6.4.13

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?

13 comments:

  1. I think the main thing (for me, anyway) is how off putting it is when blog posts sound like press releases. Keeping the tone of the blog is important.

    And actually, I do really like seeing people who have nice blogs earn some sort of revenue/compensation from them, because it does require time and effort to maintain a blog and why not receive some sort of reward for it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah I agree with this so much. It is amazing that people can turn blogs into a full-time equivalent job because I don't have the skill to do that, but then people selling (their?) blogs as totally independent and revolutionary kind of becomes contradictory y'know? I definitely prefer reading blogs that maintain a ~~real~*~ tone but obviously people want different things from the whole blog reading experience. I guess I seek other weirdos who love ugly zany crap like I do which kind of goes against the sponsorship experience in some ways? I have so many feels.

      Delete
  2. You look adorable, I have a thing for brocade and its looks lovely on you! I don't think there's anything wrong with sponsorship as long as it fits in with the essence of the blog and the posts about products are honest and not shoving stuff down your throat. Its interesting to hear what you say about office wear, I find a good chunk of vintage jewellery or costume does the trick! xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! That is true, it does make me feel a bit weird to see ads for, like, new diamond rings on vintage blogs and so on. I reckon the whole honesty thing is really important too.

      Delete
  3. That dress is fabulous and so you!
    I'm not bothered by a favourite blogger receiving a freebie and writing an honest review, it's when the blog becomes a glorified advertisement when I stop reading. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I couldn't agree more, what an excellent and succinct comment!

      Delete
  4. I think its very pretty and suits your style - I wear vintage to my office all the time. Although I am much more of a 60s/70s girl and I've never had any issues. Although I'm also kind of surly and I figure I'm here due to my skills not what I look like and as long as I look tidy it shouldn't matter. As for advertisements on blogs - I think its ok sometimes if someone offers a blogger a freebee and they choose to take it. However, when a blog gets covered in advertising and every second post becomes an advertisement and you begin to realise someones outfit posts are 90% the same brand of clothes it kind of gets boring.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I do wear vintage to the office every day - I mean, what I post on here is what I wear to the office. I do have a handful of things that are in my mental 'not work appropriate' category because of raw cut hems and obvious stains and stuff like that. I guess I am still very much at the start of my career so I haven't decided yet if I need to stop wearing silly novelty-print dresses to be taken seriously, which I hope isn't the case.

      Delete
  5. That cardigan is awesome. Quite a lot of the blogs I read have sponsors/get free stuff, and I don't mind as long as it fits in with their regular content. If someone starts advertising car insurance or something on a vintage blog I'm probably going to unsubscribe. If it fits in with your aesthetic and ethics I think it's fine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That does seem to be the general consensus - both with regards to the cardigan and the advertising thing.

      Delete
  6. I'm cautious about this one - I think the occasional "message from our sponsors" is OK but I enjoy the blogosphere because it's largely free from advertising. That may contradict my love of really old advertisements, but I'm contrary like that!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That outfit surely looks great on you. I do think that you could still attain that 'profesh' look through vintage clothes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This outfit is looking to awesome on you.. here you can see more varieties of women clothes on trust able site Online shopping from Germany .

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting! If you require a specific answer to a question, you can find our email addresses on our 'about' page. xo

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...