Passion for fashion

With one lady dressed in a bright gold coat, another in a crop top and sharp blazer, and another one sporting golden chandelier earrings, they are easily the most fashionable group at the table. Perfectly turned out in the most happening accessories—one of them wears a braid hanging out of a topknot that ends in a laccha, another wears colored mascara, and another wears patterned lenses— they are the fashion bloggers of Nepal.

Though it’s still nascent, the fashion blogging scene, which consists of women posting about outfits, styles, accessories, and makeup, is quite happening in Nepal. 

“I just had so many clothes lying around in my closet,” says Shreya Rai, one of the bloggers, “that I just decided one day to put them to good use, and started blogging.”

Most bloggers started out like that, because they had a lot of clothes at their disposal, loved fashion and loved taking photos of themselves.

For Sanna Gurung, blogging and posting doesn’t even feel like work, because dressing up and taking photos is something she loves to do anytime.

Though it may seem like fashion blogging is an expensive proposition, bloggers point out that if you love fashion, you’re always shipping anyway, so they aren’t going out of the way. 

However, the bloggers do agree that fashion blogging is a lot of hard work. You have to dress up, you have to have a location, and then you have to take the photographs, and all that before you actually publish the post on your blog.

Having the photographs taken is the hardest part, the bloggers agree. “Sometimes my friends are like, why are we taking so many photos of you? Let’s not do it today,” says Pravina Adhikari who is lucky to have a supportive sister, Sabina, take her photographs.

“If one friends refuses me, I ask another, and then another,” says Sunu Rai. “If not, I’ll ask my sister. If not, my mother, and if not, father. And if not even that works, I get a tripod and take the photo myself,” she finished.

And then they have to contend with the things that everyone says about their seemingly narcissistic passion. “Show off” is the word heard most often, while people also come up with “nakkali” and its synonyms.

The comments that men face are even more discouraging, which is the reason men’s fashion blogging never really took off in Nepal, though a few have tried.

The women’s strategy to deal with such comments is to hear it from one ear and blow it out the other.

“It’s about looking beautiful, and looking good increases your confidence,” says Shweta Gurung. For Sunu, it’s about showcasing her originality, and without her fashion statement she doesn’t have a unique identity. And Sanna believes fashion cannot be dismissed lightly, because it’s a talent. “It is a talent to know what goes with what, to figure out what works best for every person. And us fashion bloggers are able to spot trends before they become trends in the mainstream,” she explains. 

For some of them, fashion is more than just passion. Sanna doesn’t blog any more but has an online store called modishlyrad.com where she sells clothes and accessories. Shweta Gurung used to be a VJ at Channel Nepal where her show was related to fashion. Dolkar Lhamo worked as a stylist for Navyata magazine.

And Khusbu Gauchan has made a career out of fashion, where she gets sent outfits by fashion labels. Once her blog became popular, she was approached by fashion labels themselves. All Khusbu needs to do is wear the outfits they send, and post it on her blog. She is paid US$15 for every post and extra for the clicks and sign-ins on her site. And if she isn’t able to post the outfit within a week of receiving it, she can still keep the outfit.

Many people learn about new trends from bloggers, and imitate these trends. Celebrities are also trendsetters in that way, but celebrity fashion is often high-end and not affordable for the general public.

“Bloggers are like a bridge between celebrities and normal people,” says Nitika Thapa, a designer and aspiring blogger. “Celebrities wear clothes, but bloggers explain them, which makes it easy for normal people to relate to and wear.”

And today, in the day of Instagram, bloggers have as much reach among fashion-conscious youngsters as celebrities. That makes them  as powerful and influential in the world of fashion as celebrities.

No wonder celebrity bloggers are courted by big names in other countries. 

“There are many opportunities for popular fashion bloggers abroad,” says Sanna. “Their outfits are free, and they get many other things, like trip to cities.” She shares that ‘meet and greet’ programs are organized for popular bloggers, where admirers come to mingle with bloggers, take pictures, and share advice.

But in Nepal, there’s a peculiar lack of enthusiasm among readers to interact with popular fashion bloggers.

“I’m sure a lot of people know my style and admire it,” says Sanna who gets 100-200 hits a day on her page. “But people are just not willing to acknowledge it in public.” Khusbu also agrees that though she gets a lot of traffic from Nepal on her blog, she gets very little interaction from Nepali users as compared to foreign ones, which means that though Nepalis are looking at her site, they aren’t commenting.

Dolkar attributes this phenomenon to the general lack of celebrity culture in Nepal. Besides, the Nepali fashion market itself is so small that getting sponsored by Nepali fashion labels is a distant dream for now.

Still, Dolkar believes the fashion blogging scene in Nepal is improving. “When we started out three years ago, there were less than fifteen fashion bloggers on the scene,” she remembers. But now they have a good sized community where they share ideas and communicate about fashion. Shreya, who took a break from blogging for a while, came back because people kept telling her they missed her posts. “It is encouraging to know that your work is actually helping someone. That’s what keeps me going and makes me believe there’s scope for fashion blogging in Nepal,” she shares her experience.

Sanna also has plans for her online store while Khusbu hasn’t thought of an alternative career other than the one she has now. Sunu, meanwhile, is studying art and fashion in the UK, and plans to design for a career. All of them believe in doing something they love for their career, and cannot think of doing something that doesn’t revolve around fashion. It makes one believe that if one has the passion and dedication, making a career in fashion is definitely possible, and perhaps the day isn’t far when Nepali fashion bloggers also can be sustained by the Nepali market itself.