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what i’m wearing: primark pinstripe suit, primark sleeveless white turtleneck, primark navy blue bag & primark white sneakers
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Work, we all have to do it. Unless you were born a heiress or a princess or have opted for a less independent life and found some kind gentleman to pay your bills. All three are scenarios I often daydream about, I won’t lie, the hustle gets hard sometimes. That’s not to say I don’t love my job, I have the best I could have ever hoped for, but competition is fierce and not knowing what money will come next month, it is tiresome at times. A few weeks ago I was invited to partake in a paid photoshoot, so there I found myself, shifting awkwardly in a seat under this suit, eyes closed while a man in a beret did, or rather, fixed my makeup. I couldn’t believe the lengthy argument I overheard, a blogger and her manager were rudely demanding all sorts of ridiculous things. I half expected to see the Princess of Monaco when I opened my eyes, but no, there was a girl, like any other girl, a blogger I had never even heard of. I still have no idea who she is, but her attitude was shocking. She was so self-entitled, so over-boosted with self-importance. She acted like her presence there was a gift to the brand, when in fact, they were paying her, very generously to be there. He who pays the piper picks the tune, is all I could think to myself as I watched this fiasco unfold. You see, I see the brands I work with as clients, and I do my best to make sure they are happy with everything I might produce for them. Should they suggest I wear something I don’t like, I will politely offer an alternative. There are no hair flicks or elevated attitudes in my work ethic, in fact, I was honoured to be included in this photoshoot. Me, really? Wow – is my outlook on any paid work that comes my way. I don’t care how many followers you have, or how often people proclaim you as their ‘girl crush’, I don’t care how many Chanel bags you have swinging from your shoulder, you are just another person, doing a job to generate an income to live. I think if bloggers want to be respected professionally and if we want this industry to be taken seriously, we have to quit with the diva attitude. It’s embarrassing and frankly, it reminds me of a bratty teenager. That’s not what we are. We made businesses out of ourselves and we should act accordingly. And while are our followers are absolutely crucial to our careers, we must respect them and not let their support bloat our egos. I saw it time and time again during PFW, girls with narcissism as high as their heels and faces buried so far into their phones, I feared for their lives as pedestrians. They weren’t even the slightest bit interested in me, I have nothing to offer them with my less than 100k followers – when really, I think I’m actually a far more fun and interesting person in real life than on screen. Now, I do have incredible blogger friends, women who unlike me, don’t shy away from blogger gatherings, and they came to me with terrible tales of all kinds from these various events that pop up during fashion month. It reminded me of high school; how immature and unprofessional some of us act and then we throw a tantrum when we as an industry are laughed at? There needs to be a change and that change must come in the form of humility. No one is special and if anyone is, it’s our followers because without them there wouldn’t be invoices to send out at the end of the month. Sure, the Vogue article was horribly rude, and based primarily in jealousy, but we still have a long way to come, I feel we are still girls and not business women. I hope we can find ways to be humble and appreciative of a job that we invented out of thin air. I think that is when we will be considered a legitimate industry, when we act professionally. There is no way the world will call us so if we stomp around like bratty children expecting all sorts simply because via a screen there are thousands of people watching. Blogging developed as the antithesis to fashion magazines, clothes portrayed by real women that most of us could afford. We represent the ‘everywoman’s wardrobe’ and I hope we can hold on to that.
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