High Fashion's Latest Accessory: The Blogger

(Feb. 14) -- For a snapshot of what it looks like when new media mount a full frontal assault on old media, let's travel back to last fall's Dolce & Gabanna runway show in Milan.

Seated in the middle of the front row, wearing her trademark bangs and bob, was the doyenne of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour, that durable poster girl for old media. Flanking her on left and right were a couple of young men --- boys, really --- dressed in T-shirts and tapping away on laptops.

Anna Wintour, meet the future --- Bryan Boy and Tommy Ton, two members of the growing horde of young fashion bloggers who, in the words of that old-media Gray Lady, the New York Times, "have overrun the ivory tower."

As recently as a year ago, bloggers were routinely, and sneeringly, barred from many of the major fashion houses' runway shows in Milan, Paris, London and New York. Then a lightbulb went on. Today those same houses are tripping all over themselves to make sure that bloggers like Bryan Boy and Tommy Ton and an adorable 13-year-old girl named Tavi Gevinson get front-row seats. Gevinson was even flown to Tokyo for a party with the label Comme des Garcons and wrote a review for Harper's Bazaar.

As a recent headline in that magazine neatly put it: "Once Fashion Week pests, the blogging paparazzi are now industry darlings and zeitgeist forecasters."

Bryan Boy, now 24, started blogging five years ago from his home in the Philippines. "We're already seeing the future unfolding right before our eyes," he said by e-mail. Bloggers are getting "first-hand access to the shows, traditional media positions, collaborations with fashion houses. A few bloggers even have their own merchandise and/or clothing lines. Bloggers are, without question, the new celebrities."

Though the fashion industry is waking up to the fact that blogs like Bryan Boy's "Bryanboy.com," Tommy Ton's "Jak & Jill" and Tavi Gevinson's "Style Rookie" have large and loyal audiences that the industry can no longer afford to ignore, it would be wrong to assume that the industry has fully embraced the digital age. Or that old media has meekly laid down its arms and surrendered to this assault by new media.

"I don't feel threatened that there are 13-year-old bloggers," the New York Times' fashion critic, Cathy Horyn, said recently over a sandwich and coffee in a Greenwich Village cafe. "I know what I know. If somebody comes along with a different perspective, I'm all for it."

While Horyn may not feel threatened by teen bloggers, she can't hide her disdain for the swirl surrounding them.

"That deal with the young bloggers at the Dolce & Gabanna show was a lot of silly business, just hype," she said. "Frankly, I'd prefer an invisible blogger --- a teenager or a senior citizen, I don't care --- but someone who purposely stays out of the fashion glare and knows how to report. That would get people's attention."

Horyn may have hit the on the essence of this tussle between new and old media: Ultimately it's not going to be about the format that distributes the information, it's going to be about the quality of the information that gets distributed. A kid with a computer, a passion for fashion and a quirky sense of style may be irresistible. But is that a substitute for experience and skill at reporting and writing? Furthermore, who ever said blogging is a private club for kids?

Not Horyn. Three years ago she took the initiative to create her own Times blog, "On the Runway," after seeing the original "Charlie's Angels" cast on an Emmy awards show and wishing she had a platform to relate her thoughts on the actresses' horrendous plastic surgery.

"A blog can be anything," she mused, and so she started blogging two or three times a week in addition to her reporting on the hundreds of fashion shows she attends every year. She avoids blogging about products and celebrities and instead writes personal things about clothes and style, her dogs, recipes, and going shopping with her Mom in Paris.

Horyn, now 53, started out in journalism 30 years ago covering the school board in Portsmouth, Virginia, for the local daily newspaper. In old-school fashion, she worked her way up the journalism ladder rung by rung until joining the Times in 1999. Since taking the plunge into blogging, she has noticed a definite change.

"In the past couple of years it has become more snarky," she said. "There's a tone now that's nasty and super-critical, without a lot of knowledge behind it. Anybody can say anything --- and they do."

This from a writer who was once described in print as "the pit bull among the poodles" for her willingness to write more biting fashion articles than many of her colleagues in a world that was once largely tame to the point of being toothless.

Even as bloggers continue to storm the ivory tower of fashion journalism, Horyn remains amazed that the fashion industry has mastered e-commerce but has largely failed to make more sophisticated use of the Internet and digital technology. A few exceptions, in her opinion, are Hermes, Burberry and Alexander McQueen.

"Companies that are supposed to tell us what the future is going to be don't have a clear understanding of the present --- specifically, how to use the Internet," she said.

On that note, Horyn has just learned that her blog has a loyal following on Twitter, even though she doesn't know how to use the technology. She's ready to learn so she can start tweeting.

Who says you can't teach an old pit bull new tricks?