Digital IQ Ranking 2009 | Source: LuxuryLab

NEW YORK, United States — In the first-ever ‘Digital IQ’ ranking of the top luxury fashion brands’ digital competence, Louis Vuitton has come out on top, followed closely by Ralph Lauren. Both are ranked as ‘genius’ in the wide-ranging qualitative and quantitative study which covers 109 brands across the luxury spectrum, not just fashion. The study was authored by Scott Galloway, Clinical Associate Professor at NYU’s Stern School and Founder of LuxuryLab, a thinktank with a focus on luxury and new media.

“2009 represented a tipping point concerning the importance of digital competence in the luxury industry,” says Galloway. “While the industry grappled with double-digit revenue declines, traffic to luxury brand sites increased an average of 61 percent. With this study, we’ve devised a metric these companies can use to benchmark specific features of their digital competence against their competitors, and highlight which area each firm stands to gain the greatest return on incremental investment in digital.”

To savvy BoF readers who have been reading about Fashion 2.0 for more than two years now, some of these rankings may seem overly generous. Sure, Prada put out that amazing Trembled Blossoms film and Dolce & Gabbana might get some extra bonus points for putting Bryanboy, Tommy Ton, Garance Doré and Scott Schuman in the front row in Milan yesterday, but do these brands really have a ‘gifted’ internet competence? (Note: The Digital IQ ranking was completed long before last night’s blogger frenzy in Milan!)

Even then, taken at face value, the ranking would still suggest that fashion brands, the heretofore undisputed masters of image creation and marketing sophistication, are failing to harness the real potential of social media, clumped together as they are towards the middle of the overall ranking.

There are only two fashion brands in the top ten, Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren, ranked #6 and #7, respectively. Before them, consumer electronics naturally makes a strong showing with Apple at #1 and Sony at #3, but should the top fashion brands really be satisfied in being judged less competent in internet communication than BMW at #2, Audi at #4 and Porsche at #5? These companies can’t even sell their products online. Then again, many fashion brands, including Chanel (ranked ‘average’) and Marc Jacobs (ranked ‘challenged’) still don’t sell their own products on their own websites, even though they clearly could.

Yesterday’s Women’s Wear Daily carried an excellent survey of the state of social media in fashion today and an in-depth look into the Digital IQ survey, calling 2009 “the year of social media” and outlining the online fashion stampede to setup i-Phone apps, social media sites and Facebook pages, amongst other things. But I couldn’t help but thinking that part of the point is being lost in this social media frenzy. It’s kind of like Fashion’s Night Out. Everyone seems to be joining the party without really stopping to think about the what the overall opportunity offers.

First and foremost, social media is about listening to the conversations that consumers all over the internet are having about our brands. Indeed, in the social media age, our brands are increasingly defined by our consumers. Do you know what your consumers are saying about your brand? Regardless of whether you agree or not, you can be sure they will share it with hundreds of friends, contacts and strangers on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and hundreds of other sites that make the entire internet increasingly social.

Only once we have understood these two aspects of social media — listening and sharing — in addition to broadcasting, can we strategically engage in a dialogue to achieve our various business objectives to have the best products, the right customer service, the strongest brand image and plenty of profits. In short, social media is far more than a simple marketing tool. Indeed, it will continue to dramatically change the industry as we know it.

For those of you who are interested in continuing the conversation on social media, I invite you to attend the LuxuryLab Innovation Forum in New York on November 6th, for a one-day event to explore the rapidly changing luxury landscape. Amongst other things, the results of the Digital IQ index will be dissected in detail, and speakers including Tina Brown (Founder and Editor of the Daily Beast), Daniel Lalonde (CEO of Louis Vuitton North America) and Francois-Henri Bennahmias (President and CEO of Audemars Piguet North America) will share their ideas in high-velocity presentations modeled after the fabled TED conference.

BoF is pleased to be an official media partner of the event, and if all goes as planned, I will also have a chance to share my own thoughts with the expected audience of more than 300 luxury executives. You can register for the conference here.

Imran Amed is Founder and Editor of The Business of Fashion

First meeting of Polish fashion bloggers, Courtesy of Laska Wanilii

NEW YORK, United States — A few months ago, I commented on the patchy quality out there in the fashion blogosphere. Too many blogs, churning out too much of the same content, sometimes poorly written and failing to add anything new to the fashion conversation. Even the term ‘fashion blogger’ itself is somehow tainted, also bringing to mind the words ‘low quality’ and ‘poorly researched.’

Today, I came across a wonderful article which shows that some bloggers may be taking this to heart, banding together to form a sort of fashion bloggers’ guild. There’s an actors’ guild and there’s a bar for lawyers, and so the thinking goes, there could also be a group with a set of standards that helps to separate the good fashion blogger from the downright dodgy, unoriginal and plagiaristic.

Now, why didn’t I think of that?

“The Style Coalition will serve as an umbrella for a collection of blogs, like a more intimate version of Glam Media, a content network of more than 900 Web sites geared toward women and fashion,” reports the New York Observer. It will be a network “made by fashion bloggers for fashion bloggers,” says Michael Pratt, one of the project’s co-founders.

Of course, not everyone will agree with this kind of approach. The blogosphere, after all, prides itself on being a free market, where interest (traffic, links, comments) flows to the content that strikes up the most conversation. This, by the way, does not always mean quality blogs are getting the attention.

Having a guild won’t change that, of course. The rest of the blogosphere will continue unabated in its discussion of what rent-a-starlet Paris Hilton wore to the latest party. What may change is the ability for these guilded bloggers to identify themselves as professionals; ones who deserve to be invited to events and fashion shows and are treated more seriously as form of professional media.

“Most designers and publicists are still hesitant to grant pesky bloggers access because they’re worried Web writers will post inflammatory reviews or stir up a scene for some cheap Web traffic,” says the article. The Style Coalition aims to rise above this, creating “ethical and practical standards” that must be met in order to attain membership.

Another of the project’s key proponents is Yuli Ziv, a fashion blogger in her own right, but also someone with a bag full of ideas for how Style Coalition can grow. Amongst other things, she envisions creating a social media consulting firm and a dedicated space for bloggers at the Bryant Park tents.

The article doesn’t mention advertising, but I think Ms. Ziv should also add this to her list, if it’s not already in the works. This is one of the most sorely lacking services for high quality fashion blogs today, and such a guild might also help to fill this void.

That said, as with all good ideas, the ultimate success of this project will depend on the quality of execution — figuring out exactly how to make this work best in practice. The most difficult step may come in defining the standards and codes for the alliance, and figuring out how to monitor and measure adherance to these standards. It will not be easy to do without raising the hackles of the fashion blogosphere, a notoriously free space where enforcing any rules will be a formidable task indeed.

The best way, I think, would be by setting an example of the highest standard and offering a set of services so valuable that serious bloggers would have no other choice but to meet the same levels of professionalism, ethics and quality just to join.

Thank you to Laska Wanilii for the delightful photo from the first meeting of Polish fashion bloggers.

NEW YORK, United States – Can fashion bloggers be trusted online authorities?

As the ever-proliferating fashion blogosphere continues to expand, and more and more bloggers gain access to fashion week, it’s pretty clear that the answer is yes. The fashion blog is here to stay. But it’s also fair to wonder whether all of this new content actually adding anything new to the reams of content already out there.

This past Spring/Summer 2009 season saw the debut of Inside The Tents. Inspired by Web 2.0 initiatives such as SXSW (South by South West) and the liveblogging phenomenon from political conventions in this U.S. election year, ITT aggregated fashion bloggers on one site to share their collective experiences from the tents at Bryant Park, using Twitter, Flickr and video content.

“Bloggers and online journalists are often dismissed as lacking the skill and insight to cover the ‘haute’ concepts of fashion,” says ITT organizer Michael J. Pratt of MyItThings.com. “Yet, they [traditional media] find themselves adopting the same techniques, or trying to, because there is undeniable effectiveness in connecting with the millions of people who love fashion.” 

Fair enough. But, it’s not just about the medium; it’s also about the message.  A perusal of some of the aggregated content on ITT causes one to pause and ask: are these bloggers really offering any unique expertise or vantage point that adds to the fashion dialogue? Some (though not all) of these bloggers appear to be more focused on themselves and on the celebrities in the front row than on the fashions on the runway. Unique opinions are few and far between.

“An awful lot of people not only have an opinion about fashion, they also believe those opinions are worth broadcasting,” muses Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Givhan, The Washington Post’s fashion editor, in her 2007 Harper’s Bazaar article Everyone is a Fashion Critic. However Givhan hasn’t entirely dismissed fashion blogging phenomenon as a mere trend. To the contrary, she has embraced it by launching her own blog on the Post’s website. 

So, if well-known critics like Givhan and the New York Times’ Cathy Horyn are penning blogs (and thereby adopting technologies which were once the exclusive domain of independent publishers), then, more than ever before, fashion bloggers must offer unique perspectives and insights not available in the traditional media in order to attract and build a loyal following. Merely adding to the information overload is just noise.

It’s true that the Internet has allowed virtually anyone to become a ‘citizen journalist,’ enabling them to offer their opinions and advice to anyone within a clicking earshot. But that doesn’t mean people will want to listen.

With research contributed by Tu Tram Pham.

One look at the current advertising campaign for Hermès, and it’s clear that India is on the radar screen of Western luxury brands. But this is not a new phenomenon. At the recent Walpole Seminar on China & India, Dr. Amin Jaffer, International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s, described the long relationship that India has had with European luxury brands, dating back to the late 1800’s.

Today, however, things aren’t as straightforward. Other Walpole seminar participants like Mohan Murjani (of the Murjani Group – partners to Jimmy Choo, Gucci and Bottega Veneta in India) also revealed that new luxury entrants in India are up against strong domestic players, labyrinthine bureaucracy, and inconsistent infrastructure. Break-even will take longer than some might have hoped.

On the Internet side, despite the naturally chatty and curious Indian nature, things have also been very slow to develop.  I explored this topic in an article in Luxeletter, an online publication from the Murjani Group, covering the luxury industry in India.

The entire article is republished below.

‘Net’ting gains online

Fashion Industry expert and writer Imran Amed thinks it’s only a matter of time before the Web 2.0 revolution hits luxury in India

After consecutive years of explosive revenue and profit growth, many luxury brands and retailers are beginning to grapple with the consequences of what could prove to be a challenging 2008.

The economies of North America and Western Europe are experiencing varying degrees of softness, and the much-vaunted luxury explosion in Asia, while still promising, will take years to deliver a return on the large investments that have been made, even with astronomical growth rates. Empty luxury shopping malls in China and ongoing structural challenges in a nascent Indian market are proof of this.

Thankfully, there is a bright spot on the horizon that is still undeniably promising for the luxury sector in the West. Just consider these striking facts: The Saks 5th Avenue website is now the second largest contributor to revenues after its iconic New York flagship. Its closest competitor, Neiman Marcus, reported that its online site generated revenues in excess of US $500 million in 2007. European luxury brands from Gucci to Louis Vuitton are also reaping the bonanza of the online luxury frenzy, recognising the luxury consumer’s increasing comfort with and desire to buy goods online.

But in India, luxury e-commerce has yet to take off. For now, Indians seem to value the experience of walking into a bricks-and-mortar store more than the convenience of shopping online. Even if customers wanted to shop online, broadband internet penetration in India remains stubbornly low and unreliable, meaning that it is harder to use bandwidth-intensive shopping experiences that have become standard fare on pioneering luxury e-commerce sites like Net-a-Porter.

The good news for India is that the potential for luxury on the internet is not limited to e-commerce. Today, a luxury brand’s homepage is arguably the single most important point-of-call for consumers looking to learn about a brand’s heritage, products and DNA.

Unfortunately, when consumers turn to many luxury brand websites, they often don’t find anything new and different. Sure, they can find recent ad campaigns (which are already in every magazine), images from the most recent runway shows (which are ubiquitous on the internet anyway), and a video or two (these are few and far between). What consumers really seem to be looking for is an opportunity to engage with the brands and each other.

Let’s talk!

In recent years, a wave of emerging interactive technologies has transformed how people spend their time online. Referred to generally under the umbrella-term Web 2.0, online tools such as blogs, social networks and wikis have marked a shift from an era of one-way ‘read-only’ communication on the internet to one which is characterised by a collaborative dialogue among groups of individuals.

In the luxury space, passionate groups of consumers, in their millions, are talking about luxury brands on blogs and social networks. In France, Café Mode’s independent perspective on the latest runway shows and fashion trends has become so influential that L’Express, a leading daily newspaper, now houses the blog on its own website and pays its blogger a salary. Manolo, an American who writes a popular blog on shoes and celebrity, earns a six-figure salary from his blog and has a column in the Washington Post. Every month, hundreds of thousands of Japanese visit @Cosme, a Japanese consumer review website dedicated to the cosmetic industry. The recommendations are so influential that they can make or break a cosmetics brand in Japan.

Some of the most prolific participants in these communities, said to be about 1 per cent of internet users, may know more about the brands than the brands even know about themselves. As trusted authorities, these experts have the potential to become a brand’s most fervent evangelists — or detractors. What’s more, through the active engagement of these passionate communities, luxury brands can also gain valuable feedback to understand what consumers want and what they expect.

But where is the ‘Blogger’atti?

It’s a mystery to me that India (a country that loves nothing more than to debate and discuss everything) does not yet have an indigenous fashion blogosphere. Indians are notoriously chatty — the Indian blogosphere is already buzzing with technology and Bollywood news. Indians are smart shoppers who like to research before they shop. They actively seek recommendations from friends and family, making word-of-mouth recommendations extremely powerful. Finally, blogs and social networks are not bandwidth-intensive, so are still easy to access even in India’s low bandwidth environment.

Given all of this, it’s only a matter of time before Indians, particularly those of the younger generation, like their luxury compatriots elsewhere in the world, begin to actively turn to the internet to learn more about luxury brands.

The only question is: Who will be the first to answer their questions? The luxury brands, or the bloggers?

Imran Amed is an advisor to the fashion industry and is Editor of The Business of Fashion at www.businessoffashion.net.  Image courtesy of Hermès.

Susie Bubble is one of the most recognisable, most respected and most widely-read fashion bloggers in the world. Her quirky style suggestions, honest reviews and friendly voice make her blog a must-read for thousands of women everyday.  To use Malcolm Gladwell’s vocabulary from his best-selling book, The Tipping Point, Susie is the ultimate maven, and the blog has provided the perfect platform from which to share her expertise.

Not surprisingly, fashion brands, online fashion media and ecommerce retailers have been looking to get in on the action. Banner ads have recently begun to appear on her site from the likes of Net-a-Porter and Diesel. Susie is regularly invited to conferences and events so others can draw upon her expertise.  Almost by accident, this London-based style expert has turned her passion for fashion into a bonafide business. 

The BoF caught up with Susie to understand a bit more about the genesis of the Style Bubble, get her views on the business of blogging, and find out the pros and cons of monetising a fashion blog. 

1. It may be a question you are tired of answering, but what inspired you to start Style Bubble?

I started writing Style Bubble in March 2006.  It was mainly out of frustration at the time with my own career in digital advertising whereby I wanted to keep up my interest in fashion which I’ve had since forever!  I had also been participating heavily in fashion forums like The Fashion Spot where I liked to share outfits, information about new designers and opinions and having read blogs previously, I thought it would be an easy-to-manage platform to let people into my ‘fashion bubble’ as it were.  The name comes from a childhood nickname ‘Susie Bubble’, given to me because I always seemed to be daydreaming away in my own world and with regards to fashion, Style Bubble is about presenting how I interact with fashion, what I see, what I have discovered, what I feel; ultimately everything that I post is highly relevant to me.  A selfish endeavour if you will…. 

2. Your posts include rich writing, images and self-styling, all with that now iconic Susie Bubble mirror-in-the-camera pose. Where do you find the time to put so much effort into your blog and what inspires you to continue blogging so actively?

The one subject that I could blog about so obsessively is fashion because of the changes and developments within the fashion industry, what is happening on the streets, underground fashion scenes, online phenomenons, in retail…. there’s often too much to blog about!  Blogging about my outfits has become part of my routine and I’ve managed to incorporate everything into my life.  So if I’m out and about in London, my camera will be with me always in case I see something blog-worthy (real life fashion on the streets provides much blog fodder!).  Or I’ll be messing around with outfits and I’ll think to take pictures.  So in fact, taking pictures is just an afterthought to what I would normally be doing anyway.  Then the actual writing part takes no time at all due to the candid/informal way I write.   

3. How many people come to Style Bubble everyday and what do you know about these people? Who are they and how do they find your site?

It really fluctuates but it varies between 7,000-10,000 readers a day and through Google Analytics, I know by and large where they come from.  The majority of my readers are from the US but their consumption of blogs is far greater than in Europe.  Other than that though I have no other demographic information.  A lot of traffic is directed by Google as I seem to rank quite highly in search due to the frequent posts.  So a lot of people randomly stumble onto the blog.  A lot are directed by links from other blogs such as Fashionologie, Fabsugar and other bigger links like Elle.com and Style.Com.   

4.You’ve recently started putting banner ads on your site (e.g. Net-a-Porter). What contributed your decision to do this and do you have a media partner that helps you secure advertising or do you do this on your own. Could your blog become a business in its own right, allowing you to focus on it even more?

From the very beginning, I was urged to monetise the blog through banner activity and you would think that because I work in digital advertising, I’d be very enthusiastic about it.  I resisted for a long time and to date, I have only had a Diesel banner and this new NAP banner there because I feel the aesthetic of my blog would be marred.  I don’t have a media partner and don’t plan to have one and I have enough knowledge about banner/affiliate activity on my own to go about monetising the blog if I want to.  The NAP banner is a temporary experiment to see how much the blog is ‘worth’ in terms of click-throughs but I have no plans on fully monetising it yet.  Blogging full time is not an ambition of mine but perhaps allowing it to earn a bit of revenue to fund my other side projects (freelance writing, styling etc…) may be an option in the future.  At the moment, it’s tentative testing with banners ads. 

5. Have you had any feedback from brands or retailers that you have mentioned on Style Bubble on the impact of your endorsements? How do you think fashion blogs are impacting the fashion industry.

Whenever I do link to a brand/label’s website, of course, it increases their traffic so in that way, I’ve had positive feedback saying that Style Bubble increases brand/label awareness. With e-commerce sites however, a blog has the ability to drive sales in a very direct way.  For instance, a blogger could rave about a pair of wet-look skinny jeans on Topshop, linking to them and of all the clickthroughs to the Topshop site, 10% of them could result in sales.  Impressive result for one link but a blogger and reader creates a dialogue between them wherby a blogger can become tastemakers, influencing their readers.  It’s not something I set out to do as I feel I have tastes that are very much my own but if it has happened, there’s no harm in it either.   

6. What blogs (fashion and non-fashion) do you read regularly and why?

I read Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View on Fashion as it’s informative in so many ways and she really gets beneath all the Vogue/glitzy stuff.  Mrs Fashion is quite hilarious for her commentary as a fashion editor.  On the Runway by Cathy Horyn is both amusing and informative and the comments are sometimes far more interesting than the actual post.  Spork Fashion offers a great insight to LA fashion.  Then there are online blog friends like The Coveted, Kingdom of Style, Style Bytes which I love to catch up on. 

7. Finally, any advice to other fashion bloggers on how to manage a full-time job and a blog? And, on how to build a business through blogging? (Even if you may have ended up here by accident!)

Type at 80wpm!  Seriously, I think my fulltime job has been very forgiving for my blogging as they rather like that I have this extra curricular activity.  I would try and see blogging not as another job but a hobby and that way, you’ll give up those nights out willingly to stay in and become a homebody blog geek!  If you used a blog as a platform as a budding journalist, then perhaps you end up killing off the beauty of the blogging medium which is its ability to connect with readers quite quickly.  So if writing well researched posts are taking up too much time then perhaps you can pare it back a bit to make it a bit more relaxed. 

I would be be very cautious about monetising your blog too quickly.  The key thing is to build up a readership, a following first and establish yourself amongst the blogosphere.  Then when you feel you have the traffic to be commanding good advertising partners, start to seek out affiliate programmes (a lot of e-commerce sites have them…Nap, Matches, Browns, Yoox etc…) and test them out on your blog.  If you get approached by agencies for flat fee ad arrangments, read the terms carefully but if you are being approached at that level willingly by agencies, then you’re pretty much on your way to monetising the blog successfully without the help of CPA/CPC affiliate programmes.

Photos courtesy of Style Bubble.

In what is what is likely a first in the fashion industry when it comes to the blogosphere, Marc Jacobs has joined the ongoing online debate raging about his supposed row with Suzy Menkes, the highly regarded fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune.

In his comment on Cathy Horyn’s On the Runway blog, Jacobs says:

I did NOT stick my tongue out at Suzy Menkes……I pulled a stupid face with my tongue out in happiness for being done with what has been a great but most stressful season for me. I am not stupid, childish or a vindictive person….I had prior to the show left a silly t-shirt and a nice note for Suzy on her seat. Why would I do anything to further upset her? Right after a show!!?? Cathy and all else reading this, I am surprised that anyone who knows me at all think that I am that petty or stupid! Anyone who has ever been on a stage would know you can’t actually see the audience. I made a face at no one in particular….I didn’t have a clue as to who was sitting there. Come on guys, give me a break!!!!!

Jacobs’ decision to respond to the backlash in a public forum, as opposed to using the normal channels of publicists and press releases, was a smart one. You can only respond to the blogosphere by going straight to the heart of the storm and engaging the community. Marc Jacobs’ choice to do this on Horyn’s blog also shows how On the Runway has become a formidable community with its own voice in the industry.   And the response from the community has generally been very positive.

Said one commenter of Mr. Jacobs response:

For some reason I completely missed Marc Jacobs post. I don’t mean to bring his documentary up again (And if your reading this Marc I apologize in advance as it’s all I have to go by) but one thing you gather very quickly is how stressful his job is (It reminded me of architecture school and I can’t imagine pulling off all-nighters again for the rest of my life), it’s not only about the design anymore but maintaining a public image as well.

Horyn added her two cents in, possibly to calm the storm:

Some of you probably noticed that Marc Jacobs posted, explaining his side of what happened at the end of the Vuitton show, and I also contacted him by phone. I’m convinced after talking to him that the tongue-wagging, face-pulling on the runway was misunderstood and not directed at Suzy Menkes, though it upset her, and I offered him my apologies for the fuss. After the dust-up in New York, Jacobs said he had put a T-shirt on her seat at the LV show as an olive branch. It showed a cartoon of the fashion critic wringing the designer’s neck and it was embroidered by Lesage. He thought it was a sweet way of making up.

Menkes herself hasn’t commented on the issue since she said she wanted to wring the designer’s neck after his New York show ran 2 hours late. Her recent review of the Louis Vuitton show, also designed by Jacobs, was cautiously complimentary.

When Malcolm Harris, one of the designers behind the Katsumi & Malcolm label which was once financially backed by Madonna, wanted to launch a new brand, he knew he needed to do something singularly different.

Harris is the man behind Cut, Sew & Blog which has got young fashion insiders and the blogosphere buzzing and is already spawning internet spoofs. By turning to web 2.0 technologies and using sites like Myspace and Youtube to promote his new label, Malcolm may be the first fashion designer ever to build his entire business strategy around the use of the Internet, as opposed to treating it as a cosmetic afterthought. He recently answered a few questions from the Business of Fashion to explain the rationale behind this strategy.

We first heard of Cut, Sew & Blog while perusing the comments in Cathy Horyn’s On the Runway blog and then received an email from Malcolm himself, inviting us to check out the blog. When a commenter on the Business of Fashion mentioned the Cut, Sew & Blog again in our own comments, saying her young colleagues at Style.com were addicted to the blog, it was time to take a look.

Cut, Sew & Blog is a personal — sometimes very personal — look into the thoughts, ideas and inspirations that constitute Malcolm’s world; the world of Mal Sirrah. From a detailed account of the breakdown of his relationships with Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley and supermodel Naomi Campbell to the passion behind his support for the Designers for Darfur initiative to only showing his collection for S/S 2008 online, Malcolm has taken risks not often seen in the fashion industry.

To the contrary, many young designers are the product of  carefully crafted PR images, designed to create a sense of distance, mystery and aspiration in the minds of potential customers. Instead, Malcolm has taken a completely different approach, going straight to his end consumer, bypassing the filtering roles of gatekeepers, fashion critics and the mass media. The result is a sometimes raw, often meandering and occasionally uncomfortable peek into Malcolm’s world. But, it makes for a compelling read and his internet strategy is ambitious, thoughtful, and distinctive. We’ll be watching to see how things progress.

1. You stayed out of the fashion scene for years and then decided to come back. Why, and why now? 

I left the fashion industry for five years until my return in 2005.  In my previous company Katsumi and Malcolm, I found myself enjoying a very successful business that no longer provided me with any personal or creative happiness.  After dibbing up my soul between the investors, editors, buyers and celebrity clients, I felt as if I had been robbed of all power and strength. I could no longer live up to the brand that was quickly becoming my prison. So I gave it all up 

This time around I am making a conscious effort to make a niche/sanctuary for myself that allows me to strike a professional, creative and spiritual balance. The current climate within the fashion industry is perfect for a brand like Mal Sirrah that focuses on our motto – Changing the World – One Dress at a Time. 

Photos and video courtesy of www.cutsewandblog.com.

It’s the second round of the competition, and Paris and London are already out of the running, demonstrating that the best style isn’t necessarily in the established fashion capitals. For example, I wasn’t too surprised to see my old hometown, Montréal, one of the most fashionable cities in the world, beat my current hometown, London. But, when I saw that Perth beat Paris, I was shocked. A friend recently told me that Perth is the most isolated city (with a population greater than 1m residents) in the world.  Maybe isolation breeds creativity?

Whatever the case, this is a great way of making the street-style blog phenomenon take on an even more Fashion 2.0 angle, by involving readers to let their opinions be heard.

Photos courtesy of Street Clash

One amazing thing about the fashion blogosphere is that it is global, in the truest sense of the word. Major brands and media everywhere are sitting up and taking notice of this phenomenon, and smart journalists are questioning how this will change the industry going forward.

Candy Soo of Hong Kong’s pre-eminent English language daily, The South China Morning Post, recently published an article on the growing influence of fashion blogs and how the industry is (slowly) coming to terms with it. The article interviews bloggers behind several fashion blogs, including The Business of Fashion, and handbag designer Rafe Totengco talks about how he uses his blog to promote his brand and solicit feedback from his clientele.

Thank you to Candy for starting the discussion and for soliciting our opinions.

How do you think fashion blogging will change the industry?

Image and article courtesy of the South China Morning Post

WWD reports today that Style.com has concluded an agreement to sell advertising on the Sartorialist blog maintained by Scott Schuman, a former fashion industry staffer who left a fashion sales showroom to create one of the best known blogs in the fashion blogosphere.

Women’s Wear Daily said:

A fashion label may get the best endorsement when its wares show up on a well-dressed city dweller photographed for fashion industry veteran Scott Schuman’s popular blog The Sartorialist. But for those who want more direct brand promotion, Style.com and Men.style.com will begin to sell ads forThesartorialist.blogspot.com beginning Sept. 1….

…The partnership is the first time the CondéNet properties have sold ads for a brand outside the company stable. Schuman’s blog, where he posts commentary on stylish men and women on the street, attracts more than one million unique visitors a month. He also pens a regular column for GQ and guest-blogs on Men.style.com and Style.com. "The Sartorialist reaches the person who really cares about fashion as a form of self-expression. He chronicles very chic people and his constituency are the people he photographs," said Dee Salomon, senior vice president of CondéNet. The site seeks to attract upscale automotive and consumer electronics as well as fashion brands. Style.com and Men.style.com and The Sartorialist will share advertising revenue generated from the blog. — WWD, 16 July 2007

This is, of course yet another sign of the increasing importance of fashion blogs as a communication vehicle for fashion brands, and it was smart of Scott to partner with CondeNet, who understand his demographic and who already have the advertiser relationships in place to generate ad sales.

Yet, having "upscale automotive and consumer electronics" ads next to Scott’s  eye-catching photos does raise some questions. Will they ruin the clean lines, aesthetic simplicity and fashion purity of the site?  Methinks it will be best to keep the ads focused on fashion and integrate them as cleanly as possible into Scott’s site, so as to maintain the integrity of what the Sartorialist’s 1 million monthly visitors are interested in: the photography.

Photo clip courtesy of Scott Schuman.