Rumi Neely is best known for her vertiginous platforms, daringly scanty rock chick outfits and her California girl blonde beach hair and above all else, her tanned, perfectly toned pins. Her blog Fashion Toast documents her daily forays with fashion, from barely there Alexander Wang to reworked ‘90s vintage, all photographed by her unnervingly blue eyed boyfriend Colin. Neely is now the featured face of RVCA, and stars in their new season look book, which is also, incidentally, shot by her boyfriend Colin.
Aside from her sartorial delights, Neely’s blog rarely diverges from formulaic eye candy, often involving skimpy dresses, a striking setting sun and Neely’s signature pout and flexed calves.
In the true style of internet stardom, this simple formula has propelled Neely to relative online fame, at least between fashion aficionados and style blog devotees. That’s not to say that the proliferation of her image is always taken in a positive light- her popularity is borne of a volatile public, who are as likely to love her as they are to loathe her. And so comes the contention when Neely, a young woman whose vocation appears to flit between blogging and selling vintage clothes on ebay and nothing much more, is propelled into the popular consciousness.
Now don’t get me wrong- Neely is a pretty girl, probably not model material in the traditional sense, but she’s a damn looker and there’s nothing wrong with that. So on one hand, suffice to say we should be dealing kudos to Neely for her Warholian triumph, as a simple girl who worked it to get ahead. Perplexingly, it’s hard to see the situation in such a positive light.
At times, I find Neely’s unique brand of style blogging exploitative, and against the grain of internet democracy. While we’ve been blindly celebrating the rise of the style blogger, the ‘normal’ girls who are essentially challenging and re-creating notions of beauty in society, the Neely’s of the blogosphere have quietly slipped under the radar and are now usurping the limelight from their more natural counterparts. While the Susie Bubbles, Queen Michelles and Fashion Hayley’s of the world stick two fingers in the face of glossy beauty and recreating something far more wondrous that is all their own- Neely and other bloggers like her rely on that unrealistic, patriarchal version of beauty that we are fed through the mass media.
Take, for instance Karla Deras of Karla’s Closet, whose blog shares the same intensely zealous following as Neely’s. Deras was recently commissioned to model for the American Apparel California Vintage range, what I can only imagine to be a very lucrative contract.
There’s a lot to be said for the integrity of blogging as certain bloggers rise to overnight fame based almost solely on their looks, while the left of centre, creative, intelligent (and by no means less physically beautiful ones), receive far less headline attention. We all know that blogging is a force for social change, as it gives the previous voiceless young woman and forum to share, demand and create, however it can be concerning when even in this egalitarian realm, typically flawless beauty is most appreciated.