NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- When pop princess Ashlee Simpson was first photographed last summer post-nose job, it wasn't just her plastic surgery that garnered mass attention. Sales of the dress she was wearing in the photo skyrocketed.
In the current celebrity-obsessed scene, an A-list star - on or off the red carpet - shown wearing a new designer's creation can almost singlehandedly launch a fashion frenzy.
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| With a limited budget for marketing, accessories designer Sang A has relied heavily on blogs for attention and feedback. |
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| Designer Elise Øverland (in clothes from her new collection) says she originally underestimated the impact of fashion blogs. |
And that's where style and celebrity bloggers come in: Hungry for fresh content, they're ready and willing to post such paparazzi pictures as soon as they are available.
As New York's Fashion Week gets underway, up-and-coming designers Sang A, Katy Rodriguez and Elise Øverland hope to not only attract the attention of buyers and big fashion publications but also to get noticed by bloggers who are quietly transforming the way clothes are bought and sold.
When Jessica Simpson stepped out recently in West Hollywood with Sang A's "jade" clutch in blue python, blogs were quick to post her picture and solicit comments. And with the attention, from sites such as popsugar.com and styleminded, came demand for Sang A's new $1576 handbag.
Accessories designer Sang A learned early on that reaching out to the online community could be a crucial element of hawking her high-end handbags, which range in price from $1,500 to $15,000.
With a limited budget for marketing, Sang A has since come to rely heavily on blogs not just for attention, but also feedback.
The sites she chose to sell her wares, such as luxcouture.com and lagerconne.com, have developed mutually beneficial relationships with bloggers by incorporating reciprocal links.
"Blogging is absolutely important because it reaches the people that aren't inside the fashion industry," Sang A said.
"I read all the comments," she said. "I can't take everything seriously, but when they like something, like a particular detail, that really helps."
But no young designer knows the power of the online community better than San Francisco-based Katy Rodriguez. Rodriguez had found success early on through her vintage clothing store Resurrection and received rave reviews for her own designs from several prestigious fashion publications.
But her reputation as a designer to watch really exploded last August when that infamous photo of Ashlee Simpson, who happened to be wearing a Katy Rodriguez jumper, circulated on the Web.
"Everyone was blogging about that dress," Rodriguez said. "There were all of these different small fashion blogs and celebrity blogs that I didn't even know at the time existed."
And Rodriguez was quick to follow up with all of them, writing in and directing people to her store. "We started getting all kinds of calls for the dress," she said, and "I didn't have to depend on buyers from bigger stores."
Worldwide demand from the Internet buzz got so steep that she upped production of the $633 "criss cross" jumper from just a dozen to a few hundred.
"After the success of the criss cross dress I put together a small collection," Rodriguez said. Since then, business has boomed. She is currently set to stage her first runway show, which will showcase her spring 2008 collection at New York's Fashion Week.
Rodriguez now believes that blogs are becoming just as important as mainstream press. "Just in terms of coverage, it's like everyone sees that," she said.
For Scandinavian-born designer Elise Øverland, learning to utilize the Internet to garner attention was outside her frame of reference.
"I never thought about marketing," Øverland said, as she prepares for her first presentation at Fashion Week.
Of her earlier days designing one of a kind rock-n-roll stage pieces, "I was relying on word of mouth," she explained.
"I've never been such an Internet person," she admitted.
It wasn't until her socialite friends were photographed in her designs, which then appeared on fashion blogs, that she realized how strong an impact the Web could have on her budding career.
Now, Øverland says, she embraces the attention from blogs and other sites outside of mainstream fashion. "If I had to do it differently I would definitely put my name out there right from the start," she said. 
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