“When you join a guild like the one Ms. Ziv has proposed, you have simply become what the slaves used to call a “house nigger.” You’ve given up any credibility you may have to shill for the man. Just because now you get to live in the house. Well, that’s not equality. And you’re still a slave.”

This was an awesome article by on of our Sayntly Members, Ryan Oakley from The Grumpy Owl about why The Style Coalition is a joke. We have the some of the article below, it’s definitely worth a read…

The fashion blogosphere is engaged in one of its periodic kerfuffles. Although it’s nowhere near as good as the occasional outbreak of hostilities between Dandyism.net and Lord Whimsy, it’s still vaguely interesting in that it points to deeper issues.

The New York Observer wrote an article, about fashion bloggers uniting to gain respect, access and all of that good stuff. The piece held up two examples of blogger behaviour. The first was of Mr. Daniel Saynt of Fashion Indie, who played the role of the madcap gonzo, crashing shows, talking shit and being a nuisance. The other was of Ms. Yuli Ziv, co-founder of The Style Coalition, who wants to set ethical and practical standards for fashion bloggers, while, curiously enough, serving as “a social media consulting group for ad agencies and brands.”

One suspects that conflict of interest is left out of her ethical guidelines.

Ms. Ziv dreams of the day when The Style Coalition will become a guild for fashion bloggers. Her history must be as wonky as her ethics.

In the fourteenth century, guilds smothered a Western European commercial revolution born from newly gained Christian control of shipping routes and the resulting, incredible, explosion of free trade. If we think of bloggers as Christians, shipping routes as media and free trade as the rapid exchange of ideas, we see that we are in the midst of a similar commercial and cultural revolution.

I’m hardly being radical by saying the formation of guilds will destroy this.

A guild is a tool used by powers to hold onto their influence. In the fourteenth century the new trade undercut feudalism. A serf with brains and daring could quickly run away form his Lord and become wealthy.

Without title, these merchants and artisans became a new power. And they did what all people do in such situations. They secured it. They built moats around their knowledge, controlled access to their tools and became conservative.

Instead of expanding their trade, they sought to maintain their influence. Still beholden to the old ways, which had not completely vanished, they formed guilds. Instead of needing a title, you needed a licence. And the two powers propped each other up. Business as usual.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Read the Rest of the Post Here,  Best List is the Black List