics of keeping their projects running, especially when it comes to photographing their outfits.
“I always dreamed of a photo shoot in the pyramids, but logistically it has proven impossible,” says Aboulela, adding that the high level of harassment on Cairo streets has been a major obstacle for her fashion shoots.
Aboulela tends to take her pictures comfort of her house in the suburbs, which she thinks makes her posts more real and closer to the viewers’ worlds and surroundings.
Elesseily, on the other hand, has enlisted the help of her husband Hamdfallah to take candid photographs of her outfit of the day in the streets of Mohandiseen, Dokki and Zamalek.
But despite the challenges, both women hope their work will pay off in the long run. Aside from providing a personal platform for expression, Elesseily explains that fashion blogging can be profitable; bloggers often can earn cash by finding work as a stylist or personal shopper.
“I received styling job offers, but I’m in the process of scheduling them,” says Elesseily, explaining that it’s difficult to balance work offers with childcare.
For Aboulela, her website has already proven lucrative. The young fashion guru charges fashion houses or their representative PR companies for the products featured on her blog.
“I am starting to be pickier,” she explains. Lovebyn has featured around 40 international brands up until now, despite the struggles Aboulela has faced in getting her packages of clothes through customs, who often butcher the parcels before she receives them.
But while Elesseily and Aboulela’s endeavors have been growing quickly, local professionals are unsure as to the actual impact or local relevance of these ventures.
“Fashion blogging in Egypt is a bit premature,” says the young and increasingly prominent Cairo-based designer Deana Shaaban. She thinks bloggers on the horizon at the moment have limited knowledge of the industry locally and internationally, and many are doing little more than “playing dress up.”
“A proper fashion blogger need to have a vast knowledge of the fashion industry and needs to know how to write and critique,” explains the young designer.
“They cater to a very selected audience,” she adds.
Shaaban hasn’t yet considered contacting any of the emerging bloggers on the scene to feature her collections, but does not deny that with the proper knowledge and the right equipment, these women could create a successful platform for the Egyptian fashion industry.
But despite these reservations, and the uncertainty around fashion blogging in other countries, the trend doesn’t show signs of slowing down in Egypt any time soon. More names and faces are appearing daily on Instagram: Cairodivas, Fashionistasincairo and seewantshop are some of the new popular accounts. These fashion diaries have started to spread like wildfire among young trend setters on social media. Time will tell if these bloggers might be able to provide the spark that’s needed to catalyze the local fashion industry.
