BryanBoy Blogger Brunch: Last Friday morning, little old me got invited to the intimate (no, we were not naked) BryanBoy Bloggers Brunch, hosted by Marie Claire and Sunglass Hut. All of Cape Town’s online fashion elite were present at the super kiff Asian-eque rooftop bar, Tjing Tjing.

Bryan Boy (the internationally famous fashion blogger from the Philippines. If you were wondering) was surprisingly friendly and chatty. The informal “workshop” was run by Marie Claire’s beautiful and bubbly editor, Aspasia Karras. She assisted Bryan Boy in fielding questions from the small but eager audience, about his experience in the fashion blogging world and his blogging philosophy.  

The self-proclaimed Snookie of fashion blogging, BryanBoy, has no style icon and isn’t your classic stylish Parisian. He wears what he wants, when he wants and sees every outfit as an opportunity to play a different character and get a reaction out of onlookers. His mother has rented an entire apartment just for all this clothes, as they take up so much space. BryanBoy confesses that he could be on Hoarders the way he keeps everything. “I love Shopping via twitter. When you tweet about something you like and it arrives at your door.” That’s when you know you have arrived people. Jealous much? Hate that bitch.

I asked where BryanBoy sees himself in five to ten years. He hopes he will still be blogging, “’I don’t want to be a journalist, I just want to be a storyteller.’”.  No TV show is in the pipeline for BryanBoy either, although his agent is trying to convince him.  He insisted he needs some lipo and a nose job before that will happen. Redics! The child is small for an Asian. I nearly stood on him a couple times. Speaking of which, the food was scrumptious too which was greatly appreciated as I run out of the house without anything in this fatty’s belly. But it was wasted on these skinny folk. I was like, “Can I take a doggie bag?” but Marco (from Man of the Cloth) slapped me hysterically and I was reminded of where I was. Marco incidentally became BryanBoy’s personal Cape Town chaperone later that night when we all went gay clubbing together. Yes, I went dancing with BryanBoy. You can even check out Marco on BryanBoy’s blog dancing and singing. He is mortified. I will treasure the moment for ever.

BryanBoy notes that it is important not to let other’s opinions (whether good or bad) affect your unique voice. Although, he is mindful of his audience. “When you get 12 year old boys from Norway emailing you saying they what to be you. You don’t post about  anal sex. Which I do have.”. Obvious he is gay. Is there any male fashion blogger that isn’t (or at the very least bi-curious)?

Stockholm is one of BryanBoy’s fav cities, along with NYC and Hong Kong. That is also where his bf lives. He has a sexy boyfriend. When we went clubbing (did I mention we went clubbing together?) he showed me pictures and a sweet video that his Swedish hunk sent him. I cried (mostly because I am still single though). It may be a long distance relationship but he says they Skype constantly, see each other every month and that they are in love. Sweet. Hate that bitch.

When BryanBoy got an agent he expected to have less work but he was wrong. He gets between 2000 and 3000 emails A DAY.  No wonder he doesn’t have time to blog all the content he wants to.

When asked about his opinion of bloggers encroaching on the role of traditional media and the fashion show front row rivalry. He says it has been blown out of proportion and believes “Magazine and blogs are so different. They will never replace each other.”  His love of fashion started by stealing his mother’s magazines to take to school and read so he adores magazines. He doesn’t consider himself a fashion-blogger, (which I thought was strange since his twitter bio is “Fashion Blogger” but whatever…) “ I’m a personal-blogger. Just a blogger. I blog what I like” .

This lead into the most awkward moment of the brunch, when BryanBoy asked: “Do we really need another blogger who posts a hundred pictures of themselves everyday? It’s been done.”  All the personal style bloggers present died a little inside right then. I laughed.

This wonderful shindig reaffirmed how I think about blogging. It is about being well though out but not filtered or contrived. BryanBoy has great insight into the industry (well he has been blogging for 7 years) and his voice is authentic. When you meet him, no reconciling is required. They are one and the same. So many online peeps are just creepy in real life. He is just the same fabulous fashionista that I know so well from years of stalking his blog.

I had lots of fun, even though I was super distracted as I had just discovered my car has been stolen that morning.The Rents were also phone raping me throughout the brunch but I managed to stay semi present. But I did forgot my camera at home due to crime effing up my life, so unfortunately you are going to have to visit all the other bloggers who were there with me for some nice photies (Man of The Cloth, Cape Town Girl,  Style Guide Cape Town  and the two little ones who won tickets wereAqeelah of Fashion Breed, and Chloe of Coco The Blog). With an honourable mention for Talya Goldberg’s Bryan Boy post on Shades of Gold as a special thanks for this lovely pic of Bryan and me. Yes, we are on first name basis and were bff’s for like 5 seconds. I even broke my personal rule of no sunglasses inside for him. *gasp*

I had to run to the police station straight after the brunch, where I was stuck for what seemed like several hours, so I missed BryanBoy at the V&A Waterfront Sunglass Hut Store but I heard it was fab. If you missed out too, you can catch the live tweets from the brunch at @SunglassHutSA. It’s worth scrolling down. Also keep your online eyes on Marie Claire’s freaken awesome blog MarieClairevoyant  and Sunglass Hut’s Facebook fan page. I am sure the posts and pics will be up soon.

In the wise words of Karen Walker: “I like Filipino’s. They’re Asian but not cocky about it.”