Lately, it seems fashion fans can’t open a magazine or laptop without being bombarded by personal style bloggers. In what is arguably the biggest shake-up in fashion media since the dawn of the Internet, a new voice of fashion authority has arrived.

Many of these bloggers have reached levels of fame once reserved for average A-list celebrities. Think audiences of thousands, book deals, exclusive brand partnerships, features in the biggest media outlets and coveted front-row seats at international fashion weeks.

I contribute to Cupcakes and Cashmere’s reported 6-million-per-month page views and regularly check on the antics of The Man Repeller blog. While I enjoy viewing these sites, I often become extremely frustrated – many popular personal style blogs are full of portrayals of unrealistic, unattainable lifestyles.

Two weeks ago, Texas Monthly published a not-so-flattering profile of Jane Aldridge, the blogger behind Sea of Shoes. The story portrayed Aldridge as, well, a brat. She scolds the reporter for touching her Miu Miu booties and describes shoes as ‘the only accessible thing in fashion.’ At $750? Sure, I’ll run out right now and grab myself a pair.

Aldridge, 20, also shrugs at the mention of college. ‘I’m already doing what I want,’ she said. This includes creating elaborate photo spreads for each post. Her mother, who photographs these shoots, admitted to contributing $70,000 to the blog since it started five years ago in the Texas Monthly article.

Unsurprisingly, New York Magazine’s snarky fashion blog The Cut tore Aldridge and her family to shreds. This prompted Aldridge to call the Texas Monthly piece ‘grossly exaggerated,’ even though she appeared on WFAA News 8 Daybreak, a local Texas talk show, to promote it just days before.

I first came across Aldridge and the style blogging phenomenon in a 2009 Teen Vogue article. In the story, Fashiontoast’s Rumi Neely describes bloggers as ‘real girls with normal clothing budgets.’ Yet a quick check of Fashiontoast’s archives from March 2009 shows the then-24-year-old posing in clothes from Wal-Mart and Target paired with pieces by designers Alexander Wang and Chlo.

Flash forward to April 2012, and Neely is still blogging strong. But this time, she dons almost all designer labels, including Proenza Schouler bags costing about $2,000 and $710 Isabel Marant wedges. Aldridge’s photograph in the article also contradicts Neely’s comments. She wears a Prada skirt, standing in front of a wall of designer shoes that decorate her bedroom. Though I enjoy fashion, I don’t own a thing from any of those labels – much less a closetful of them.

Aldridge isn’t the only blogger notorious for representing unattainable fashion. Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller also boasts a closetful of designer labels. Best friends with jewelry designers Danielle and Jodie Snyder of DANNIJO, she often wears their several-hundred-dollar necklaces in her posts. It also doesn’t hurt that designers regularly send her pieces to feature on her blog, though Medine told fashion news website Fashionista that she only features clothing she thinks ‘jives with her brand.’

As a college student, I feel these blogs represent and promote unrealistic lifestyles. Sure, I occasionally envy their quilted Chanel bags and Dries van Noten booties, and I also respect their entrepreneurial spirits and understand the appeal of their blogs. But fashion shouldn’t only be about fantasy and wealth.

It’s time for a more mainstream approach to fashion, where fashion followers attired in H&M can contribute to the conversation, too. Sure, it’s fun to dream of Louboutin and Prada, but let’s leave them for the pages of Vogue and Elle.

Julie Kosin is a sophomore magazine journalism major. Her column appears every other Monday. She can be reached at jkkosin@syr.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @juliekosi

Published on April 15, 2012 at 12:00 pm