YOU CAN LIVE ON A JUNK-FOOD diet of paparazzi pictures and snark, but for how long? Ages, and fairly successfully at that, if some of the most popular websites of the decade are any indicator. As the iconic fashion magazines of the last centuries helped define global culture, websites like the feminist Jezebel.com, which analyse style and fashion media, have digitised the very human obsession with costume, and what it signifies. As the editors of Go Fug Yourself (gofugyourself.celebuzz.com) the blog that created a new lexicon for Hollywood style criticism, explain it, ‘Clothes are always a statement about who you are, but when you live your life in front of a camera lens, that is writ much larger…That’s why we question a lot of it. It’s like, “Did you WANT the world to think you’re the movie star who makes dresses out of Hefty bags?”’ Without the time-and-space crunches of the print magazine, or the sleaze quotient of the tabloid, some of the best fashion blogs have successfully created a space where everyday folks can interact with the lace – and arsenic – of celeb couture.

[Also check out: The Cut on nymag.com/daily/fashion/ ]

HIGH HEEL HI-JINKS

Payal and Priyanka, the forces behind one of India’s most popular fashion criticism blogs, High Heel Confidential, get candid....

Who are Payal and Priyanka?
Fashion bloggers. Shopaholics. Enablers (of each other’s addiction). And every woman. Well, almost.

When and why did High Heel Confidential begin?
We started this blog in August of 2007. Innocuously enough, it was meant to be a space where we discussed fashion and our finds, mostly between just the two of us and the two other people who read our blog (our moms)! But there were no other desi blogs doing this, and people beyond our family tree were interested.

Did you consciously decide to depart from the abrasive tone of the standard celeb fashion blog?
Absolutely. We never wanted to cross that thin line into tabloid territory, not that we don’t enjoy a dishy scoop once in a while. Personal lives and professional lives are never discussed, we’ll stick to the clothes thank you.

Who in your opinion is India’s best-dressed woman?
Our grandmas! They were fierce. Seriously, though, we unequivocally have to go with the late Maharani Gayatri Devi. She was who we wanted to be when we grew up. Still is.

What’s the most memorable outfit you’ve ever featured?
In recent times, we absolutely adored Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Sabyasachi sari that she wore to the 2009 Filmfare Award ceremony. And the Manish Arora Fall 2009 dress on Katy Perry at the MTV VMAs in Japan. Swoon.

Have you ever received feedback from the people whose clothes you analyse?
We did once get a legal notice to pull down a certain socialite’s not so flattering posts. Much fun.

FIND THEM ON HIGHHEELCONFIDENTIAL.COM

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