Attending the Showroom Antwerp presentation at the Flanders House in The New York Times building was like discovering a handful of rare gems in the treasure chest that is Fashion Week. Jam-packed with shows and presentations, many smaller designers are often overlooked during this industry frenzy. Nouveau PR, who helped run the event, made sure that this was not the case with Belgian designers: Anke Loh, Anna Heylen, Idriz Jossa, Lenny Leleu, Marc-Philippe Coudeyre, Peter Ceursters and Stephan Schneider.

Providing a unique insight into the collections was a beautiful photomontage by Flore Zoë. The Belgian fashion photographer’s work reflected her vision of the fashion process via captivating images that explored an unspoken creative tale while cohesively linking the designers’ journeys. As for the ready-to-wear clothing and accessories, there were certainly some standouts. I gasped over Marc-Philippe Coudeyre’s collared silver lamé catsuit embellished with oversized grey buttons. I also loved his cropped lambskin jackets with perforated raglan sleeves.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a garment that I couldn’t decipher as either a scarf or shirt. A closer look and a chat with the designer, Peter Ceursters, revealed it as a “sharf”. Ceursters explained that the scarves are vintage cardigans and men’s shirts, which he deconstructs, lines with silk and turns into sharp, cozy wraps.

On the sunnier side of the seasons, designer Lenny Leleu put my bathing suit fears to rest. Her line of swimsuits and t-shirts, which double as bodysuits, are incredibly flattering because she strategically places thick stretch elastine in all the right places. Additionally, many of the hand-made bikinis mimic art sculptures. A white bandeau constructed of thick strands of rope that churn from the chest and form a knot at the belly button before cascading back down the bottom was a personal favorite.

Finally, I came upon five mannequins—each more outrageous, inventive and inspiring than the next. The designer was Anna Heylan. Working mainly in black and white, with the exception of a beautiful smoky grey and blue restored fur, Heylan created a collection devoted to marrying menswear with womenswear. Her bold techniques—seen in the darting leather embellishments on the back of full-leg trousers, the intricately woven pattern of a raffia dress and the black velvet arm covers with gold palettes—were exquisite. Victorian hoop-inspired shirts covered layers of crinoline, and a long black, fitted smoking jacket shown over a checkered turgid turtleneck sweater cleverly mastered the duality of deconstruction and construction.

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After much contemplation and frustration with an ever-growing number of rejection emails in my inbox from numerous fashion designers for the New York Fashion Shows, I have come to the conclusion that models are not the only one’s with expiration dates-Bloggers are too.

First and foremost there is the 13-year old brilliant and bright eyed erudite fashion blogger Tavi who is going on her second season sitting front row for New York Ready-to-Wear shows and even more importantly, just returned from the hottest shows in the world, sitting front row at Paris Haute Couture.  Following closely behind her are her slightly older cohorts Bryan Boy and Susie Bubble. These are just a few of the new famous fashion stars in a freshman class of numerous other young and precocious fashion following devotees.

Fashion bloggers have become ubiquitous today. A fashion show without bloggers is like a fashion show without clothing. It just doesn’t exist anymore. In 2006 an article from WWD stated,

“There is an enormous, and growing, number of fashion and shopping-related blogs: about 2 million, according to Technorati Inc., or slightly less than 10 percent of the 27 million blogs the company tracks.”

Four years later, this number is going be exponentially greater.  If fashion bloggers are growing at a rate that could alert population control on the Internet, why is it that so few of this enormous group of creative and passionate fashion writers are recognized?  To be fair, I agree that certainly some fashion bloggers are more articulate, fashion savvy and perceptive than others, but can’t it be possible that there are bloggers equally as intuitive and fashionably knowledgeable that are older?

Why is the front row now dominated by nine, 15 , and 20 year olds?

My conclusion, bloggers have become victims of ageism. I had this epiphany when reading an article about a new blogger on the scene named Katie who is a total of five years old.  Can she even dress herself yet? I learned later that Katie had been recruited by  Racked National a fashion website to review this weeks New York Fashion Shows.

The question becomes, has the fashion mantra “your time has passed” reared its ugly head on the blogger community?  Models aren’t the only ones who have to worry about growing older now, fashion enthusiasts need to rethink and reevaluate their role in the fashion blogosphere…. And so I ask myself… at 29, am I too old for this? It’s a no-brainer-Of Course Not! I live for this and with each post and each day I grow older, my passion and love for fashion grows that much stronger.  Bloggers Beware-I will be religiously fashion blogging all the way to the nursing home.