The weakness of fashion bloggers

"Bloggers are so attractive to the big design houses because they are so wide-eyed and obsessed, but they don't have the critical faculties to know what's good and what's not. As soon as they've been invited to the shows, they can no longer criticize because then they won't be invited back."

-Robert Johnson, a GQ editor quoted in the Independent

I've been skeptical about the supposed power of fashion blogs for a while because of the very problem Mr Johnson highlights above: they're too easy to co-opt. Though to be fair, most of the 'official' editors and critics are similarly co-opted; holding on to one's objective faculties in the face of all that glitz must be pretty hard.

But for fashion bloggers, there's something a little futile in the juxtaposition of their status as outsiders, empowered to write anything about anyone, and their pathetic desire to be part of the circus they critique.