At this point, personal style bloggers are well-established. The most famous ones get flown around the world for fashion events, are gifted free clothes, and make tons of money. However, the beginnings of personal style blogging were quite modest, and an interesting piece from Racked runs through the entire history of the hobby-turned-legit-career.
The first personal style blog, StyleDiary.net, was created by Patricia Handschiegel in August 2014. While Handschiegel only lasted three years before selling her blog off, her invention paved the way for many imitators. Within a couple years, many of the most famous personal style blogs had been born. Bryan Yambao started BryanBoy in October 2014, Susie Lau's Style Bubble followed in early 2006, and an 11-year-old Tavi Gevinson created Style Rookie in 2008.
It's not until 2009, though, that these bloggers started wielding real authority in the industry. One blogger, Rumi Neely, was hired as a designer for RVCA despite her only qualification for the position was that she founded the popular site, Fashion Toast. Also in 2009, bloggers are raking in so much money that the FTC has to add a guideline that requires bloggers to report all the free items they've received. Gevinson ends up sitting front-row at Dior, and making her presence known, just a year later.
However, just as style bloggers took advantage of the rise of the Internet, a new invention may be behind their demise. Stylish Instagram users are on top now, and some are using the platform to cash in $100,000 for every post. Still, both of these sound like pretty incredible gigs. Where do we apply?
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You can read the entire story over on Racked.
