Fashion Bloggers Make Millions, Journalistic Ethics Be Damned

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.

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.