#1 THE BLOGGERS WEAR PRADA
After Time Magazine so famously proclaimed all of us the person of the year for 2006, it helped confer legitimacy on content created by blogs (at a fairly steady rate of 1.6 million fresh new posts daily, according to Technorati). And this year, fashion & lifestyle bloggers really solidified the fashion blogosphere as a viable alternative to the old-school fashion & beauty mags for both advertisers & readers...and created a new form of fashion media in the process.
Instead of needing the right social connections just to get a lowly assistant editor job in fashion publishing at a big-name print magazine - and a trustfund to survive on an annual starting salary of less than $30,000...in NYC (!) - fashion bloggers succeed the democratic way: initiative, talent, taste, and the hard work it takes to update with quality content daily.
Not only can a successful blogger make a living at it, but many are widely read & influential enough to have regular columns in publications like Washington Post Express (The Manolo), to author books (The Budget Fashionista), regularly appear as experts on national television (Coquette on The Early Show), frequently appear in major publications (My Fashion Life in InStyle; Fashiontribes in USA Today), and can make or break a handbag in the market, and possibly the brand behind it (The Daily Mail UK about Bag Snob).
The fabulous shoe mastro Manolo Blahnik even sponsored Blog.mode Addressing Fashion, an exhibition at the Museum of Art's Costume Institute looking at the intersection of fashion & blogs.



