Bloggers going strong, despite critics

Even though fashion bloggers such as the 13-year-old Tavi Gevinson are increasingly the targets of bitter criticism from established print fashion editors, US
Vogue features the top of the crop in its upcoming Power issue.

Those featured include Bryanboy (bryanboy.com), Michelle Phan, the YouTube beauty vlogger who was just signed with lancôme as their official video makeup artist (michellephan.com), Michelle Obama observer Mary Tomer (mrs-o.org), photographer Tommy Ton (jakandjil.com), Yvan Rodic aka the Facehunter (yvanrodic.blogspot.com), Todd Selby (theselby.com), Hanneli Mustaparta (hanneli.com), fashion critic Catherine Kallon (redcarpet-fashionawards.com), and France's first blogging lady Garance Doré (garancedore.fr).

Fellow bloggers, especially the very young Tavi from Style Rookie, have attracted negative feedback in the past for allegedly losing their neutrality in return for front row seats or goodie bags, for not having a proper fashion education, or simply taking what isn't theirs - in the opinion of some of today's leading fashion writers.

Suzy Menkes weighed in last month saying that she was "tremendously in favor of all that's new and fresh in fashion, that's what it's all about." And while she acknowledged that probably not all of the blogs will survive in the long term, according to her, there's no denying that fashion has entered a new area. "The world changed," Menkes says, "when fashion, instead of being a monologue, became a conversation."

The Suzy Menkes interview can be watched here. Vogue's Power issue becomes available starting February 17.