Sponsorship 'n' shit

I have always had mixed feelings about sponsored/care of/advertising posts on the blog. Christie and I have turned down lots of offers from companies who don't really fit into our aesthetic or we're just not that into, because it seems ridiculously disingenuous to promote something you don't even like on this very personal platform. Boohoo contacted me a few weeks ago wondering if I'd like to do a product review, and I immediately thought I'd politely decline. New-new (as opposed to old-new) clothes don't generally appeal to me massively, but I had a squiz through the 'new items' bit and came across this floral brocadey dress and fell in love a bit. 

It really, really appealed to me because I guess I try to look a little bit more ~profesh~ at work than I did slobbing around as a student. I am luck that my workplace has a much more casual environment than many, but some of my clothes are just not quite there in terms of work-appropriateness. As I'm sure many other vintage lovers experience, a lot of my clothes have flaws that I don't really care about - stains, little repairs, loose threads, wonky hems and faded fabrics. Although I don't mind these at all in everyday wear, I do like to smarten up a little for work. I also find most work-appropriate clothing kinda bland, except stuff from Cue and Orla Kiely but I really can't afford that. (Side note: if anyone knows of any blogs that incorporate vintage into officewear, please let me know!)

So I thought this dress bridged a good gap - very vintage-looking, with its multicoloured shimmery brocade fabric, but still 'smart' enough that I can wear it to the office and not feel weirdly self-conscious. The dress also has a great scoop back and cap sleeves, and the skirt holds its shape well because of the stiffness of the fabric. I'm wearing it with an amazing embroidered 1950s woolen cardigan that I got today from Emporium Vintage, old tights, and these amazing Chloe mary jane flats that I found at Recycle Boutique. They are the most excellent quality shoes I've worn in a while, and when I took them up to the counter they turned out to be half price too. What a win.

So, yeah. I decided to give it a go, the whole advertising-y thing. I am really, really interested in how you all feel about sponsored posts on blogs, and I would love to get some dialogue going. I definitely prefer blogs with a more personal tone rather than a more advertising-y tone. I find it a little discouraging/hard to relate to when an entire outfit is c/o and every post contains something that was sent for review, but the odd bit of advertising or free stuff doesn't bother me at all. It's hard to turn down something that is free and nice, such as this dress. However, I would much rather be honest here than get sent tonnes of free stuff and make readers feel alienated in the process. This blog is not a source of income for me - although I know for many bloggers theirs are, and that's totes okay, just really not my thing. It's more of a way to connect with people and chat about the semiotics of this little world and the way we dress ourselves without too much corporate intrusion - I hope? The whole concept of blogging as a bottom-up way to affect the market is so problematic, though, and I don't want to lapse into that. I guess it comes down to that I don't want my tone or the framing of my posts to be even slightly altered by the hope that companies will see me as marketable. Some people are just really inherently attractive and have saleable images, but I think I would struggle to come across as one of those people.

Soo... thoughts?