“It’s not about fashion, it’s about style.”

Aside from another great collection at New York Fashion Week, Marc Jacobs has given me some food for thought – “It’s not about fashion, it’s about style”. That was his vision for his Autumn/Winter 2010 show this week. Granted it may have been part of a publcity stunt to shun celebs from his front row, though timely in my opinion given fashionista.com’s “expose” on front row wages. Though his collection was a clearly a reflection of this. The clothes had a confident subtlety about them and it was so much more about the way the outfits were put togther than about the individual pieces themselves.

So what is this style thing that Marc speaks of? Well, its the reason, we love Alexa Chung and are fascinated by style blogs. Its more than just the clothes, its about the ability to look good. Anyone can buy clothes and throw an outfit together but style, now that is the ultimate goal. Style is the thing that gets you snapped by The Sartorialist or Tommy Ton for Jak and Jil. Its fascinating, inspiring and the thing that makes us admire, idoloise and imitate others.

Watching the live stream of The Future of Fashion Blogging session at yesterday’s Independent Fashion Bloggers conference with Tavi, Susie Bubble, Bryanboy, et al got me thinking. Style is the differentiating factor when it comes to bloggers – thats where the appeal lies. People want to know that they can be stylish and when they see bloggers doing it so effortlessly, it draws them in. Its not just about posting pictures of outfits, its about the designers bloggers choose to talk about. These selections give us a snapshot into how the stylish people do it giving us reason to believe that we can do it right too.

Fashion editors maybe nervous that bloggers are taking over but I disagree. Every fashion blogger worth their salt recognises the importance of magazines. There is nothing like shiny magazine pages with slick editorials showcasing clothes are often out of reach (and price range). Fashion blogs, particularly style blogs can only be supplementary to that – which I think is a good thing. I would not like to sacrifice reading magazines or blogs.

For me, I think my interest in fashion is related to my ongoing quest for style. Its something that will keep me busy for the rest of my days no doubt, whilst I wrestle with body image issues, lack of money to buy the clothes I want and just generally growing up. It can be exciting and it can be depressing but it’s definitely not just about fashion but about style, for me.