IN THE LAST TIME ONLY THE LAZY DOES NOT HAVE A PERSONAL BLOG. WHAT IS A BLOG - CIVIL JOURNALISM OR PERSONAL SPACE FOR EXPRESSION? MAYBE THE NEXT MARKETING RUN OF "GIANTS" OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY? WE TALK ABOUT THE MOST POPULAR BLOGGERS, AND THE MAIN THING IS ABOUT HOW THEY COULD TURN A HOBBY INTO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS. Text: Dariga Masenova
Andy Warhol once said: "Everyone has a right to their 15 minutes of glory." Nowadays, he would be a megablogger, because he prophesied the endless possibilities of the digital age. The Internet has given us unlimited access to information and the opportunity to find our own voice, which brings many millions of subscribers and equally impressive fees.
The most original voice of the fashion scene is the English blogger Susanne Lau. The creator of the personal blog The Style Bubble with daily traffic of 25,000 visitors is at the forefront of the phenomenon of fashion bloggers. By paving her way to the front rows at fashion shows, Susanne thereby democratized the fashion industry. She left her job as an editor in the online magazine DazedDigital.com and in March 2010 opened a personal blog. Having an excellent knowledge of high fashion, trends and designers in the arsenal, Lau began to describe the shows on the pages of her blog, mentioning details from the life of the fashion party that was "distant" at that time. Her vivid stories brought the blog an army of loyal fans longing for a daily chunk of information. Suzanne's opinion and her peculiar taste, as well as documentary analysis of the industry became the key to her reputation as a serious blogger. “The blog has inexhaustible possibilities,” fashionista shares. She believes in three components of her success: dedication, personal opinion and uniqueness.
People are impressed by the openness and apparent independence of bloggers. By the same token, they “bribe” large fashion houses, special projects with which bring them the lion's share of income, or rather, about 60% of earnings. As well as Lau, which closely promotes Dr. brands Martens, Giorgio Armani and Selfridges in China, the most popular Italian blogger to date, Chiara Ferragni, profits from collaborations with world labels.
Her portfolio includes working as a model for the Louis Vuitton advertising campaign. The author of the popular blog The Blonde Salad won the love of fans not only for its natural beauty, but also for coquettish, glamorous images, which she began to upload diligently seven years ago to sites like Lookbook. nu and Flickr, as a law student at the University of Bocconi in Milan. Ferragni is the first among bloggers combining democratic brands with luxury ones: this approach covers both mass market customers and more affluent fashion followers. Her fame spread instantly on the Internet: every post receives an average of 300,000 likes on Instagram and 600,000 on Facebook. Ferragni is not going to stop: among her latest projects is the release of her own collection of Ciara Ferrani accessories, reflecting the girl’s style and spreading in the luxury market segment.
Only at the last Fashion Week in New York, Chiara posted a post about the new must have of the season - a case for iPhone 6 from her personal collection. The audience’s reaction was simply “explosive”: numerous reposts and positive comments are likely to make her a full-fledged designer soon. Similar projects are handled by her colleague, a New York blogger, a journalist by education, Liandra Medin. One of the "chips" of her style are all kinds of baubles-baubles - this served as her collaboration with the fashion jewelry brand Dannijo.
The girl receives interest from each jewelry sale she created for Dannijo. Do not think that the key to success of the blog lies only in the beauty and sexuality of its owner, as in the case of The Blond Salad. Medina is a confirmation of this. On her blog, The Man Repeller, which means “male repeller,” Liandra explores trends that the opposite sex does not always like. “It all started with the fact that I was just fooling around in the locker room of the Topshop store, thinking:“ Oh, this will definitely scare men! ”, And it seemed to me that this is a brilliant idea for a blog ...“ Of course, Lyandra does not literally lay out deliberately anti-sacrifice images are nothing more than a comic, humorous approach to a “serious fashion business”. It is worth noting that with a sense of humor, the girl is all right, as well as with objective criticism, so reading her posts is a pleasure.
Among bloggers there are many who, unlike text analysis, prefer to communicate with readers visually. Photography is the treasure that made Scott Schumann, a pioneer in streetstyle, a millionaire. The founder of The Sartorialist’s American blog is so influential today that his images are used by designers and stylists for inspiration. Thanks to the recognizable style - Schuman, as a rule, takes people to their full height - the blogger now receives additional fees for shooting advertising campaigns for DKNY and Burberry.
Schumann also notes the need to keep abreast of the latest developments and know-how, especially on social networks. "Develop activities, do not be lazy, constantly monitor the market and discover new ways for PR." Behind Schumann is the book The Sartorialist, published by Penguin Publishing House with a circulation of 100,000 copies and bringing him a six-figure fee. His success story is phenomenal. Schumann's work spawned an army of imitators. However, streetstyle-blogger Tommy Tone is hardly mediocrity.
The Canadian photographer and blog author Jak & Jil has his own corporate identity. He takes pictures with an emphasis on bright, “catchy” details rather than on the overall image. The turning point in his career was the Dolce & Gabbana show in 2009, when Tommy was in the front row. The original content of Tommy's blog is so powerful that today the photographer receives 30 percent of his earnings only for selling photos to glossy publications. The remaining 70 are advertising campaign filming fees for Topshop, Sergio Rossi and Saks 5th Avenue. “I don’t get paid for everything. My profession gives me a chance, for example, to exclusively shoot behind the scenes of Victoria's Secret.
Unique content is the bomb! "Video content is also relevant. For the French blogger Garance Dore, small videos became a determining factor for success. At the beginning, Garans started blogging, posting fashionable illustrations, but" dumb "drawings did not cause a proper resonance." Only when I started writing, not being afraid to share his own opinion, an active dialogue began with the reader. "Interactive content became the hallmark of Garans. Then she developed a whole section" Pardon my French ", in which she uploads video in the genre of direct reporting A. This approach was appreciated by Dior - while traveling to Japan, the blogger talks about how practical Lady Dior's bag is when traveling, which is contractual content for which Garans received an appropriate fee.
Speaking about bloggers with an original concept, one cannot fail to mention the founder of the analytical site Business of Fashion Imran Amed. McKinsey & Co, a brilliantly educated manager at a consulting company, has found a niche: he writes about fashion from a business perspective. Few people know that his site was located at the "hipster" address uberkid. typepad.com, where Imran seriously shared his thoughts on which promising designer he should go to partners. His thoughtful texts, analytics, and broad outlook quickly attracted investors. As a result, it is one of the most respected sites with the latest news, ratings of influential people, analytics and a specialized recruiting resource, among whose clients are LVMH, Conde Nast International, Michael Kors, Tory Burch and Swarovski.
I would like to note that today all the aforementioned bloggers are one of the main trendsetters in the industry. Their personal projects have grown into full-fledged sites with the potential to become media holdings. They set codes of ethics for young bloggers: to have their own opinions and to be extremely honest with their audience, labeling paid content as "PR".
