She wears it well

FASHION BLOGGERS:WHEN I WAS a child, my mother's elderly aunt used to come over for Sunday dinner. One day she was particularly animated; she had, she said, received a very strange call. "A young man rang the house," she told us. "And it was very odd, he asked me what I was wearing." The table fell silent. Laughs were suppressed and we waited, breaths bated, for what was coming next, writes ROSEMARY MCCABE

Her brow furrowed. She looked down and began to gesture. “‘Well,’ I told him, ‘I’m wearing a slip, and a dress, and a pair of stockings . . . ’” all the while pointing out each item. Needless to say, the young man didn’t hang around for her to get to “lace-up brogues”.

An interest in what people are wearing, albeit of a less sinister variety, is no new thing. From calling friends to discuss planned outfits for a night out to street snappers – most famously, Scott Schuman’s Sartorialist (thesartorialist.blogspot.com) – personal-style discussion is everywhere. More recently, bloggers – beginning, as these things often do, in the US – have been chronicling their daily duds: what they wear and how they wear it. And they are hugely popular: Tavi (tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com), who is just 14 years old, graced the cover of Dasha Zhukova’s first Pop magazine; Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes (seaofshoes.typepad.com) has designed a line of shoes for Urban Outfitters; and Jessica Schroeder of What I Wore (whatiwore.tumblr.com) gave up her job as a designer and now blogs full-time, as well as contributing to the online style blog community Weardrobe (weardrobe.com).

Now it’s our turn.

Blanaid Hennessy

blanaid.com and thestylebitches.com

A freelance stylist and interior designer, Hennessy started her blog in April as a way of promoting her work, but it soon morphed into a more personal showcase

“The blog, initially, was a CV. Then I started sharing things I liked – art, architecture, fashion – but the personal-style aspect almost started by accident. I had worked as a stylist for a couple of years and, while I loved doing shoots, I found the process exhausting. It’s much easier to use myself and my own clothes. Now, whenever I wake up and feel like doing a shoot, I do one. Aside from anything else, I feel I’ve done something with my day.

“I took the idea from US bloggers Rumi on Fashiontoast (fashiontoast.com) and Jane on Sea of Shoes, but I don’t have the kind of money they do to spend on clothes, and I think that mine makes it very accessible. I wear a lot of second-hand and vintage, and a lot of Penneys.

“The outfit posts are often just: ‘This is what I wore tonight; this is a bargain I got today,’ but I try not to put myself out there as an expert. It’s about keeping it real, showing well-made clothes that work and how I’m wearing them. There are some people who get it and think it’s a bit of craic, and there are others going: ‘God, you must be very confident,’ but I don’t think I have a brilliant style or that I’m amazing-looking. I am what I am, and if people like the clothes I wear and aren’t offended by looking at pictures of me, it’s not hurting anyone. I try to be irreverent about it and have a sense of fun about fashion and about style; I don’t take it too seriously.

“Personal style is great at the moment because people who are interested in fashion are being more creative – money isn’t as easy to come by as it once was so you have to try harder and find different ways to be stylish.

“I don’t dress up to do the posts – I don’t need an excuse. I loved fancy dress when I was younger and I think this is just an extension of that. I’ll look in my wardrobe, find something I haven’t worn in a while and think up a new way to wear it.

“I often post outfits after shopping trips. I don’t really like to shop – because I did it for so long as a stylist, it became a chore – so when I do, I’m like a kid, I get really giddy and have to try everything on as soon as I get home.

“Often I look at magazines and blogs and try to take things that are unusual – then, when I shop, I literally try everything on, even things I would never think of, because you never know what’s going to suit you. The great thing about personal style is that it’s constantly evolving, in my case anyway, and you can get inspiration from so many different places.”

Laura Whiston

whisty.wordpress.com

Whiston started her blog earlier this year and is a full-time blogger. She also has a sister site, where she posts her personal-style photographs: herapparel.wordpress.com

“I started my blog when I was working as a journalist and found there were just so many restrictions – you’re limited to doing editorials that the magazine’s audience is interested in, for example – but there were a thousand other things I wanted to write about, so in a way it was borne out of that frustration.

“I read a lot of blogs and the ones that I really like, aesthetically, all seemed to be doing these ‘what I’m wearing’ posts – I think it really brings that person to life. In a way, it’s a validation of your opinion, seeing the person wearing the styles they’re talking about.

“As well, it can be really inspirational; when people blog about what they’re wearing, it might make you think: ‘Wow, I’d never have thought of doing that’ – something you don’t get from glossy magazines, for example, because they’re catering for an entirely different market.

“Really, the outfit posts are bringing me into the blog – my blog was quite commercial, showing what was new, what was out, not necessarily what I would wear – and I just thought it would make a statement about who I am, and make it a lot more personal.

“I’m always trying to think of ways to make the blog stand out, and this was just another way of doing that. I don’t promote that side of it much but it’s a link from my main blog so it’s like a sideline. Initially it was really nerve-racking and, while I try to post an outfit about once a week, I end up taking an awful lot more photos than that. I’ll take one and wince and go: ‘Oh no, that doesn’t work at all.’ I find that things look totally different in front of the camera to how they look in the mirror, which is frightening.

“I would love to see more people blogging about what they wear – when you walk around Dublin, you see so many amazing girls and guys wearing incredible clothes that I wish were showcased more. Especially because when you think about Dublin fashion, you often just think of tonged hair and fake tan and there’s so much more.

“I try to dress in my own style – I’m kind of a dress and heels kind of girl, very simple, and I’m terrible at accessorising, but I think it could get really contrived if you thought of it in terms of posting your outfits all the time, trying too hard.

“I’ve always been inspired by things you see on the street, more so than by editorial shoots and celebrities, but it’s important to do your own version. It’s always obvious if you’re showing a style that isn’t yours.”

Ana Kinsella

ripped-knees.blogspot.com

The 20-year-old is studying English and philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. She works part-time in American Apparel on Grafton Street. Kinsella started her blog in 2008

“I got serious about blogging at the start of the year, watching the haute-couture shows – it was a mixture of analysis of the shows and pop culture. Then I really got into the personal-style thing because I was curious about how people get dressed every morning – because everybody, unless they wear a uniform, has to pick out clothes in the morning.

“I’ll talk about how I don’t like jeans, then post a few photographs of me trying them on. I try to avoid doing plain ‘what I wore today’ posts, but to have an aim. So some days, I’m going: ‘Here’s what I wore to work’ – I have to wear a lot of colour which, initially, I wasn’t used to, but I love it now – or, ‘I was cycling today, so I decided to wear this’.

“I used to read sites like Lookbook (lookbook.nu) and Chictopia (chictopia.com) and while there are a lot of pretentious 14-year-olds in designer gear, they did inspire me to get dressed up more on a day-to-day basis.

“My posting really depends on what I have time for. If I have a spare hour and I like what I’m wearing, I might take a photograph, but I have to think it’s interesting. Sometimes I’ll wear head-to-toe Topshop and that’s a little boring – unless I can say something with my outfit, I won’t bother posting it.

“And I try not to make my blog personal – a lot of bloggers will post about their lives, but I have a really recognisable face so I’d worry someone would recognise me and go, ‘I know where you were last Thursday’.

“Since I started posting I’ve become more aware of what I’m wearing – even looking at other sites and what people with similar budgets and styles are doing. It’s so easy to go into mainstream stores and buy entire outfits, but I [buy] a lot of second-hand and vintage, and I wear a lot of men’s clothing, something I wouldn’t have done a year ago.

“Style blogging is a great way to bring fashion down from the higher echelons to a grassroots level, where people can communicate with it, get into it and know more about it – and it makes it so much more accessible. Really, I’m just trying to put a face to a name and add pictures to the words I want to write – the photographs are secondary. I could never imagine me being an inspiration, style-wise, to anyone else: I’m just trying to illustrate my words.”