Bloggers

On brands, video blogging and he-tail



Last Wednesday I was very lucky to be invited to a super-special event organised by Arcadia. The company that owns Burton, Topman, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Sefridge and Wallis hosted a dinner to bring together fashion bloggers, online fashion press and print media to show that all are equally important when it comes to working with its brands.

What an inspired initiative and I think everyone got something out of it, whether it was just putting faces to names of fellow bloggers (hello 00o00), engaging with press and Arcadia PRs, or understanding each other’s media. I also loved that we were gifted with Flip cameras, a great way of highlighting the fact that with blogging and social media, video (I’m sorry, I refuse to say ‘vlogging’) is the next stage in the journey. And there were tech support peeps from Flip on hand to show us how to edit and upload the videos. (Yes, it may be simple but it’s still helpful to have a demo.) Other PRs please note, bloggers love having tech experts at blog events!

Aside from hearing some top-secret Arcadia plans involving hi-tech consumer interaction, I also learnt that the UK menswear blog sector is booming. We all know Style Salvage but there are lots of other good menswear blogs and male bloggers emerging. Just in time for the menswear retail (he-tail?) revolution – welcome MrPorter.com, from the Netaporter stable…

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Jason Wu’s latest creation




A fashion blogger is nothing without a digital camera, so it makes sense that camera manufacturers are hooking up with fashion brands and designers. While I’d love an Hermes Leica purely for aesthetic value, they’re not digital and they’re not cheap (approx £8000).

Enter designer Jason Wu’s collaboration with General Imaging. The ‘Create’ camera comes in an array of colours, has a built-in USB plug for instant uploading and costs a reasonable $179 (UK availability imminent).


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Take Ivy




Attention preppie obsessives. That once-elusive bible of all things collegiate is finally, finally about to be reissued. Yes, I’m talking of Take Ivy, the holy grail of sixties menswear eye candy by Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida and co-authors Kensuke Ishizu, Toshiyuki Kurosu and Moto Hasegawa. Long out of print, Powerhouse Books is reissuing the title in the US in August and in the UK in October for a reasonable £17.99 ($25).

To whet your appetite, check out these few photos on A Continuous Lean, or if you’re a real cheapskate, check out these scans of the entire book.




As if that isn’t good enough news for those who favour a button-down shirt, ankle-grazing chino and Bass Weejun loafer, Rugby.com reports that The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology will be hosting an exhibition on the Ivy League look in 2012. Looks like preppie-chic is set to run and run…

[Pics: A Continuous Lean, The Trad]

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Shopgirl to stylist



Today sees the launch of Elle UK’s Shopgirl to Stylist talent contest. Billed as the fashion version of X Factor, it’s a six-month long contest in which wannabe stylists working in fashion retail can submit pictures of their styling efforts online to be judged by Elle readers and the Elle team. The prize is an internship at Elle and the chance to style a shoot. The interesting bit is the contest itself whereby finalists will have fashion challenges to complete, mentored by members of the Elle fashion team, as well as a one-to-one grilling by editor Lorraine Candy.

The online aspect of the contest is timely (it was launched at a bloggers’ briefing during LFW). Readers will have the opportunity to ‘love heart’ the stylist’s entries they like, comment and share their profiles via Facebook and Twitter. In this age of street style blogs and check-out-my-style websites like Lookbook.nu, it’s a canny move to get the readers involved via social media. “We’re excited to be involving our readers in our first ever search for the UK’s hottest styling talent and really looking forward to receiving their comments on the entries they love to help us choose the overall winner,” said Marcy Richardson, Elle’s digital marketing manager.

In a similar vein, Benetton has also utilised the online community in It’s My Time, an online model competition. Like Burberry’s Art of the Trench site, there’s something very compelling, even addictive about looking at and commenting on recently-uploaded pictures of fashion-conscious people – it’s all very relatable and who doesn’t love to voice their opinion in public these days?

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