When I started blogging in 2012, Fashion and Style Police was purely a fashion blog, and I was super crazy about fashion. I still am crazy about fashion. It is one of my first loves, but I have other loves as well, and I have found a way to creatively write about them all, which works amazing well.
Back then, fresh from London College of Style, all I was breathing was fashion. And the only blogs I was following then were mainly fashion blogs. I noticed many of these bloggers attended fashion week, so I was determined to attend one of the shows, especially the shows in London. But I never had the chance in the early days because I was a new fashion blogger. Which brand would want to waste an invite on a fashion blogger with no strong following? Well not many, if any at all. And I was not prepared to hang around the fashion show location (like many fashion bloggers do) just to get my photos taken. Not trying to shade those who do, but for me, it was all or nothing. So I got nothing but kept hoping for the day when I would get an invite from one of the fashion designer houses.
I have been blogging for over 3 years when I got my first invitation to New York Fashion Week (NYFW) and London Fashion Week (LFW), and guess what? I turned them both down.
I turned down both invitations because I decided earlier on in my blogging career not to go out-of-pocket for nobody. That means I won’t attend events, including fashion shows just because I am invited. I will need my travel expenses (and accommodation if necessary) sorted at least before I can even consider attending any event.
Many brands/PRs find this difficult to understand and I am not sure why. The same way they won’t got o work for free is the same way I won’t work for free. It is the same way I won’t attend a fashion show and blog about it without my expenses and fees being paid.
Even if I was living in London or in New York, I would still turn the invitation down if my travel expenses were not sorted. I am a blogger not a magazine editor with a salary. I create my income, so every penny counts in my world.
I do hope I can attend one of the big 4 fashion shows – London, Milan, Paris and New York, but I won’t settle. I have gotten to a point in my life where I refuse to act a fool.
What are your thoughts on this?
