where have all the real girls gone?

I have been an avid reader of fashion blogs on the interwebs since I was fifteen years old (and now I am ancient, so it has been quite a while) and have spent countless hours pouring over these blogs, admiring the personal style and lusting after the clothes of these very stylish women.

So I have a bit of a problem with the way things in the fashion blog world are going at the moment. It's making me uncomfortable. And giving me an inferiority complex (or at least making the existing one worse). My problem is the disappearance of "real" on these blogs.

In the last few years or so, I have begun to notice some subtle changes taking place over these blogs that I once so adored. The photographs look clear and sharp. Stores and designers are name-dropped every second sentence. The blogger's whole body is in the shot (including their shoes! HOW?) and everything just looks so. Goddamn. Polished.

Gone are the dodgy MySpace-style self-portraits with the arm clearly visible, the grainy webcam shots of girls contorted into awkward positions to ensure their whole outfit makes the cut and the off-centre self-timer photographs where the camera has clearly been balanced on a slightly-too-tall bookshelf.

Introduced in their place: perfect, clear, in-focus, colour-corrected glamour shots of the bloggers in their $12,325 Isabel Marant jacket and $5,867 Alexander Wang heels. These girls appear to have full-time photographers constantly on the scene to capture their perfectly spontaneous, chic moments (oh what? You're just standing around in the street with your DSLR? This is such a coincidence! Hey, I guess you may as well take a quick snap of my outfit while we're both here). I'm looking at you, Rumi Neely!

Everyone looks perfect. And unblemished. And they stink of money. I just stink, because I was kind of in a hurry this morning and forgot to put on deoderant. But I digress.

I don't actually want to look at perfect pictures of size zero Barbie girls wearing clothes that I could never afford, even in my wildest, wettest dreams (hello clunky Miu Miu heels- nice to see you again). I am BORED WITH THIS NOW.

I want to see real girls, dirty girls with unbrushed hair, wearing their own clothes (not weird wet-look gold leggings that have been mailed to them by American Apparel that they would probably never choose themselves). What's so wrong with photographs of girls that are real, girls who don't have the time (or frankly, the inclination) to edit out every perceived imperfection on Photoshop before they post? What's wrong with having a freckle on your cheek, or an abnormally large gap between your eyebrows (just me?)? What's wrong with just being real?

Now, I am not saying that I hate these blogs. I still read them for the fashion eye candy, and I guess vague ideas for potential outfits. But I just think they have been done to death.

So from one dirty, unbrushed girl to (hopefully) a few others; I say bring back the dodgy webcam shots. If I wanted to look at a proper fashion shoot, I would pick up a Vogue (and I do!).

EXHIBIT A: CLEAN

"Oh, hi! I didn't see you there! Oh my God, I am SO embarrassed to be caught out in my camilla and marc jacket and pants, Life with Bird t shirt, Alexander Wang handbag (borrowed from Zanita), Zara heels, Michael Kors watch, Pink Lou Lou rings, Jacquie Aiche ring, and Gorjana necklace."

EXHIBIT B: DIRTY

"Oh, hi! Fancy seeing you here, camera with self-timer! I totally just lie on my floor in a pile of dirty clothes and a random cardboard box like this all the time! So seductive right now!"