The Annual State-of-the-Blog Address

Well, it's been a long time, hasn't it? Between the incredible time-and-energy-devourer that is film school and regular old life to be lived, I haven't had much time for fashion, much less blogging about it. I confess: I had been thinking lately of bidding adieu here -- not only is there the time factor, but there's no denying that my relationship to fashion and blogging is changing as my own life evolves into interesting new shapes. When I started blogging way back in the day in 2003, I started within a context where there were very few other fashion blogs. I'm not saying I'm a pioneer at all, always a notoriously ridiculous thing to claim on the Internet. (If anyone lays claim to being one of the first fashion bloggers, I think it'd be Marilyn and Ernest over at Look Online, to be honest.) But there was a dearth of fashion blogs, much less ones that were more "street" and/or personal in nature, and so I started this one to keep track of what interested me about fashion.

Happily, this context has changed, and fashion in the blog world has truly exploded. There are too many awesome blogs to name, covering all sorts of perspectives from insider dish to geographic-specific street style to more personal takes on the daily chore of putting an outfit together to being hilarious, glorious entertainment itself. (Manolo, we're looking at you on this one.) Everyone has to wear clothes (usually), so everyone has an opinion about them -- and now everyone can blog about it. The democratization of fashion opinion is an exciting thing, I think, especially for an industry that can be so insular. There are so many people out there with sharp eyes and skeptical takes on what we're fed, and it's fantastic that they can be found and heard. And there are plenty of those with a thirst for the new that love to share what they're discovering, which is great as well. But with so many voices out there, so many links demanding to be clicked on, and so many URLs begging to be added to your aggregator, how do you choose what to read? And as a blogger, how do you find and keep your readers? The answer is usually by blogging daily, and unfortunately, it's not something that we can do here. I can't speak for Liz, but I can both say that we both have incredibly full lives, like everyone else -- and ours sometimes takes us far, far from a computer at times, on projects where fashion has to be a distant consideration to other, more pressing endeavors.

And personally, I have to admit that my own relationship to fashion -- and my own style -- is changing. Rarely do I even have time to shop anymore, and the only time I can read fashion magazines is when I'm in transit in one way or another. Hell, I've had to stop reading most fashion blogs on a regular basis because I'm literally not near a computer! It's true what they say about reaching a certain point in your late 20s/early 30s -- suddenly there's no time anymore, especially if one fantastic professional opportunity after another presents itself to be taken advantage of. And on a personal level, the fashion world -- the scary-skinny models, the latest designers, the gossip around it -- doesn't really interest me as it used to. (Of course, this could be cyclical, especially after such a terrible Spring 2007 RTW season -- ughs all over!) I still love clothes, but in real life I have to love them with discernment, and zero in quickly on what "works" and what doesn't. This translates to paying attention to what you know what works, having an instinct for what could work, and ignoring everything else as noise. Fashion goes from entertainment to practicality. Sounds grim, but it isn't, as knowing yourself and your style translates into something even more gratifying -- confidence and freedom, and using both of those to live out your life.

Despite all this, I don't think we'll shut down for good here. I'm just explaining, especially to those awesome long-term readers, why we are publishing a lot less frequently, sometimes disappear off the radar and then get all regular and enthusiastic again. Nogoodforme.com has always evolved, from its more personal "me, me, me" beginnings to an interest in the intersection of music and fashion. Throughout it all, we've always tried to support indie designers and boutiques and, in our own small way, sustainable beauty and fashion. And we're always try to do it all without being too snarky and bitchy. So stay tuned...we haven't gone away. Really!

Posted by Kat in Other
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