Social media is affecting the fashion industry in different ways.The fashion industry has always been characterized by “exclusivity” whereas social media is all about “sharing” and making things public and available to everyone. So, how is it possible that these two very different sectors found a successful way to interact? Fashion bloggers are the answer.  Fashion bloggers represent the most influential form of  social media phenomenon in this industry.

The rules of this multimillionaire industry changed as soon as fashion bloggers made their appearance.

They don’t just wear designer clothes and take pictures, they attend the most popular fashion events,parties and share with everyone their impressions,thoughts and recommendations on the new trends of the season. Consumers are very interested in the comments and feedback of bloggers because they are people they can relate to and that they can trust.

The fashion industry is an example of how paid media or advertising alone is not enough for a company to be successful in advertising and selling its products. Nowadays, earned and owned media are fundamental to spread and expand brand messages. Fashion bloggers are a way to make earned media successful in the fashion industry since they are able to reach everyone, they are trusted and they influence consumers decisions. They interact directly with consumers and that’s why they are so valuable to most fashion brands.

 Given the extremely large audience that bloggers have, they constantly receive free products such as clothes, bags shoes and accessories by the most popular brands who ask them to wear and review them. Both the consumers and the fashion brands benefit from this strategy. Consumers have the possibility to access more information regarding the new trends of the coming  season and brands can use the fashion bloggers as a mean to advertise certain products and also experiment new ones.

This really interesting article focuses on the changes that social media is inducing in the fashion industry:

http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2106921,00.html

A fashion blog I would advise to follow is Chiara Ferragni’s blog ( The blonde Salad). This Italian girl proved to be extremely successful at blogging and now has almost 3 million followers:

http://www.theblondesalad.com/