Outsider?
(Image removed…new one on its way soon!)
My location has never worried me but I have been forced to ask myself over the last few weeks if it disadvantages my blog. I chose to move out of London many years ago, as I didn’t feel it was a lifestyle I could maintain. I was constantly on the go, surrounded by others yet at the same time surprisingly lonely. These people were mainly anonymous, sporting the expressionless “don’t look at me or attempt to engage me in conversation” faces that Underground etiquette can often dictate. During London Fashion Week I asked the other 4 people on my late night train if they minded me changing my boots. They looked a little shocked and a young boy who was about 16 said to me, “That’s the first time that anyone’s ever spoken to me on the train ever.” I asked him if he’d been living in London long, to which he responded, “All my life.”
I digress. Over the last few weeks my inbox has been bombarded with press day invites none of which I have been able to attend. My real job hasn’t allowed me the time nor do I unfortunately have the funds to reach Londinium. So I again ask myself does this put my blog at a disadvantage? I can view all the look-books online, chat to al the necessary contacts via email, Twitter and Facebook and live it vicariously through the posts of my fellow bloggers. The vital part for me is still missing. There is still no substitute for the connection you make when you meet people and no replacement for the instinctive feel you get for a collection on viewing it in person.
So let’s consider the benefit my location allows me. The main luxury is perspective. I am out of the London fashion loop. Where I live people are stylish yet not dictated to by trends, nor are many trendsetters. Clothing is cool but not painfully so. The best way to describe it is, I always feel I am pushing the fashion envelope until I bypass Reading on the train! I then realise my efforts are quite mediocre! I am also able to choose and be selective about the events I attend. Make strange, crazy efforts to reach the capital for a few hours and then work on the train all the way home.
What I’d like to know the most are your thoughts. Are you a London based blogger? Does this offer you an insight into the industry that my distance doesn’t afford me? Do you think location makes no difference now that the Internet has created one global community? Am I paranoid to feel that people treat me differently as a blogger once they know I don’t live in the capital? Personally, I would change not one thing. My little blog began in my lounge and still gets written there most days. I love the fact that I can dip in and out of London life but just wish I had the funds to indulge in journeys more often and see the other bloggers and publicists that I feel have now become friends.
This really struck a chord with me, actually. I’m not a London-based blogger either, and whilst I still try and attend as many events as I can, it’s inevitable I’ll miss a fair few. Having said that, I suppose the ones I do attend feel that bit more special and I probably appreciate such evenings far more than I would if I attended everything that lands in my inbox. Alas, there’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to pop for a quick coffee with other bloggers/PRs – or that look you get when you utter the words, “oh, I’m not actually based in London.” London to me will probably always remain the same: a great place to work – to socialise, even – but it’s not home.
April 26th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Thank you for your comment. I agree, the events I attend feel more special and I really appreciate them too. I feel it can be easy to forget how fortunate I am as a humble blogger x
April 26th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Being based in Manchester, it feels sometimes like the entire fashion world is London obsessed. (Or, ocassionally, New York obsessed). I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to say ‘well, actually I don’t live in London’, it almost makes me resent my hometown! However, I chose to move out of London for the reasons you’ve given & the look on my London based friends faces when they see my flat and hear how much I pay for rent makes it all worthwhile!
I think, perhaps, that it is about time that some of the labels, PR companies and brands realised that a lot of bloggers aren’t based down south. I think that whoever stages the first blogger-orientated press day for non-London dwellers might find themselves awash with coverage.
(the no-body-talks-to-anyone-else-in-london myth for me is just that though: a myth. My theory as to why people are slightly more hesitant about striking up conversations with strangers is that there are more tourists, so you might find yourself trying to make small talk with someone who doesn’t understand you. People DO talk to eachother though- my dad is proof of that!)
April 27th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I’m based in london and I love london. The main reason being that you can totally be yourself here – have blue hair, wear red lipstick, dress as a goth, a hippie, a fashion victim, and no-one blinks an eyelid. You can be free. Where I grew up people tend to dress a bit more conservatively and you don’t tend to see many characters.
It is super trendy though – my sister says you can tell whats in fashion from spending 5 minutes on the tube – its a little slavish sometimes.
Sounds like you look fabulous wherever you are – just pop to London now and then and walk round Hoxton or Shoreditch to get a feel for what the bright young things think is cool!
May 1st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
My tuppence-worth. I think there are benefits to not being able to go to everything you get invited to. If you do, your blog will inevitably become full of PR-initiated coverage, and there will be less of the stuff you started off writing about. Those independent musings are most likely what brought your blog to the attention of the publicists in the first place. Your way, there’s a balance.
By the way, as Charlotte from Glam Media rightly pointed out recently at a Sketchbook Mag panel discussion- ‘publicists are not your friends’. Yes, while blogging is ‘fashionable’, they will reach out to you but the minute blogs go out of fashion (if that happens), they’ll be ‘reaching out’ to someone else. Publicists are there to get coverage for their brands, full stop. They may seem like friends but they’re really not! (Bitter much?!)
May 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 am
Since I left London last July I’ve received some pretty cool invites.It makes me sad that I didn’t get them when I was there and now that I’m back in Canada how can I possibly go?
Although I do think rollergirl has a good point.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:59 am
Thanks for your comment (what do I call you? … Random?!) … much appreciated, very kind too. Not being based in London makes your posts unique to you. Noone needs another Grazia blog. Your input to blog society as it were, are your thoughts and takes on things, not coverage of something that’s probably actually rather boring if bloggers took their publicist-led goggles off and actually took a second glance at what they were covering / or the spin of a press release. I think it sounds more fun to come now and again to see your blogger friends, but to be here for the blog’s sake? Nu-uh. Jesus I am trying to get out of here!
xx
May 14th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Late comment… The beauty of blogging is being able to do it outside of London. I think your worry is about quantity as opposed to quality, not only about quality. And when there is no question asked, there is no answer necessary. Very nicely written, as ever, I loved every word of it.
June 15th, 2010 at 9:18 pm