Instant fashion

Trendy bloggers and social media junkies are changing the way fashion is documented and shared in India

On Day One of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Autumn-Winter '13 in March this year, there was a contagious buzz in the air. After all, 24-year-old Masaba Gupta, chic fashion house Satya Paul's newly-appointed - and youngest - fashion director, was presenting the brand's revamped, "wearable" collection at the opening show. At the venue in Delhi's Pragati Maidan, while journalists from newspapers and fashion glossies jostled for space in the media pit, on the front row sat bloggers, social media interns and, of course, the "Twitter handles" of Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and Grazia, dressed in the season's finest. As models sashayed down the ramp in Gupta's quirky, lipstick-smeared maxi dresses, gowns, jackets and palazzo pants, this social media coterie took out its gadgets - iPhones, iPads, Samsung tablets and what have you - and passed the verdict on Gupta's collection in seconds to scores of followers.

They are young, enthusiastic and fashion-conscious. They devour fashion magazines, international style blogs and keep close tabs on "who's wearing what". They offer fashionistas, avid online shoppers and gossip mongers what even the most successful glossies can't - instant gratification.

New-age bloggers, 'tweeters' and social media junkies are changing the way fashion is being consumed, marketed and shared in India. They occupy pivotal seats at the country's leading fashion weeks, hobnob with designers and are permanent fixtures at prominent social dos and 'page 3' parties. Brands chase them - and often pay them handsomely - for a "sponsored tweet" or an advertisement on their website. High-end designer wear is captured on their smartphones, reviewed in seconds and posted across a clutch of social networking sites - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, Pinterest, Google+ and their trending blogs of course. Naturally, this makes them a crucial, often indispensable, link between brands, designers and buyers.

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Low on writing and high on gloss, these blogs are stylishly curated with high-resolution images of fancy couture, streetwear, chic accessories and trend forecasts of the season. But it is the personal commentary of the blogger that sets the tone of the website. Browse through www.giasaysthat.com and you will find a lookbook of glossy images of its founder's favourite handbags and quirky neckpieces that are de rigeur. In three years, 23-year-old Gia Kashyap has gathered over 10,000 followers. Her online clout has also landed her a job as a social media strategist for a Delhi-based jewellery house, Youshine.

On 24-year-old Anushka Hajela's www.bombaybubble.com, another popular fashion blog based in Mumbai, rummage through "StylePile", her compilation of colourful, trendy looks that are hot this season - she is spotted in flowing maxi dresses, crop pants and jumpsuits paired with classic tote bags and high heels, of course. Hajela, a former writer with Grazia and a regular face at Mumbai's Lakme Fashion Week, has partnered with Nine West, Vero Moda, Mango, Steve Madden and more. The deal is simple: she wears the brand's merchandise - only if she likes it, she says - clicks a picture and posts it across social media. Her site has received over 17,000 hits.

Popular bloggers earn Rs 5,000-15,000 for such "collaborative posts" and much more for advertising on their blog. Often, if the brand doesn't pay them, they are compensated with vouchers worth much more.

While Kashyap and Hajela belong to the clique of "personal bloggers" who swear by their style sensibilities and stay away from glitzy Bollywood fashion, the grand dame of bloggers, Malini Agarwal, more popularly known as "Miss Malini", dives right into it. The celebrity blogger started www.missmalini.com in 2008 while working as Channel [V]'s head of digital content. But the response to her constant feed on Bollywood glitterati was so overwhelming that MissMalini became her full-time job after February 2011. Today, she has over half-a-million visitors on the blog every month, and over 1.5 million followers across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. Agarwal is a regular, recognisable face at fashion weeks, Bollywood events and social dos in Mumbai's party circuit, and is often introduced as "Mumbai's social lifeline". From her chirpy office in Santacruz, Agarwal and her team of eight social media junkies document everything - fashion weeks, page-3 parties and previews. "People invite us because they know we have a very attractive and active readership," says Agarwal. Her team of photographers spends 12 to 16 hours a day behind a computer - writing, photo-shopping, editing videos and posting them across social media.

A day in Agarwal's life has her running from one event to the next and informing her followers about it instantly. On other days, she blogs from her sofa. "It's second nature for me to check-in to Foursquare [an app that allows you to post places you visit to social media] the second I reach somewhere," she says. "It's the little geek in me doing cartwheels!" She has been invited to blog about the Bread & Butter Festival in Berlin, the Tuscany Wine Tour, Cape Town Fashion Week, Singapore Night Grand Prix and even for a James Ferreira showcase in Sri Lanka. Designers Narendra Kumar, Shantanu-Nikhil, Abraham-Thakore, Anita Dongre and Tommy Hilfiger have given her exclusive previews of their collection.

Equally popular are Payal Parija and Priyanka Prasad, the fashionistas behind the six-year-old blog sensation, www.highheelconfidential.com, who make frank and incisive commentary on the designs worn by Bollywood stars and socialites. Sitting in the US, they comment on Sonam Kapoor's stylish appearance at Cannes as well as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's faux pas with the same tongue-in-cheek chutzpah. "Usually, we go over the pictures, agree (or disagree) on a look and blog about it. We treat the blog as an extension of a chat between two girlfriends," says the duo. Such is their clout that Sabyasachi Mukherjee took them backstage before his show and gave them a sneak peak of his line-up.

Recognising the wide reach of the medium, fashion houses have set up social media teams which constantly generate content and collate fashion tid-bits with one agenda - to stay on the radar. While it is difficult to ascertain if this translates into an increase in sales, it certainly gives them a nudge. Gupta, for instance, regularly posts pictures of her new collection on Twitter and Instagram. "Often, I receive orders on Instagram," she laughs. This could also explain why her black and white silk jacket embossed with hand prints has been the hottest selling item on Pernia'sPopUpShop, an online shopping portal which is marketed across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The jacket was spotted on actors Sonam Kapoor and Neha Dhupia, prompting the Highheel girls to ask the impertinent question: who wore it better.

Designer Raghavendra Rathore's social media team updates his Facebook page with details about his range of bespoke wear as well as designs that catch his eye - the new Apple office, for instance. "People on the Internet have strong, sometimes influential, opinions. And it costs nothing to obtain these opinions. That's why it works," he says about the blogging phenomenon.

Fashion Design Council of India, which organises WLIFW, has a social media team which generates content for its blog and circulates information about developments in the industry. FDCI President Sunil Sethi has handpicked "celebrity tweeters" like Mandira Bedi and Gul Panag to tweet about WLIFW in the past. Of the 150 seats reserved for the media (excluding photographers and camerapersons), around 50 are reserved for bloggers and social media writers alone. Not all turn up, in which case invitations are sent to smaller publications. Bloggers are invited from London and New York to spread the word in the international market. "Before every fashion week, we conduct a study of popular bloggers, their content and followers," says Sethi. What's more, FDCI appoints a separate public relations team to assist social media writers!

Lakme Fashion Week too reserves the front row for "top bloggers", says IMG Reliance Head (fashion) Saket Dhankar; 20 per cent of media accreditations are given to this community with 10 per cent of LFW's marketing budget targeted at the social media.

"The influence of the social media is growing and that of veteran magazine editors is stagnant," believes Vinod Kaul, executive director of Rajasthan Fashion Week, which recently wrapped up its second edition. "There will be a time in the not-so-distant future when the former will outgrow the latter."

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However, with popular bloggers being as young as 22, how does one ascertain the credibility and expertise of their often unfiltered style musings? Another problem area is that of "sponsored tweets" and PR-driven posts. Reality star Kim Kardashian, for instance, has one of the largest following on Twitter (over 1.7 million currently) and is rumoured to charge over $10,000 for a sponsored tweet. "The mistrust in bloggers comes from the fact that anyone can start a blog, and some choose to be brutally critical without reason. So people wonder where they get off being that way," says Agarwal. "A very small percentage of our content is sponsored, and we demarcate when something is backed by a brand with a badge of 'Sponsored Story'," she says. She doesn't allow certain ads on the site at all - whitening products for one. "If you're coming to my site to read about fashion and glamour, I'm not going to subject you to an ad about the finer qualities of cement," she adds with a laugh.

But not all are awed by the power of bloggers and social media. While Gupta swears by the medium, she adds, "Very few bloggers - MissMalini and Highheel, for instance - are credible. Often, there are so-called fashion experts posing as buyers in VIP lounges during fashion weeks." While she doesn't name them, she adds, "They launch personal attacks. No one has the right to tweet about a show's success on the mere basis of how 'packed' or 'empty' it was," she says.

Shefalee Vasudev, former editor of Marie Claire and author of Powder Room - The Untold Story of Indian Fashion, says: "Bloggers and Twitter junkies get noticed but barring a few, most don't get serious attention. There seems to be a fuss around the idea that bloggers are the new celebs of Indian [fashion] but I don't think that's the case for a majority." The fashion industry, she adds, lends momentary importance to the "newest, the brightest and the latest". "Nobody is fooled by the capabilities of writers, bloggers or Twitter-happy people, whether they are good or not. Those who get long-lasting attention (and the well-deserved front seats) are either those who wield influence by generating interest - like MissMalini or Highheelconfidential - or those who become influential because they are incisive." While most Indian blogs have good photographic inputs and chirpy comments, she believes these bloggers aren't "fashion commentators" yet.

In fact, says another industry insider, bloggers are often given fashion week passes on "conditional" terms: they are made to stand next to brand logos and tweet pictures.

Many believe that while bloggers will continue to grow in reach and influence, the word of magazine editors will reign supreme. "Bloggers are a force to reckon with but they will never replace magazines," believe the Highheel duo. And the two don't necessarily have to be in conflict. "While social media is the way forward for how people consume content, the magic of flipping through a magazine's glossy pages will never be lost," says Agarwal.

Even so, why wait for your monthly issue when this season's fashion verdict is but a click away?