Aussie blogger sees video as future of fashion journalism

This year, Australian fashion blogger Helen Lee of SASSYBELLA.com turned to YouTube to better share her experiences at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. Here, she authors a post about what she sees as the future of fashion journalism -- and it involves lots of video.

My name is Helen Lee and I am a fashion blogger. I first started creating websites and blogs as a 16-year-old; I came to video when I was gifted a Flip HD video recorder last year. I’ve been experimenting with the medium ever since.

This year’s Rosemount Australian Fashion Week was my fourth experience at the event, but my first as a 100% independent fashion blogger. I was assigned front row seats at shows for Alex Perry, Camilla and Marc, and up-and-comers Sara Phillips and Saint Augustine Academy. That’s pretty good for a blogger -- the fashion industry is still coming into the digital space.

So what about my coverage? I turned to video this year because I wanted to show my readers exactly what I saw:

My videos were undoubtedly amateur and entirely dependent on where I managed to squeeze into a seat (or stand), but it was an important part of my coverage and really enhanced the online ‘brand’ of SASSYBELLA.com.

I wasn’t the only one doing the video thing this year, either. Sponsors like ghd were filming their own clips for their website and Fairfax websites were live streaming certain shows throughout the week on the Sydney Morning Herald website. This is a new trend I noticed during the international shows in February/March: most of the major fashion houses live streamed their fashion shows from their websites. (Burberry even held 3D screenings across the globe to a select group of fashion editors).

Even more interesting was seeing a guy standing in the media pit holding a laptop open to live stream/record the Camilla and Marc show. It was inspiring to see more people and media outlets explore the video and video streaming options during RAFW, especially in fashion, when watching an item of clothing move is far more powerful than seeing a still image. One blogger said she was granted instant access to a show after the designers heard she wanted to live stream it.

A sign of Australian “gate keepers” opening the door to exposing their clients to as many eye balls as possible, and not just the “right” magazine editors and newspaper journalists? I certainly hope so.