I must admit that I was sent into a minor panic when our lovely editor presented us humble columnists with BSB's theme for the month.  DIY in any way, shape or form is not a strong point of mine.  In fact, I like to think that my ownership of this fact is a strong point in itself, as I'm never tempted to try and damage myself attempting to use powertools or a sewing machine.  But an admission of a failure does not a good column make, and I started thinking about the broader spirit of the do-it-yourself concept.

The idea of 'doing it yourself' has become extremely fashionable very recently.  With the arrival of a major economic crisis, the need to economise has turned people very creative indeed.  Grow-your-own, thrifting, make do and mend and general crafting - such as knitting and embroidery - have made a big comeback.  The techniques employed by our grandparents as a way of life now form part of an environmentally and financially conscious lifestyle choice, epitomised in popular culture by Kirstie Allsopp's 'Homemade Home'.  The by-product of this has been an almost diluting of trends to incorporate more how an object came to be, rather than what it looks like.  Fashion just got a whole lot more personal.

In the same way, the rise of the blog demonstrates a huge helping of do-it-yourself spirit, and even I can claim to be a part of this!  The beauty of the internet is that one no longer needs a major publication to act as a platform.  The middleman has been given the squeeze, and the decrease in magazine and newspaper circulation figures show the extent to which DIY journalism has taken hold.  So important is the rise of photography, vlogs and video tutorials and writing on the internet that bloggers regularly make it into 'most influential' or 'most powerful' people lists.

Screenshot of beauty guru Michelle Phan's YouTube channel: the most subscribed female on the whole site!

This is not to say that doing it yourself can always have such humble origins though.  In the last ten to fifteen years, the concept of the celebrity as serial entrepreneur has become almost the norm.   Rather than lending themselves solely to high-profile endorsements with other companies, those in the public eye have taken to turning themselves into a walking, talking brand, using their name to promote their own range of products.  Sean 'Diddy' Coombs, Coleen Rooney, Jay-Z, Paris Hilton (that's two mentions in as many columns from me now!) and the Beckhams are just a few examples that I can think of in less than a minute.  Creating their own fragrances, clothing ranges and record companies is now all in a day's work if you want to make it big, and after recently watching an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians where Kim decided that she needed to work on fewer projects at a time, for fear of burnout, it appears that doing it yourself isn't as easy as it looks.

Good jobs the bloggers, crafters, thrifters, makers and menders of the world are so good at DIY then, isn't it?