I have been toying with the idea of starting a fashion blog for at least
the past 5 years. However, with few Canadian fashion bloggers who have made a
career out of it, I’ve always been slightly discouraged and wondered if it was
even worth the effort. Over the years,
the number of active blogs has grown significantly, and I feel as though a
little fashion blog from Toronto would get lost in the sea of other worldly blogs.
Why is it that there is a lack in Canadian fashion bloggers? I brought
this up to my friend Bianca Guzzo, blogger of Tea with B Weekly, and soon to be
Ryerson journalism graduate. Guzzo started her blog in 2011 to help build her journalism
portfolio. It covers a variety of topics from beauty and fashion favourites to
body image. Over the years, her blog has
grown quite a bit, but she admits that being a blogger can be frustrating. “ I
didn’t realize at first it would be so expensive.” She goes on to tell me how
in order to have new content she has to shop quite a lot. “I would love to go
to Sephora to pick out products to review for my followers, but I’m on a student
budget”. Many elite bloggers, particularly American bloggers, are gifted with
products and clothing from PR offices, and even fully paid trips to attend
events. As our conversation continues she later admits, “I suppose that’s who
my niche is though-- other students.”
While money may be a contributing factor to an absence of blogs in
general, it does not necessarily explain the scarcity of Canadian fashion
blogs. After
a quick Google search of top Canadian blogs, results include a few pages to
nominate blogs, and lists of top blogs. Upon inspection, blogs topping said
lists were rather unrelated to fashion. I stumbled across two fashion blogs on
one of the lists; one had been removed, while the other had not had any posts
since 2011. A number of lists came up for top Canadian “Mommy blogs”, a genre
of blog I was completely unaware of. “I
think that [Canadian Fashion blogs] are overlooked in that atmosphere; you
never really think of Toronto as a fashion city which is sad because it is.!” says Guzzo. I asked if
she read any Canadian blogs, and the only one she could think of at the top of
her head was Gracie Carroll (one of
the blogs I discovered in my Google search) and her recently launched blog The Chic Canuck. The Chic Canuck claims to be the “tastemakers guide to Canada”, providing
articles and photographs of some of Canada’s most unique entrepreneurs,
products and artists-- an idea I wish I had thought of myself.
Considering
Canada’s smaller population compared to other fashionable countries, one can
begin to think it may be all population proportionate. Either that, or
Canadians were not blogging because they were not going on the Internet as much
as the rest of the world. However, according to a recent article in the Globe
and Mail, Canadians spend approximately 45 hours a month surfing the web, while
Americans followed behind averaging 38.6 hours a month.
Simply said, Canadian fashion blogs (The Chic Canuck aside) are not obviously Canadian. Two of my favorite
Canadian fashion blogs (and quite frankly
the only Canadian blogs I regularly follow), The Coveteur and Beckerman
Blog have been blogs I have
regularly visited over the years. Launched in 2011, The Coveteur was started by two friends Erin Kleinberg and
Stephanie Mark.
Their blog features a number of articles about the closets and events primarily
located in New York or Los Angeles. On the other hand, the Beckerman Blog features the fashionable travels of twin sisters Cailli and Sam
Beckerman. “ People dream of lives in New York and London and want to live
vicariously through residents from those cities” Guzzo points out.
While
Guzzo admits to me she would love to write for her blog as her career in future
years, its not her main priority, reminding me she started the blog to help
improve her own journalism skills. “At the end of the day, if I get a comment
that says they like enjoyed reading my post or that it helped them in some way,
that means more to me than anything else” Guzzo explains.
I decide to give up
the search, however, just before giving up my quest to find a hidden Canadian
blog gem, I
click on one last blog link that seems promising. Alas, another Mom blog.
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