Creativity in Jail

By Antonio Malara

On January 2019 marked two years since a started my blog. It was a long work which costed me at least other two years of planning before to starting it, but I was glad about the idea of having my personal space. The concept of the blog is not a new thing, I remember I read many in the past since the internet era, from friends blog to unknown people. In the recent years thanks to fashion bloggers (who are the most popular I think), the blog popularity has been spread globally. The success of the blog is also based on the social networks, the platforms which gave the opportunity to share the content reaching more people.
I have to say that I have been inspired a lot, from fashion bloggers (especially girls) to travel ones, it was nice to read and also everything was documented by pictures. I realized that the blog could have been the next step after the social network, a place where I could show my passions through words and pictures. In a blog I could express my thoughts, while social networks were only for sentences. 

At the beginning I was comfort with social media, I loved Twitter since I joined it, it gave me the opportunity to reach people who were from all around the world and similar to me while Facebook was a place for real friends. Then comes Instagram (I’m talking about 2011) even here the opportunity to know foreign people but everything was based on sharing pics more that arguments like in Twitter. I remember that Instagram was for those who didn’t know how to edit a pic, in fact the game changer was the opportunity to “improve” the picture through filters. Socials at that time were cool, the blog was a plus for smart people and I was waiting the right time when I would have the right content to share.

Unfortunately good things bring also bad things, many couple split because of socials, being online gave the chance to bad people to offend you publicly, other get depressed because of high expectations and stuff like this. The last bad thing happened when Facebook acquired Instagram. The photo sharing app was a peaceful place where to see pics in chronological order, everything changed in a short time. For some reason Instagram became a glam social, where numbers (likes and following), were the most important things. At that time famous people and bloggers were already in the platform but without giving importance to this things. The point was that bloggers were really influential to their followers (which were real at that time). For example the cool thing about fashion bloggers was that they took inspiration from catwalks to creates their own styles. This was creativity, young people used to copy fashion bloggers style which was not exactly the style that fashion designers brought on the catwalk. Brands used bloggers to indirectly promote themselves, they invited them to fashion show but at the end the bloggers keep their own style. Probably this wasn’t good for brands and at some point some journalists criticized fashion bloggers. It was a Cold War probably planned by brands. The fact is that in a couple of years Instagram becomes the most important place where to promote things. Every single influent person gained infinite followers, the platform switched from chronological to algorithms and you see post from people you don’t even follow. And of course fashion bloggers became entrepreneurs and what about real bloggers? Those who still create their own style? Well my personal experience is this: once I switched to Instagram business profile first I’ve been contacted by accounts to get promoted in order to gain followers, ok I did it. Second after I gained some followers I’ve been contacted by several brands who want me to promote their products but not for free. I should buy their products with a 50% off and after promoting them even my followers could benefit of a discount. This was simply ridiculous, we’re talking about bad stuff like sunglasses, Apple Watch bands, watches etc. When you’re wise like me doing the math is simple! So here the facts: 

The beginning 
-Fashion bloggers: (or bloggers in general) creative people, promoting their own style by writing and sharing nice pics, taking inspiration by fashion brands
-Instagram: photo app with a chronological order where to share pics and be in contact with real people which were not from your places.
-Fashion Brands: giants who didn’t know how to promote their products in the age of social network

Now
-Fashion Bloggers: now influencers and entrepreneurs, attending to fashion show dressing like the brands want and being payed to promote specific products.
-Instagram: Glamorous marketplace of Chinese stuff where everyone pays to have visibility and fake followers. Where people shows their narcissism, don’t interact each other but just try to impress masses.
-Fashion Brands: giants who deal each other about the trend to create.

In other words this is like to put the creativity in jail but not for me! In this ocean of fast changing I still defined myself a bloggers because I write, I share my outfits ideas, my travel stories and I make honest reviews. I like to show my point of view and being myself, I don’t sell my creativity and I don’t care about Instagram numbers. If someone is or will be inspired by my work, would mean that I did a good job and that’s ok. The bad thing is how people don’t understand the changing and get bad influence about that. I see bloggers complaining because they don’t have anymore  “likes” or “engagement”, this is so naive. I suggest to use the actual Instagram just to see what’s news from your favorite brands and having fun hiding advertisements.

I will not close the post without talking about the outfit. Winter has come even here and this time I almost created a real winter outfit. For the first time in a post I wore a sweater and I opened the jacket only to show it (because it was really windy). The color combination is also new, I wear a grey jeans with black leather jacket and sneakers. All the items are new but I have to say that jacket and sweater are not for real winter, especially the jacket, is more for spring time (but they sell as a winter product). This Dsquared2 ripped jeans are nice but I had to “customize” them on ankle. Btw I like the color and how they fits, they’re slim and not skinny jeans so it’s possible to wear them even for a whole day and not only for nightlife. The Paciotti 4US shoes are super cool and really a winter product, in fact they’re coated inside. I didn’t know it because it was  impossible to see it on the website (and there was no description). Of course the brand is a guarantee, the shoes are comfortable, well built in leather, warm inside and with a cool studs design. 

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Jacket: D'Arienzo
Jeans: Dsquared2
Shoes: Paciotti 4US
Sunglasses: Gucci

Photo: Luciano Zingali