Before we begin, a treatise. To be precise, a once-around about the much-headlined Blogger. No longer just referring to your run-of-the-mill registrant (e.g. to blogspot, wordpress, et cetera), in certain circles (i.e. fashion), the term “blogger” has now come to signify a specific type of diarist (sartorial)—and, in conjunction, a similarly singular style (kabogera).
For all these omissions, air-quotations, and faulty definitions-within-definitions (a sure sign of the apocalypse), the blogger is extremely easy to identify. To translate an earlier term, they’re what you’d call “outshiners”. Credit-chasers. Scene-stealers with online accounts. Sites like lookbook.nu have even sprouted just for this phenomenon of the full body shot, with nifty tagging options to brand the items on the wearer. Shirt, Forever 21. Pants, designer bid on Ebay. Bag, thrifted.
These days you don’t even really need a blog to be called a blogger. An existential crisis, if you have to think long and hard about it, right up there with the ongoing debate about a much more acute, yet undeniably linked series of occurrences: The Rise Of The Blonde Blogger.
We’re not quite sure how it started, but we do know for a fact that the blonde Asian look (an oxymoron, up until now) had its strongest, platinum roots in 90s Japan. In Harajuku—a fashion district in the capital of Tokyo, where teenagers congregate to dress up in any number of genre-culled getups (i.e. goth, Lolita, gothic Lolita…), the ganguro style was developed to mimic the average American teenager. Translated as ‘black-faced’, the look was characterized by California-girl staples like tanning salon skin, rows of fake lashes, press-on nails, and bleached blonde hair. A supposed rebellion against the traditional ideals of Japanese beauty—pale skin, dark hair, zero semblance of Tara Reid—the ganguro style actually had its peak in 2000, but, like other fads, just slowly faded away, in the spirit of that sun-touched dye job… Sigh.
The fascination with Western ideals, however, still carries on, making its way into our own shores with today’s onslaught of peroxide, strawberry, or ash blonde bloggers (clearly, we're using the B word loosely here). And while the hair option was once the domain of another, well-loved Nippongo institution (read: Japayuki), these days the trend transcends classes and personas.
Not all of the blonde bloggers ID’d here are platinum, nor cutesy, which makes this a great guide to knowing your new saints.
Do blonde bloggers really have more fun? Click for more.
Artwork by Warren Espejo. Photos from breakmystyle.com, alodiacosplay.com, itscamilleco.com, stylesamurai.blogspot.com, divinemlee.com, kissedandmadeup.tumblr.com, kryzuy.com, lissakahayon.blogspot.com, lovechic.com.ph, triciagosingtian.com
