When it comes to famous fashion bloggers, Bryanboy is one of the most highly regarded and widely followed. Filipino-born Bryan Grey Yamabao has been posting catwalk commentary for ten years and, seeming to highlight the impact he’s had, Marc Jacobs even named a bag named after him. We sat down with Bryanboy ahead of his audience Q&A session today at Fashion Forward.
This is your second trip to the UAE Bryan, what do you make of it?
I’m still trying to take it all in. I haven’t really had a chance to see a lot of things yet and this time around I’m going to see if I can change my ticket and extend the trip. I’d like to go on a desert safari and I want to explore Dubai outside of the ‘mall scene’. I feel the city is all about shopping in the malls and a lot of the social activity revolves around the malls. So I want to explore more.
When did you feel you’d ‘hit the big time’ as a blogger?
Oh, I haven’t hit the big time! (laughs)
Well, was there a time when you realized you were making an impact?
I think the one point was probably four or five years ago when I celebrated my birthday. I was by myself on a United Airlines flight from LA to Sydney to attend a fashion week. In one week I went to Brazil, LA, New York, Amsterdam and then Sydney. Life was crazy and I was celebrating my birthday alone on a plane because I didn’t have time to do it any other way. I felt what I was doing was insanity, madness! People were following me because I was going to so many different places; that one flight made me realize.
How would you describe your writing style?
It’s very targeted to a young audience because I cannot really evolve too much. I’m 32 so I really have to adapt and keep a younger way of expressing my opinions. Youth is one of the most important currencies, especially in fashion. When targeting 20-30 year-olds so you have to be youthful. You want to use language that a 12-year-old from Norway or a 45-year-old man in New York can understand.
Do you have a favourite Fashion Week?
I really love Milan, it’s like the perfect balance between New York and Paris. New York is very commercial, however there’s a lot of great young talent there. Paris is very creative but getting around is such a hassle because the shows are really dispersed throughout the city. So, Milan is the perfect balance between creative and commercial, and compared to other Fashion Week’s it’s very small. There’s not 1000 people at one show, it’s more like 300. So that’s why it’s one of my favourites.
What do you make of FFWD so far?
It’s my first time here and it’s really fascinating how they have a very diverse group of designers, even people from the Philippines. It’s great that Bong and the Dubai design people have come up with this initiative to grow fashion in Dubai as a capital in the Middle East. I think it’s really fascinating because when you think about it, people in Dubai are obsessed with fashion. People shop! Their social activity revolves around shopping malls. It’s like a beehive of culture and no matter how you look at it, people dress up. The social scene is set at the malls. So fashion obviously plays a role in that – the same with wealth, it’s expressed through fashion. I’m really blown away by how they are really trying to make an industry out of it here especially when most of Dubai is artificial. I mean, all the buildings, everything. We’re in the middle of the desert. To transform it in the past 10,11 years, it’s astonishing.
What are the key trends for men and women this season as you see it?
This season there has been a huge surge in sport. Sportswear in the sense of really athletic inspired collections. Even Chanel and Dior couture have released sneakers and everyone is wearing them. I think 3 or 4 seasons ago, most girls were wearing chunky platform shoes, which transitioned to flats and now there’s lots of sneakers and sports-inspired clothes. It’s the same thing Alexander Wang is doing at Balenciaga even Nicolas Ghesquiere at Louis Vuitton – it’s very French, very young and the dresses are still short but it’s sportswear. So that’s one of the biggest trends, which I don’t think will go away for the next 3 years at least. As for menswear, it’s always the same [laughs]. But there are a lot of great menswear designers out there. For me I love what Christopher Kane is doing, same with Raf Simons, maybe not for Jill Sander but his own label – and again, I really love American designers. For some reason the young American talent now are the ones to keep an eye out for. I mean Jason Wu doing Hugo Boss, you could say it’s very commercial, but Hugo Boss has 4000 stores around the world! To see Jason, who is an expert in tailoring and one of the successors to Oscar de la Renta in ‘old New York’ style terms, at Boss is incredible. So, the times are changing and you’ll see more of these young Asian designers rise; it’s graduation for them.
Followers of your blog will know how attached you are to your Chanel trainers. Will you be running around Dubai in them?
(Laughs) Well, I’ve brought them with me. I need motivation to work out, otherwise I wouldn’t at all. It’s hard! Especially with traveling so much. So, Chanel motivated me.
When at home, what’s your average day like?
If I’m in New York I wake up around 5:30am, I go to the gym, run for 35 minutes and by 7am I order my breakfast from the café downstairs.
I always have a fruit salad, grapefruit juice and black coffee with no sugar. It’s very healthy. Then at 8am I do my emails and by 10am I’ll be out there shooting or at a designer showroom before lunch. I try to see as much as I can. I sleep very early and don’t party too much. It’s funny because when I was younger, partying was so integral to what I did and how I met people. But now there’s really not enough time. It ruins the whole balance of my day if I’m not in bed by around 10:30pm.
Is there a designer you haven’t had access to that you would very much like to?
So many people tell me “you’re so lucky, you meet so many people”. But then what? It’s great to meet and talk with these people and pick their brains but at the end of the day the value is not what people perceive it to be. ‘Great access’ to me is whenever I meet a designer and we hang out backstage or I get to preview one of their shows beforehand, because even sitting front-row you can’t see everything up close. It’s so different being able to touch the fabric. So previewing a designer’s collection before the show is a real privilege for me.
Tell me what you’re wearing top-to-toe?
A Jason Wu bag, Neil Barrett t-shirt, Valentino pants and Celine shoes.
Finally, any advice for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Number one, they shouldn’t follow what I’m doing because my path is completely unorthodox. I started my blog ten years ago, which back then was pretty much unheard of. I’m incredibly blessed to be have been an early adopter.
These days you really have to do something unique. Number one, you have to provide context for everything you do. Anyone can take a good picture but what does it convey? What’s the message? Also entertain your readers; take them to a different place. I love doing that. From Instagram, to Twitter, to Facebook – I love taking my readers traveling with me. You always have a narrative too. It’s got to be a good story. It doesn’t have to be a 20,000 word piece, even just a paragraph and three images will do. It’s about bringing the element of fantasy to the readers, for me it’s magical.