Fat Fashion Assistant blogger Jeanie Annan-Lewin in Dolly Rockers video
Sunday August 16, 2009 /
Jeanie Annan-Lewin, the blogger at Fat Fashion Assistant, features albeit briefly in the new pop video for Dolly Rockers single ‘Gold Digger’.
Although Jeanie looks happy to be watching the up and coming girl group (approx 25 seconds in) the blogger tweeted “SSSSSSSH don’t tell anyone I went to a party and they rocked up I was horrified but it looks like I like them urgh FML”.
Look at the smile – she loves them really!
Jeanie isn’t the only fashion blogger that made the video. Can you spot the other two?
If you haven’t already check out Jeanie’s blog Fat Fashion Assistant
London Fashion Network: The Power of the Blog – Vox Pops
Sunday August 02, 2009 /
Drapers Blog: ‘Will Simon Fuller’s Fashionair.com get 22m viewers?’
Monday July 27, 2009 /
A preview of Simon Fuller’s Fashionair
Sunday July 12, 2009 /
The future of fashion magazines has made me loose sleep over the past few weeks. Their demise is predicted as imminent and now the only discussions worth having are how we’re going to format it all online.
I think Fashionair.com may have it cracked. Fashionair is a new website launching in September by Spice Girl’s ex-manager Simon Fuller. Whilst we were gagging for girl power and plastic pop back in the mid nineties, the end of the noughties has bought about a more pressing need – an interactive, fashion forward and graphic conscience website.
Fashionair looks like a cut out collage of my favourite issues of Vogue. The imagery is busy without being overwhelming – you want to click on everything because it’s bright, sparkly and inviting.
Fashionair has a good use of space and colouring, and so far – no irritating pop-up ads.
Where the site really excels is on video content. They have ‘Style Council’ which is basically a fashion-shopping channel for discerning customers. The joy being that whilst the video is playing you can click on the product, which is being displayed on the site at the same time.
‘Fashion Insider’ gets some of the biggest names in fashion on the site so that we can go poking around their wardrobes and interactively living their fashionable lives.
The Personal Style section really works – items such as ‘7 Days of Chic’, with designer Saloni Lodha, takes us on a fashion guide through her holiday wardrobe – this time we can buy high street replicas of what she’s wearing by clicking on the screen.
I suspect in September Fashionair will be in every favourites bar, and the ultimate lunchtime browsing experience.
‘A preview of Simon Fuller’s Fashionair’ by Amy Tipper-Hale
Very good. Littlewoods Direct is now Very.co.uk
Sunday July 05, 2009 /
Littlewoods has rebranded and I’m very impressed.
So what am I impressed by… the Homepage is minimal in feel, giving users the option to browse product or interact with content.
Content is strong at Very. Loving Louise Roe’s street video and the VIP Loungue where customers can chat to Caprice, Simon Webbe and Miranda Levy to name a few.
Very is yet to appear in the natural listings for its own brand name, but they seem to be investing in paid search until this changes.
Well, here’s one SEO friendly link to help - Visit Very, the new online fashion store the e-commerce industry will be keeping a ‘very’ close eye on.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley according to the internet
Tuesday June 30, 2009 /
Her face is place-able and unmistakable – she smoulders from the latest Burberry ad campaign and appears with the modelling elite in party pages.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Agent Provocateur video
Online she certainly holds her corner. There are hundreds of images littering the web, mostly from shoots but also with boyfriend Tyrone Wood (son of Ronnie Wood, who she’s been dating since 2003), looking very girl-about-town.
The images are divided into two leagues: English rose or smouldering temptress, images which are largely supplied by her Agent Provocateur work.
Along with the de rigueur models homepage with archives of images, news updates and envious measurements, she also has her very own fan site set up by a respectable obsessive with over 2,500 hits to date.
Rosie also has a MySpace page set up by another fan, who refuses anything negative to be said about the beloved model.
The online video ad for Agent Provocateur seems to be a big hit; Tastefully almost-nude Huntington-Whiteley gives a sufficient warning to all males not to forget Valentine’s Day or they’ll be left in a drooling, frustrated puddle.
As distant relative of Queen Victoria, it seems the British fashion-conscience public have taken her into their bosom.
There is nothing derogatory to be found on Google – which for any public figure is no small feat.
Even the bitchiest of blog critics haven’t a bad word to say; “30x hotter than the heavily overrated coke-whore” says ‘Barstadly, comparing Rosie to Kate Moss. Nice.
‘Rosie Huntington-Whiteley according to the internet’ by Amy Tipper-Hale
Playing with lingerie models - shop by body shape
Tuesday May 19, 2009 /
Online retailers are constantly thinking of ways to eliminate barriers to purchase.
Shoppers do like to feel and see fashion, but the success of home shopping and the growth in online fashion retail speaks volumes.
If people are given enough textually and visually they’ll feel confident in purchasing.
One barrier to purchase is fit – we normally tend to fit into standard sizing for clothing, but when it comes to lingerie fit is more important.
That’s why online lingerie retailers have to work that little bit harder to secure a purchase.
The KnickerPicker.com website allows you to see videos of models wearing underwear available to but online from a range of stores.
You pick a model with a similar body shape, choose the lingerie, see how it looks on a real woman, then click to purchase.
Negative comments
Tuesday April 21, 2009 /
The Saturdays, Rare Fashion and SEO
Monday April 13, 2009 /
The Saturdays are creating a capsule collection for online fashion store Rare Fashion.
A myriad of party dresses and wet look leggings, Rare Fashion has everything you need to perfect that celebrity look on a Saturday night out – watch out Lipsy.
Where Lipsy grew its market having its products seen on reality TV stars, Rare is upping its profile with official endorsement from The Saturdays.
Mollie, Una, Frankie, Rochelle and Vanessa have already been seen out and about in Rare dresses, and no doubt the store will have seen an increase in sales from the association with Britain’s newest girl group.
Working with The Saturdays will give Rare an opportunity to create online PR that will have lasting effects.
My first thought would be to use the group for interview opportunities on music blogs – with links back to the Rare Fashion website that will help its SEO forever.
The discussion of the deal and the range itself will naturally attract incoming links to the website which again, helps with SEO, but will also drive relevant traffic.
Universal search is becoming more important; a video of the girls discussing their range on YouTube may appear in Google’s search listings when people search for ‘The Saturdays’ - great for pulling in an audience that is actively interested in the girls.
The tie up will also no doubt also be added to the group’s Wikipedia page, which will be perfect for brand association for the lifetime of the group.
Most importantly Rare is getting in there early. They will be the first online store to have a huge amount of links pointing to them from pages mentioning The Saturdays and fashion – so Google will naturally associate Rare with fashion and The Saturdays.
So in years to come when they’re the next big fashion thing guess which store will be more likely to rank highly when people search “Frankie Sandford’s Style”?
Showcase your talent online like Lauren Luke
Tuesday March 17, 2009 /
If you’re a designer, artist or creative type waiting to get noticed, use the web to showcase your talent.
For Lauren Luke, a rising celebrity thanks to her popular YouTube make-up tutorials, being spotted online has lead to a newspaper column and her own make-up range.
Lauren was brought to my attention last week when she appeared on Natalie Cassidy’s BBC Three series Natalie Cassidy’s Real Lives.
She is better known by her YouTube username panacea81 and can be seen on the video website offering tutorials on how to recreate beauty looks seen on celebrities, film and television.
She started making the videos to help sell make-up on eBay.
Little did she know a couple of years later that she would be formulating her own make-up range and writing a beauty column for The Guardian.
Fashion, television, e-commerce and revenue
Monday February 23, 2009 /
Last week I was shown a demo of an online fashion television platform which will revolutionise the way the celebrity driven market buys clothes online.
The technology behind it is remarkable, and cleverly marries content with product in a way that just isn’t being done by anyone.
It was all very fitting as in the same week The Money Programme on BBC Two focused on the changing face of television in the digital age, with commentators calling on the government to allow product placement to offset a fall in advertising revenue.
Cadbury’s product placement in Kate Modern on Bebo
Whilst product placement would be a large revenue driver I think networks are still missing a trick with online retail.
TV stations have the opportunity to drive huge amounts of traffic to their websites where they can promote product from online retailers and take a commission on sales.
As the content they use to promote retailers would remain static and live forever it would provide them with a drip feed of ongoing revenue.
Drapers Etail Awards Video
Sunday February 15, 2009 /
Sketch was the chosen venue to celebrate the success of Britain’s online fashion stores. A formal sit down dinner just wouldn’t do to celebrate the future (or should I say the now?) of how we’re increasingly buying our wears.
If you ever wanted to escape talk of the credit crunch and economic downturns, you couldn’t do better than a room full of people working in the fastest growing online sector – fashion retail. To cheekily coin a popular phrase “we’re alright jack”.
Too far perhaps, as many of us have had to fire fight through ’08 to weather the storm, but consider our resilience to the ‘crunch’ compared to the high street and you’ll understand why everyone at the event had something to smile about.
The display of pearly whites and ear to ear grins might have had something to do with the bubbles which were flowing like it was 1999; only it was 10 years later with a crowd so excited that many a champers flute met their maker, smashing to pieces leaving their temporary owners shamed, as the shattering glass attracted the head turning of a bustling mix of fashionistas, web techies and “suits”.
“Dress To Party” said the invite, which many did and very well too. “You must be on the fashion side” someone said to me, clearly judging me by my cover of shimmering silver trousers, a wide stripe shirt and bow tie – my Topman.com attempt at a Viktor & Rolf look, probably many a fashion season too late.
Host Mica Paris and Caprice, who presented an award, didn’t let anyone down when it came to looking stylish. But Mica, what was that skirt-hoisting-up business all about? The TV favourite kept rustling up the hem of her dress, as she presented the awards, and it didn’t go unnoticed.
One person who wouldn’t have enjoyed Mica’s hosting is rising star VV Brown. When the DJ played her debut single “Crying Blood”, the What Not To Wear presenter took back her praise for the jockey’s choice of songs saying she “wasn’t sure” about that one.
A few brutish heckles from one attention seeking attendee wasn’t enough to ruin the actual ceremony which in itself didn’t last very long.
The fact that I, and the other judges, spent the best part of a day and a half discussing and analysing the entrants, all to be over within half an hour, didn’t matter. How could it after seeing the faces on the winners? And to be a part of the first industry awards dedicated to online fashion made it well worth it too.
So as the awards were given and the sponsors thanked the after party led to networking, mingling, more drinking and consequently some ‘dad dancing’, before carriages awaited the partying crowd.
With it being the most popular Drapers Awards ceremony it’s safe to say next year we’ll do it all again, and some.
So here’s to a year when the high street retailers take online/in-store multi channel retailing seriously, Tesco enters the online fashion world in a big way and My-wardrobe.com becomes a household name.
Let’s talk more about that after the Drapers Etail Awards in 2010, because ’09 is looking nothing but good for online fashion retail.
Virtual Presenter - bloody annoying or really useful?
Tuesday January 27, 2009 /
The web has generated a generation of skim readers. It doesn’t take us long to decide if we want to read the content of a web page – sometimes we just scroll through images.
Enter Virtual Presenter. Virtual Presenter is what it says on the tin. A presenter that “presents” whatever message a brand wants to portray on a web page, taking the effort out of digesting the content by reading.
The company claims conversions for an online retail store increased 80% when they placed a presenter on the homepage.
Advent Plastics has a presenter on its homepage. Can she persuade you into buying Perspex?
Compare The Meerkat
Thursday January 15, 2009 /
This is Knitkat, the Meerkat that meets my requirements.
Knitkat loves wool, and can knit.
Find the right Meerkat for you at comparethemeerkat.com.
Alternatively, get insurance quotes from www.comparethemarket.com
