Friend Friday: Blogging up to the hype

Well let's get a little serious on this Friday, shall we?

rose&violette has joined the Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (FBFF for intimates). The lovely Katy Rose of Modly Chic started this group in order to get fashion bloggers to meet (virtually) and share thoughts. Every Wednesday, she sends questions to which we are free to answer on our blog on Fridays. We love the idea. We might even make it a regular Friday post.

This project proves once again that fashion bloggers aren't dumb and superficial bimbos and that yes, we can think for ourselves!

You can join too if you'd like! Everything you need to know on FBFF is here.

This week, for our first FBFF, the questions are about the comparison that we undoubtedly have with successful bloggers.

1. Have you ever looked at someone's blog and thought yours will never measure up?

Of course! rose&violette is still pretty new in the blogosphere and we often feel that we are stuck at this level. We aren't models, stylists, photographers, graphic artists, webmasters or journalists, we are two normal girls who love fashion. Our blog isn't our daily job, it's our hobby.

We read dozens of inspiring blogs, some well known, some not, and while it's impossible not to compare yourself as comparison is part of human nature, rethinking why you are doing this and the goals that you set for yourself kind of make this comparison easier to handle. Although when we think of the fulgurating success of Kendi, for example, it makes us realize we have a long way to go before we can brag about anything.

2. Do you (did you) feel pressure to meet some kind of undefined standard for fashion bloggers?

As of now, the thing that we feel most pressured about is the whole publicity, putting-yourself-out-there thing: Twitter, Facebook, Chictopia, Weardrobe and so on. It’s a whole new world to get used to. It's as if you have to be everywhere at once, but at the same time, not too much so you don’t bother your readers. As we said, this is a hobby. Yes, we would like to be read and publicized, but we simply cannot invest the same amount of time as, say, Emily of Cupcakes and Cashmere (who makes a living out of her passion) because we have a full-time life going on outside the blog.

Another thing we feel pressured about is the outfit posts. It seems there is a subtle trend of over-the-top outfits contest... you know, the kind of outfit that probably no one ever wore for a whole day. With so many accessories it's almost ridiculous. And don’t get us started on their magically new clothes. We are normal girls: we work in offices, we take the metro, we wear puffy coats in winter... we live a regular life! Maybe some people find our outfits boring, but they are real. Real girls, with real outfits and real challenges. Sure, we enjoy reading fashion magazines, but our biggest inspiration is our fellow bloggers, and we prefer the ones we can really relate to, not the ones that say “let’s spend our entire days in thrift stores, create an outfit with pieces that really don’t have anything to do with each other and call ourselves fashion bloggers”.

3. Many established fashion bloggers are also extraordinary DIYers, bakers, and crafty people. Do you think you need to combine all of these things to be successful at blogging? That’s a great observation!

While we aren't very good at DIY, bakery and crafts, we don't think it's necessary to be (well, we hope so...!) any of these things to be a great fashion blogger. In fact, we aren't that interested on those kinds of posts (except very easy DIY, like this one we did!), because we know we won't be able to reproduce them! We think everyone has their own qualities, you better explore what YOU are good at rather than trying to copy others. Besides, how exactly is bakery related to fashion? Do you get some sort of reward for correctly matching the colours of your cookies?

4. The most successful blogs are the ones that have their own personal voice - how are you developing your voice or how did you find yours?

Well, we are still trying to develop it! You can see that we are trying different kinds of posts right now... it’s a work in progress. We need to explore a bit of everything and then we will have a better idea of what we like and what we are good at. It's almost impossible not to do something others have done, as there are so many bloggers out there, but we can find a way to be ourselves and make the blog a little more unique. Plus, there aren’t many duos in the fashion blogosphere.

5. Toot your own horn... what's one thing you do that is unique to you and your blog? What gives your blog an edge?

Hum, that's kind of hard because as we said, we are still trying to figure out our personal voice. BUT! rose&violette is already unique in many ways! Our blog is the online result of what we would do in real life: Rose would send Violette things that she found on the net and Violette would tell Rose what trendy item she would like to wear or what she wore. What we love about the blog is that others can now participate in what would be our real-life discussions! We think we’re easily relatable and that’s exactly what we want people to feel when they read us.

See other participating bloggers' answers to these questions here.