Delivering trends and news faster than magazines and newspapers, fashion blogs have been influencing what their followers wear and how they think about style for the past decade, but it's only in recent years that the movement has really gathered pace.
These days, bloggers such as Canadian street photographer Tommy Ton of jakandjil and 13-year-old American Tavi Gevinson of StyleRookie are often seen on the front row at fashion shows, and Marc Jacobs named his BB bag after Filipino fashion blogger Bryanboy.
But as these online arbiters of sartorial taste attract increasing numbers of readers, critics complain that fashion blogs are becoming increasingly commercial as they sign advertising deals - top blog the Sartorialist features ads from American Apparel - or accept products in exchange for positive coverage or special treatment.
This 'monetising' of blogs is a problem that's spilled over into social networking sites, too, and Estee Lauder face Liz Hurley may be in trouble for tweeting about the brand's products for payment.
Top fashion brands have also embraced the blogging trend: Chanel employs celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Claudia Schiffer as contributors, and Ralph Lauren's rugby.com encourages readers to get interactive by voting on its weekly 'Who Wears it Best?' contest. However, many Hong Kong fashion brands - including Shanghai Tang and Joyce - do not have blogs, although Lane Crawford takes its online presence more seriously, with fashion circuit posts by Tommy Ton as well as city reports and guides to modern tailoring.
Janice Lee, author of Popbee, a Chinese-language blog with more than 6,000 'likes' on Facebook, agrees that Hong Kong's fashion blog scene, both for brands and independent bloggers, has some catching up to do with the rest of the world.
'The exposure of Popbee would be significantly reduced if I blogged in traditional Chinese, as the blog market in Hong Kong is relatively small and the chances of turning a blog into a business are slim here,' she says. 'To facilitate the development of the blogosphere in Hong Kong, it's crucial to change Hongkongers' deep-rooted habits of reading magazines rather than blogs, and one way of doing this is by providing more sophisticated blogs.'
