Fashion Bloggers Make Millions, Journalistic Ethics Be Damned

By Dodai Stewart | June 13, 2014 | 5:00pm

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In a piece titled “Incomes Keep Soaring for Fashion’s Top Bloggers,” the numbers are staggering.

While a fashion magazine structure relies on a bunch of hands to promote a garment or accessory — an editor, models, stylist, writer, etc. — the style bloggers are generally wearing the item themselves and writing about it themselves. And designers are finding that these “real” people move product.

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The WWD article by Rachel Strugatz and David Yi — available by subscription only — claims that top style bloggers can now earn more than $1 million a year. Reminder: these are not engineers, or designers, or surgeons, or singers, or actors. They are STYLE BLOGGERS.

Some eye-popping figures pulled from the copy:

“Now, $100,000 is not enough,” Bryanboy’s Bryan Grey-Yambao, 32, said. “For a young, upstart blogger, $100,000 may seem like a lot of money. [But] as a business, a legit business, $100,000 won’t really bring you that far. You have a lot of expenses.”

And:

[Bryanboy] passed on an offer from a mass brand to design three bags for $75,000. To date, the most he has received for an appearance was $40,000 to attend the ribbon cutting at the Siam Center in Bangkok last year.

And:

RewardStyle confirmed its top earners can make more than $80,000 a month solely on affiliate commissions

$80k a MONTH. Just let it sink in.

AND:

Salt Lake City-based Rachel Parcell of Pink Peonies is one of the top earners. While the 23-year-old blogger declined to comment on her annual income, based on RewardStyle’s data, she could make at least $960,000 from affiliate programs alone this year. Other income is on top of that, such as partnerships with brands like TRESemmé or J. Crew.

$960k — other income is on top of that.

And that’s not all:

The duo behind Snob Essentials —Tina Craig and Kelly Cook — have been making a steady six-figure income since their second year of business, which launched in 2005 as Bag Snob. Today Craig and Cook’s income is projected by industry sources to surpass the $1 million mark.

That’s a lot of money.

The whole thing really blurs the line between editorial and advertising: For decades, fashion mags have been accused of eschewing objective journalism and featuring advertisers in lavish photoshoots; now there are instances of companies paying style bloggers to post about or pose wearing their clothes. WWD mentions Coty paying $1,000-$2000 for a post about Marc Jacobs’s Daisy fragrance, and one blogger was paid $5,000 to publish a photo in which she’s wearing wearing blue-and-white Rebecca Minkoff shorts.

Actual line from the piece: “None of the top bloggers interviewed for this article say they adhere to a strict set of journalistic codes or ethics.”

Duh: Everyone knows ethics don’t matter when you have a million in the bank and some Tom Ford sunglasses.