Fashion Bloggers' Power Over Acclaimed Editors

In a time where blogs are popping up all over the web, it's an interesting debate as to whether or not those bloggers who rise to fame seemingly overnight should be given the same -- or even better -- treatment than those esteemed newspaper and magazine editors who claw their way to the top of the editorial food chain.

According to an article from the New York Times, Bloggers Crash Fashion's Front Row, young bloggers dominated 2009's catwalks by scoring front-row seats to the shows of some of the world's most elite designers. An even bigger blow? They were seated next industry experts (read: Anna Wintour).

In a country where the mainstream media have been slow to accept blogging, it is interesting that fashion designers and public relations agencies have been so quick to scoop up bloggers as some of the most influential writers and reporters of the 21st century. In the Times article, Kelly Cutrone, one of the industry's top publicists, best sums up the shift in power:

“Do I think, as a publicist, that I now have to have my eye on some kid who’s writing a blog in Oklahoma as much as I do on an editor from Vogue? Absolutely. Because once they write something on the Internet, it’s never coming down. And it’s the first thing a designer is going to see.”