Style stories

Stylists Jasleen Kaur Gupta (left) and Sonu Bohra share their take on fashion in their blog, Fashion Bombay (Below) Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

A new breed of fashion bloggers has reared its head — and is inviting you to go trawling their blogs that are crammed with fashion and more. In style-scan mode, the bloggers are telling all: what’s in, what’s out in global fashions. Who’s wearing that Sonia Rykiel dress or flaunting a pair of Christian Louboutin stilettos. Often, they also sit on judgement and dissect cutting-edge (or otherwise) celebrity and street fashion.

The fashion bloggers go about their daily lives — most have day jobs — keeping an eye trained on the bold and the beautiful, eagerly banging off critiques on their blogs.

“You don’t have to be a fashion editor to voice/share your take on fashion with the world. To have a fashion blog to your name is like owning a precious fashion accessory,” says Sonu Bohra, a 23-year-old stylist who owns Fashion Bombay (www.fashion-bombay.com) along with 26-year-old co-blogger, Jasleen Kaur Gupta. The duo began the blog three months ago.

The blogosphere is filled with fashion blogs each with a different take on the subject. Some are strictly about trends fresh off the ramps. Others focus on do-it-yourself fashions that encourage readers to create their own looks by experimenting with various styles.

The best known in the circuit, the High Heel Confidential girls, Payal and Priyanka, have taken a different route. They reveal precious little about themselves (apart from their first names), have been around since 2007 and specialise in scrutinising the style quotient of Bollywood stars on their blog at www.highheelconfidential.com.

“When we started, we realised that hardly anyone was writing about the sartorial styles of film stars,” says Payal.

So, on their blog you will find snaps of socialites/actors at film premieres, starry parties, and even casual sightings of them at random places. They keep the content updated through an informal arrangement with a photographer who sends them visuals of the stars.

Runway updates come to you from Surabhi Chauhan, a 23-year-old who handles publicity for some top-notch fashion designers, and who is the woman behind www.lovestruckcow.blogspot.com. Season after season, she personalises her blog with her own opinions on style and fashion.

Karishma Rajani writes about the style statements of people who catch her eye on Mumbai’s streets on her blog Purple Peeptoes; (below) Nonsense on Stilettos is a blog by an anonymous blogger who likes everything that’s unconventional about fashion and doesn’t hesitate to talk about it

“I started the blog in early 2009 to post updates about the exciting things that I was experiencing in the fashion industry,’’ she says.

On the other hand, the anonymous blogger of Nonsense on Stilettos (www.lemontartletsandwinegums.blogspot.com) likes everything that’s unconventional about fashion — and doesn’t hesitate to blog about it. She says: “What I love most about fashion is its capacity to buck convention. I appreciate it when designers don’t adhere to rigid conventions of attractiveness, or have pushed the envelope by embracing things that are traditionally considered ‘ugly’.”

If you are poised to get married and need tips on how to look the part of a fashion savvy bride, look no further than www.weddingonthecards.blogspot.com. The woman behind the blog, Sovina Gehlot, a management student based in Idaho, US, says: “I started the blog when I was getting married and putting my trousseau together.” She started the blog in March 2010 with reviews of the latest couture collections from the Indian runways (which she keeps a tab on long-distance) along with advice on jewellery, bags/clutches and shoes.

And what are the readers lapping up? Well, they love do-it-yourself or DIY fashions that some bloggers dole out generously. And by the way, the bloggers turn their own wardrobes upside down to come up with exciting ensembles.

Bohra of Fashion Bombay, for instance, has put up snaps of herself wearing a funky ensemble — a pair of pink shorts under a short denim dress teamed with yellow ballerinas.

“People can relate with fashion better if they can see us create our personal styles with our own clothes — even if we might be a plus size. We want to emphasise that fashion should be about what we wear every day,” says Bohra.

Bangalore-based Smrithi Rao flaunts her personal style on her blog Vintage Obsession; (above) the fashion savvy bride-to-be may do well to check out Sovina Gehlot’s blog, Wedding on the Cards (below)

Or take a look at 24-year-old Smrithi Rao, a Bangalore-based software engineer who has also styled costumes for a Kannada film. On her eight-month-old blog, Vintage Obsession (www.fashiontrendsindia.com), Rao shows how she designed a pair of hip Jodhpurs from her father’s old trousers.

Karishma Rajani, 19-year-old mass media student, not only posts snaps of herself on her blog, Purple Peeptoes (www.purple-peeptoes.blogspot.com), but also posts pictures of people on the street who catch her eye. “Once you start blogging, you become very observant of people — even on the streets,” says Rajani, who started the blog in 2009.

Meanwhile Gehlot on her blog reserves a section called ‘A good sense of distaste’, inspired by the film Coco Before Chanel, in which she writes about what you shouldn’t wear at any cost. “Some readers say that it’s their favourite section. I have also started featuring real life brides where I capture the bride’s story behind her outfit,” she adds.

The bloggers also share information on fashion hideouts where readers can buy exclusive ensembles and accessories. Interestingly, Bohra and Gupta also design their own range of infinity scarves (loops of cloth that lie in folds around the neck) that they peg between Rs 300 and Rs 800 and even courier.

Wondering how seriously fashion bloggers are taken? Going by the hits on their pages — quite seriously. Rao has 400 visitors and 800 to 1,000-page views a day while Bohra’s tracker registers 250 daily visitors.

Nonita Kalra, editor-in-chief, Elle India, says that fashion blogging works hand-in-hand with fashion magazines in educating readers about fashion. “The bloggers appear to be doing their homework well and are in-step with the fashion scene globally and in India,” she adds.

The bloggers are also steadily figuring on the guest-lists of fashion shows and parties. For instance, the High Heel Confidential girls were invited to the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai last year.

Apart from doling out styling advice, the bloggers are deluged with be-my-personal-shopper requests.

It might appear to be an obsession but blogging is just a part of what they do. While they post on a day-to-day basis, they do so when they take a quick break from their jobs. Bohra and Gupta blog during their lunch break because they find it addictive while Rao grabs time off from her software engineering job.

But yes, the word is out on them. Through social networking websites, blogrolls (lists put up by bloggers with links to fellow bloggers) and word-of-mouth. And they are bent on working up a fashion high.