back to today, when online retailing is global and no longer solely dependent on the elite who have money to spend. Fashion and style inspiration are no longer being dictated by top models and society’s richest from their ivory towers – the latest trends are promoted by ordinary people from their bedrooms. New York blogger and photographer Scott Schuman was one of the first on the scene, documenting the outfits of ordinary people on the streets. His website, The Sartorialist, was the birth of what would soon become a wide-spread appetite for street-style imagery, and it acted as a catalyst for a new wave of street-style photographers, hungry for well-dressed folk. Now, fashion week shows are swarming with photographers falling over each other to get a snap of the best-dressed attendee – something that not everyone is happy about, but we’ll get to that later in the book. The Internet has democratised fashion, so that it’s starting to be led by the more relatable girl- or boy-next-door. They take selfies, write blogs and vlog to camera – and while the relationship between fashion and the world’s wealthiest people still exists, a broader range of social influencers are flooding the fashion scene.
After my PhD, I took up a lecturing position at the University of Manchester. But, armed with fresh information about a vastly growing industry, I wanted to write it all down, so I started a fashion, beauty and travel blog. Inthefrow – an abbreviation of in the front row – was the name of my bubble, where I offered my readers a portal to the latest clothing I loved, beauty products worth our money and trends to hit the catwalk. I wanted to create ‘the digital front row’ for a new generation of fashion-hungry readers. At that stage in my career I had no idea that one day my blog would enable me to sit physically on the front row, at shows like Dior, Victoria Beckham, Burberry and Julien Macdonald.
Blogging is one of the biggest additions to fashion media since monthly magazines. While the first female fashion magazine, The Ladies’ Mercury, appeared in London in 1693, fashion blogging as we know it only erupted in 2006, and has led to the creation of an entirely new career. The blog as a medium has turned a small number of ordinary writers into powerful and influential voices. In fashion, a select few have a reach of over 10 million followers – much larger than any print or fashion magazine – alongside running their own clothing labels, writing their own books and starring in advertising campaigns for some of the largest brands in the world. Bloggers have become brand ambassadors. They strut the catwalks of the most prestigious designers and adorn the covers of the most established magazines. Again, more of that later in the book.
(@harrison)
I’m extremely proud to say, after six years in this business, that I’ve had a number of these opportunities and have collaborated with some of my favourite brands, both on- and offline. But I am still growing, learning and developing every day, because the evolution of the Internet, and how it shapes the fashion industry, never stops. We all have to continue to adapt to fit in with the new norms, the trend setters, the innovators and the latest innovations.
We’ve all seen enormous shifts in the way brands and retailers are running their businesses. Fashion is no longer solely consumed on the high street. I remember purposefully going clothes shopping on Wigan high street as a teenager, because unless you ordered from the Next catalogue, there was no other access to a new outfit for a Friday night. Back then you were confined to a handful of clothing stores in your local town or retail park, unless you ventured further afield to your nearest city for a broader range of brands and retailers. In today’s digitally-minded world, a customer can buy their clothing from a multitude of online touchpoints, at any time of the day, and have them delivered to their home or place of work within 24 hours. In the centre of London, clothing can now be bought and delivered to your door in as little as 90 minutes! This ubiquitous freedom has fundamentally transformed how clothes are advertised, sold and purchased, by everyone around the globe.
(@harrison)
So, how do you keep up? For consumers, followers, brands and the ordinary person in the street, there are new rules to follow if you want to stay ahead of the fashion game. So much has happened in recent years, from #TimesUp to virtual-reality models, the cry for inclusivity within the industry and the birth of social media influencing our daily wardrobe. The old way isn’t working any more; it’s been taken over entirely by a brand-new fashion industry, armed with the latest tools, technology and media. And so, we need a new set of rules to follow – for shopping, for styling, for working in the industry and for our own awareness of what’s happening behind the scenes.
I’m going to share with you the pivotal moments that I believe have transformed the fashion industry into something entirely new and what exactly this means for you and me. How does it affect our styling choices, how we consume clothing, where we find our inspiration and how we portray ourselves online? There is so much for all of us to learn, and so I’m sharing personal tips, advice, thoughts and ideas that I’ve never shared anywhere before. If you want to start your own blog or YouTube channel, if you want to up your Instagram game, find the best places for fashion inspo, learn how best to shop luxury or for sale bargains, or if you just want to swot up on all the coolest fashion info from the last 20 years, you’re in the right place. There are 40 key moments to discuss and just as many tips and tricks for you to learn and take away to keep you on top of your game.
Carry on reading, learn the new rules and find out what part you have to play in this crazy digital world of fashion.
Be accessible and easy to find
Everyone is gunning for your attention: the blogger you follow on Instagram, the retailer on the high street, the brand email you just found in your inbox, your mate who just WhatsApped you. (Don’t get me started on group chats.) In this world, it’s about being seen, liked and validated by your followers, it’s about standing out and raising your voice above the noise and it’s about being found in a place that is unbelievably saturated. For consumers and followers, everything has become so similar and repetitive, meaning that differentiation and individuality goes a long way. Brands and designers are having to change their strategies: going mobile, opening physical stores and building Instagram shops for their social-media audience. It means that consumers can mix it up, create new ideas and try something new. Nothing is off-limits any more; shop the globe, buy an outfit on your mobile, mix and match luxury and high-street brands and show people how you wear it. The world is a very big place and you have the chance to take advantage of every corner of it. So why miss out on the opportunity?
August 1994
The high street just got huge. Imagine that you have every clothing store in the world at your fingertips, and their goods are just a few days of delivery time away from being on your doorstep. If you lined up every single online clothing store (those worth your money, that is) along a street in your hometown, no doubt that line would be hundreds and hundreds of miles long. But that’s technically what we have now. An entire shopping district, ready to be shopped by anyone on a phone or a computer.
(© Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash.com)
It
