Twirling in September 2018

It’s been 10 years!!

OMG!!! Bay Area Fashionista has been online for ten years! Thank you so much for being on this ride with me for the past ten years. Whether you have been here since the beginning, or just found me today, thank you for being here! I love all of your comments, feedback, emails, DM’s, and more, over the past ten years. I love having conversations with you, and sharing my life and love of fashion with you. You have kept me going, and I am forever grateful!

My first fashion week with my friends Rita and Katie. I didn’t bring flats, I was such a rookie. Those heels killed my feet-I think you can see my pain in this photo!! Sept. 2013

(picture taken with my blackberry, don’t laugh!)

If you have been here awhile, you might remember I wrote more in a blogzine/editorial format in the early years. I was coming off freelance writing for magazines, and other types of publications, around the country, on the topics of fashion and beauty. I wrote in third person! It took me roughly two years to switch to first person; and that was a hard switch for me!! haha

Meeting the stars of “Silicon Valley” in October 2013 at the 7 for all Mankind store opening party at Valley Fair

(photo taken with an iPad mini! haha, don’t laugh too hard)

I also never put public photos of myself on the Internet. I don’t think you saw me until 2012; but I could be wrong. I’m a little introverted, so putting photos of myself on the Internet was a weird thing to think about, but I have to tell you, the industry started to evolve, and outfit photos started to be more interesting to people than trend reports.

It was hard putting myself on the Internet. I was fearful of looking narcissistic, and I was afraid of people making fun of me. I’m not the thinnest girl on the block, nor the prettiest, so I wasn’t sure what people would say.  It’s amazing how supportive the blogging community can be, as well as you the readers! Thank you for not ridiculing me, and thank you for supporting me as my blog evolved from a blogzine, to a style blog. You’re the best!!!

When it comes to working with brands, I learned over the years that less is more. I have scaled back on collaborations in the past two years, and I try to keep them down to one or two per month. My blog is very organic, and I don’t want to mess with that.

When I met Laura Adney from Have Need Want at fashion week, February 2015. (It was 3 degrees outside!)

It has been so much fun sharing my knowledge and love of fashion with you on my own platform; not for a magazine editor, a newspaper editor, or the like. It’s so much fun to write about what moves me, and what moves you! I love how you all share my passion for Chanel nail polish, and my quest for ultimate IT bag. I love how you enjoy incorporating trends, yet enjoy maintaining a timeless look. You’re my people, and I’m so excited we have found each other!

Let’s chat about how photography on blogs has changed over the years! My first photos on the blog were taken with my blackberry. haha, they were pretty bad. I bought a point-and-shoot camera in 2011, then in 2013, I upgraded to a DSLR. Now, I am back with a point-and-shoot, but it’s a fancy one which goes into manual mode and does everything a DSLR does. How’s that for technology taking me almost full circle?!

Dawn from Fashion Should Be Fun and I getting swarmed by photographers at fashion week February 2018

You can check out my first capsule wardrobe post here, although, I wasn’t using the word “capsule” yet. It wasn’t really a thing yet!

It’s amazing to think about how blogging has evolved over the past ten years. It started out with just a blog. The website was everything. Twitter and Facebook were there, but not as important as the website; and getting ranked in Google!

Fast forward ten years, so many bloggers have abandoned their websites for Instagram. To be frank, I prefer my website. So while I am on Instagram, my website is what I love to maintain, update, and keep building. I hope you love the website too. I have put hundreds of hours into it’s design and upkeep. If you have design feedback, or want to to see certain tweaks, feel free to let me know!

Kali from In-Spades Blog and I at fashion week in September 2019

Blogging has also enabled me to meet so many new friends over the years. Laura, Dawn, Kali, and Alison are all friends I have met through blogging, and it has been so nice adding them to my life, and our sharing our experiences. It’s hard to meet good people, but I found them in blogging! Love that!

Thank you for reading here all these years, and supporting me so this can be my work-at-home, full time job! It enables me to be there for my kids, and follow my fashion passion! Your support has grown my traffic, enabled me to attend the rewardStyle conference, get invitations to fashion week, and so much more! I cannot thank you enough for being here. I hope you stick around another ten years! I plan to!

As blogging evolves, so has my content. While I started out with talking about IT items and trends, my blog has evolved to include style, runway reports, and beauty reviews. As we move into the new decade, look for more style reports, beauty reviews, IT items, and capsule wardrobes. Less is more, and consumption is going down, so capsule wardrobes are much more “on trend” than fast fashion and replacing one’s wardrobe every season. Look for more sustainable ways to curate your closet as opposed to tossing out last season’s items and purchasing new.

Thank you so much for your support!

XOXO
Cathy

Hanging out with Alison from Wardrobe Oxygen at the rewardStyle conference April 2017