Copyright

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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

FIRST EDITION

© Victoria Magrath 2018

Illustrations © Judith van den Hoek 2018

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Source ISBN: 9780008305550

Ebook Edition © November 2018 ISBN: 9780008305567

Version 2018-10-23

(@harrison)

Dedication

For the fashion students, the enthusiasts, the creatives,

the bosses, the marketers, the online shoppers, the

clothing admirers, the fashion show attendees, the writers

and the devoted fans of the fashion world.

Your passion is my passion. This one’s for you.

(@harrison)

(@harrison)

(@inthefrow)

(@harrison)

Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

Rule 1: Be accessible and easy to find

1. Get ready to shop the globe

2. ASOS changes the online shopping game

3. Net-A-Porter rides the dotcom boom

4. Luxury for the masses

5. Global connections for the smallest brands

6. Inspiring a love of fashion

7. Retail goes mobile

8. Kate sells out the Burberry trench

9. Michael Kors is first to sponsor an Instagram ad

Rule 2: Be aware of the impacts

10. Death of the high street

11. Fast fashion piles up

12. Continuous sales are killing seasonal trends

13. Siri is stalking our shopping habits

14. Wear it once, resell it tomorrow

15. Alexander Wang sues the counterfeits

Rule 3: Be social

16. The fashion blogging evolution

17. The world gets hashtagged

18. Fashion Pinspiration for the masses

19. Vogue starts a social shopping trend

20. Instagram: the good, the bad and the ugly

21. The creative directors conquer Instagram

22. The clothing-haul obsession

23. The fashion news goes viral

Rule 4: Be culturally aware and diverse

24. Admiring all shapes and sizes

25. #TimesUp

26. A cry for inclusivity and diversity

27. Ban the fur

Rule 5: Be innovative

28. NikeID and the new customisation

29. The fashion catwalk in your bedroom

30. Sophia Amoruso launches Nasty Gal

31. #CastMeMarc

32. Rebecca Minkoff leads the connected-store revolution

33. Virtual models in starring roles

Rule 6: Be the first to adapt

34. Fitness got trendy

35. Netflix merchandise gets hyped

36. The influencers design the collections

37. Cara photobombs the runway

38. The super-bloggers get the gig

39. Burberry redefines the rules of the catwalk

40. Susie bursts the fashion bubble

Last thoughts

Index of searchable terms

Acknowledgements

About the author

About the publisher

Introduction

Who decides what we wear, how we dress and the way we define ourselves through clothing? Is it us? Do we decide our own take on style and self-branding? Or is it our audience, the passer-by in the street, the person in front of us in the coffee queue or our latest follower on Instagram? The rules of the fashion game have changed, and we are all having to learn the new tips, tricks and rules to play it successfully.

We live in a world where the majority dress to fit in with societal norms, and our clothing can offer an insight into our status, character, interests and our sense of what’s appropriate and what’s not. As humans, we have always loved to fit into a group to feel a sense of belonging, but the recent evolution of the Internet has had the most dramatic effect on the way we dress today. It has transformed the way fashion is worn, consumed, sold and produced. The majority of us no longer buy clothing for our own personal enjoyment alone, but for the admiration of those who observe or follow us.

Online fashion retailing has fascinated me since it was kicked up a notch in the early 2000s. I studied for my fashion retail degree at the University of Manchester in 2007 and although online shopping was rising in popularity, lots of people were still dubious that it would ever stick. I was sitting in a branding lecture while my lecturer scoffed at the idea that people would ever risk buying such tactile items on their computer. She believed that buying clothing online would never take off, but I was already seeing a trend: brands were increasingly developing online stores and I knew it was only a matter of time before more people tried it out for themselves.

Before I had finished my degree, mobile-retailing was already a realistic proposition and within a small space of time, the thought of shopping on my mobile became somewhat normal. Retailers not only had an online store to sell their products globally, but they could now promote and sell them from every mobile phone in the world. The question at that point was how exactly could a brand entice people to buy from their mobile app, and what could they do to enhance their customers’ enjoyment and experience? I was intrigued, so I started a three-year PhD to answer that very question.

My thesis investigated the purchasing decisions, behaviours and emotions of the fashion consumer shopping on mobile apps. After three fun and interesting years, I graduated, added ‘Dr’ to my title and found out that mobile retailing would actually be far more lucrative and essential for retailers than we had initially expected (among a lot of other things, of course, but we don’t have all day). But my findings were borne out over the following eight years, backed up by stats published in 2017, stating that 58 per cent of ASOS’s sales came from mobile purchases, and 70 per cent of their web traffic came via mobile. I’m guessing their mobile site was pretty great … they must have read my PhD. *I’m joking.*

(@inthefrow)

(@cgstreetstyle)

But let’s get 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.

RULE 1

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?

1

August 1994

Get ready to shop the globe

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 all started in 1994. Retail went global when an American entrepreneur sold a CD to a friend over an encrypted service. It was the first secure transaction ever to happen online and it opened the floodgates for an online explosion.

(@inthefrow)

I can recall the jealousy I felt when school friends of mine headed to Orlando, Florida, every summer with their parents for yet another year at Disney. But it wasn’t Florida I was jealous of; it was the clothing they brought home from those trips. Piles and piles of Abercrombie & Fitch. It was affordable, cool, preppy and the UK market just didn’t make clothes like that then. (This was before Topshop had risen to the top of its game.) These friends of mine were strutting around in American-based apparel while I was stuck in Tammy Girl and Kappa tracksuits. (First-world problems, I know, but when you’re nine years old, these things seem to matter.)

I also remember the first time I personally bought anything online. It was an Alanis Morissette T-shirt from the US. I bought it on her merch site, paid the extortionate amount and received the crappiest-quality T-shirt, but still, I had ventured into a global marketplace for the first time. If I couldn’t make it to Florida myself, I would bring the goods to me. So thanks again, Dad, for ‘lending’ me that £50 back in 2000. You probably kick-started my shopping habits. I also vividly remember the time when my brother accidentally ordered 10 of the same basketball jersey from America. It was when the dial-up connection was so poor that hitting ‘purchase’ more than once could lead to you owning that item multiple times. My dad was in uproar at first, until a simple email prevented his credit card being charged $1,000.

Shopping the web got easier and easier as the years went on. Online stores became compatible with mobiles, easier to use on your desktop, safer and more secure for transactions. All this, along with discounts and promo codes, incentivised people to try buying online. The more people tried it, the more they realised there were fewer risks to entering their personal information than they’d thought, and of course it lead to some new shopping habits for many. That is definitely what happened to me. Every time I bought online successfully, I became more relaxed about buying, felt a sense of security and was more willing to come back and shop again, because the process was so straightforward. And I wasn’t alone in working out this entirely new selling platform. In 2017, 24 per cent of purchases globally (for everything apart from food) were made online. That’s a quarter of everything bought, purchased from an online website and delivered to somewhere in the world.

(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

(mubus7/Shutterstock.com)

I’m not surprised the population wants to invest in brands from around the globe and dress in apparel from their favourite stores from another continent. Worldwide deliveries, next-day shipments and ubiquitous shopping have opened up a global market for consumers and brands to take advantage of. And I, for one, am all for it.

My Dream Shopping Street

I started thinking about the analogy I mentioned earlier, about this never-ending shopping street with every single brand imaginable lined up along it. What a dream! But, of course, I’m not a fan of every single brand, so I decided to visualise what my ideal shopping street would actually look like. If I had a mile of road available and I could build any stores I wanted on it, this is what my shopping street would consist of. Coming up with this was one of the most fun things I’ve ever had to think up, so feel free to do the same!

It would start with Dior. For the special bag, shoes or couture item you or I might love to own, Dior would definitely be my brand of choice.

Next, there would be a few premium high-street favourites: Joseph, Reiss, All Saints, Whistles, J. Crew, Three Floor, Rixo, Me & Em, Ted Baker and Tommy Hilfiger. These are my go-tos for most of my fashion items.

(pio3/Shutterstock.com)

There would, of course, be a Selfridges store next to a LuisaViaRoma, Matches and Net-A-Porter pop-ups – I don’t want to go changing any brand’s retail strategy here. These are my favourite luxury online and offline department stores and I can’t get enough of the items they stock.

Next to these, a number of my favourite luxury brands for shoes: Stuart Weitzman, Gianvito Rossi, Valentino, Nicholas Kirkwood, Manolo Blahnik, Vetements, Saint Laurent, Malone Souliers, Sophia Webster and Aquazzura.

Then some of my favourites for accessories: a Strathberry store because they deserve to show off their gorgeous bags in more locations. Dolce & Gabbana, Bulgari, Chanel, Céline, Prada, Chloé, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton and a Mulberry store, because I tend to visit every one of these stores whenever I’m walking by.

Then we would have Max Mara for coats to die for. Self-Portrait for dresses that make me feel wonderful. Burberry for beautiful outerwear and knits. Balmain for statement items that give you the wow factor. Coach for T-shirts, knitwear and beautiful outerwear. Saint Laurent for awesome branded tees. Gucci for clothing with colour and recognisable pattern. Zimmermann and Jonathan Simkhai for the prettiest pieces and Temperley for the most feminine clothing.

There would be a Revolve store for amazing holiday clothes with an LA vibe, as well as a Levi’s, Paige, Hudson and GRLFRND Denim for the best jeans ever. Plus a Ray Ban for my sunglasses. If ASOS ever decided to create a store with all of their bestsellers, I’d definitely shop in it. A lot.

An Adidas and a Nike for fitness footwear as well as a Gym Shark pop-up, a Sweaty Betty and a Varley for activewear. I’d get my bikinis and swimwear from Melissa Odabash, Seafolly, PilyQ, Zimmermann, Bond-eye and Mara Hoffman, because they are all totally exquisite and uber-flattering.

I’d also add some of my favourite homeware and lifestyle stores: Urban Outfitters, Zara Home, Made, Oliver Bonas, Anthropologie and & Other Stories.

And because no shopping can be done without refreshment, I’d add Veggie Pret, Pizza East, Farmacy (my favourite Vegan restaurant in Notting Hill), the Burberry Thomas’s cafe, Joe & the Juice, Roka for amazing Japanese food and Australasia (my favourite Manchester restaurant), which again cooks up incredible Japanese cuisine.

Throw in the Plaza Athénée hotel and I would never leave this place.

(@inthefrow)

2

June 2000

ASOS changes the online shopping game

Kate Moss is photographed exiting a hotel in a beautiful black leather jacket in the year 2000. She looks amazing, but the jacket she’s wearing is the star of the show. Where can you buy it, and more importantly, where you can buy an affordable alternative that looks just as great? And that cute top that Jennifer Aniston is wearing in the latest episode of Friends, season seven. I want it, but I have no idea where to find it and neither do the other 10,000 women who saw the show and also fell in love with it. So sparks the ingenious idea, by Nick Robertson, to create a portal for items As-Seen-On-Screen, and ASOS is launched for every fashion-conscious person in the land. Here you could find and buy fashion alternatives to dress like your favourite star. A commercial idea for a celebrity-adoring population. It was one of the savviest ideas in the history of fashion.

Kate Moss (Steve Azzara/Corbis via Getty Images)

No other retailer had capitalised on the celebrity-outfit-dupes concept and culture in such an easy and affordable way. And by doing so, ASOS built up a loyal audience who would stick with them when they adapted their strategy to a dynamic fashion retail space.

That was in the year 2000. Sixteen years later, after a number of changes to their strategy, ASOS made £1,403.7 million in retail sales. In 2017, they were the biggest online-only (pure-play) retailer by sales in the world. ASOS were pioneers in an open marketplace, driving new ideas and pushing the boundaries when it came to customer service and shopping experiences. They were forward thinking with their delivery and returns processes (they’re the only fashion retailer to offer a year’s unlimited next-day delivery for £9.95 regardless of how much you spend), inspirational with their editorial, blog and social content and ingenious with their product-display techniques. I remember when I first stumbled onto ASOS back at university and ten years later, I’m still just as obsessed. I used to have asos.com as my browser’s homepage, just so that I could check the ‘new in’ section every single day before I even went to Google. The concierge in my building knew me personally because I would check for new parcels every day, and my flatmates almost had to hold an intervention. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little, but I was definitely mocked repeatedly for how many times a week I would place an order.

Nick Robertson (Andisheh Eslamboli/REX/Shutterstock)

(REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

Free deliveries and returns, catwalks for every product, style advice, sizing help and one of the biggest catalogues of products on the Internet. There are 4,000 new styles per week! But unlike many online retailers who stock alternative brands, ASOS stocks 44 per cent of its own product too, with 66 per cent of styles being unique to the company. They sell 850 brands and have warehouses in the UK, US and Europe, meaning they can ship to you wherever you are in the world – and that’s within a matter of days.

Not charging for returns or delivery was fundamental to the increase in customer acceptance. More people started to use and trust ASOS and this led to more trust in online shopping, encouraging more shoppers to become online purchasers. So the online selling space has a lot to thank ASOS for. It has thrived in its wake and the fashion retail space has never been the same since its launch. Thus, ASOS is definitely one of the biggest retail game-changers of the 21st century.

Reasons I love to shop online

1. Free returns – buy both sizes just in case and send back the one that doesn’t fit.

2. You never need to leave your house – pyjamas and a coffee in bed, scrolling through a website, is far more relaxing for me than pushing my way through Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon.

3. Everything is under one roof – if you physically shopped through the rails of every store you can find on ASOS, Net-A-Porter or even Selfridges online, it would take you hours to walk from door to door and shop to shop. Don’t get me wrong, I do love to physically shop too, when I’m in the mood, but I’m a converted online shopper through and through.

4. Style advice and ideas – that shirt that you love in the store, it doesn’t come with any style advice unless you saw it on a mannequin. Online, the retailer’s stylist and merchandisers will have styled it up for you, and hopefully provided links to every other product you can see the model wearing.

3

June 2000

Net-A-Porter rides the dotcom boom

Natalie Massenet hit the launch button on her revolutionary new idea. What if the population would like to buy luxury fashion online, from a curated selection of the best premium items in the market? Everyone in the industry had advised her against it. After all, it was only six years since the first item ever was sold online, and for Natalie, everything was riding on this idea being a success. What if no one wanted to spend thousands of pounds on handbags they had never seen in person? And what if the consumer wanted to go into the store to spend their hard-earned salary, rather than trusting an online website? Those questions among hundreds more could have halted Natalie in her tracks and stopped her from publishing the magazine-style shopping website for designer fashion, Net-A-Porter. She could have lost everything from investing in an idea that may have immediately flopped. But who knew that this venture would lead to 9.5 million orders made in 2017? Without a physical store to show off the products, or a changing room for customers to try them on, selling luxury fashion to an online consumer was risky business. But her gut instinct paid off, and Net-A-Porter is now one of the top 50 online-only retailers in the world. Luxury fashion was online and here to stay.

Natalie Massenet (Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Net-A-Porter started a trend. It showed the luxury world what could be done and how it could be a success. In its wake, the majority of luxury brands around the world began developing their own online stores. And it wasn’t just brands that followed – many companies were also looking to follow in Natalie’s footsteps. Mytheresa went online in 2006, Matches Fashion and Farfetch in 2007, Selfridges developed their e-commerce site in 2010 and Monnier Frères in 2011.

Luckily for other entrepreneurs with big ideas, there have been a number of success stories similar to Net-A-Porter. Pure-play retailers have a great advantage in terms of reduced costs on logistics and physical-store overheads, but they also benefit from their exclusivity. Miss it once and it’s gone forever. Thus, there are now a multitude of hugely successful, online-only retailers.

My favourite online success stories

Black Milk Clothing

Black Milk Clothing launched in 2009 selling colourful, unique leggings to the Australian consumer, swiftly becoming global and building a cult-like following. What started in the founders’ kitchen turned into a multi-million-dollar brand with millions of followers and a tribe of loyal customers. And they did it all with zero advertising budget. Word of mouth was all they needed; that, and a global distribution network, a product that was unique in the market and a cool social-media strategy.

Boohoo and Missguided

Boohoo and Missguided are further success stories from the North of England, both developing into huge online retailers with 2.5 million-plus Instagram followers and a foot firmly placed in the high-street retail market. It’s not surprising that in 2016 Missguided made £206 million in profits, while Boohoo made £294 million. And luckily for Boohoo, with such staggering profits they were also able to acquire the huge, yet recently bankrupt, American fashion brand Nasty Gal for £20 million.

Revolve Clothing

Revolve Clothing launched in 2003 in the hope of inspiring women with their youthful, Coachella-vibe clothing. Something fresh in a stale market. The brand exploded over the following years, creating an image that isn’t in any way replicable. They had a unique vision, took early advantage of the growing influence of bloggers and instagrammers (content-creators) and invested time in girls who would become unofficial ambassadors of the brand. Being part of the Revolve ‘family’ is cool and idolised, as their strategy involves lavish trips to the Hamptons, Mexico and the Turks and Caicos islands, and, of course, holding their own festival at Coachella. I can vouch for the trips being just as incredible as they look on social media. They set their goals and didn’t let up.

Triangl bikinis

Triangl bikinis started in 2012 and now turns over $45 million annually. It succeeded in a relatively unexplored marketplace with beautiful and affordable swimwear that broke the mould. And luckily, it garnered the attention of the likes of Miley Cyrus and Kendall Jenner, leading to a push in sales and a widespread frenzy to buy into the cool Australian brand. It now has over 2.8 million Instagram followers and is one of the most distinguishable swimwear brands in the world.

4

April 2001

Luxury for the masses

Whether or not you like to buy your new designer handbag from a boutique, you technically no longer have to. Chanel is one of the only stores to hold out entirely when it comes to selling anything online, and the company apparently doesn’t have any plans to change that any time soon. But every other brand, from Aquazzura to Zuhair Murad, stocks most, if not all, of their latest collections somewhere online. The iconic French luxury house of Hermès was surprisingly ahead of the market in April 2001 when they became one of the first luxury brands to launch their own e-commerce site. While back then it was perfumes and small leather goods that you could grab online, after a website refresh and a new strategy in 2017, the heritage brand now stocks almost everything that you can buy in their boutiques – apart from the famous Birkin and Kelly bags, which they will happily help you fall in love with instore.

(@harrison)

I understand why some may prefer to purchase their latest luxuries online. Shopping in designer stores can often be an intimidating experience. Even when I know I have money to spend, there are times when the eyes of the security guard(s), shop assistants and store manager just feel like they’re burning through your not-brushed-this-morning hair. When I was at university, my friends and I would feel out of place going into the Manchester Selfridges store, because we were students and didn’t have Gucci hanging off our arms.

It’s a big factor for a lot of people. Have you ever felt put off buying an item of clothing or an accessory from a store, because you were on your own and didn’t want to venture inside for fear of feeling uncomfortable? I’m sure there would be a show of hands. So many times, my other half, Alex, and I have wandered around luxury houses that I was intending to buy from, and a security guard has followed us because Alex – covered in tattoos, no hair and often in a band T-shirt – doesn’t look like a typical designer-brand wearer. Stereotyping at its best.

While Hermès was an early online adopter, the majority of luxury houses only started to move online in around 2012, ultimately making luxury fashion easier to access. A reason, I think, why so many were staying offline as long as they could. Accessibility often equals affordability, and that’s not what these stores were selling. Luxury items are supposed to come with an experience, an expectation and a high-quality display. How could the audience obtain those things via an image on a website? But the audience wanted it, and the retailers knew they needed to keep up with the consumer’s demand to shop anywhere and at any time.

The service from the majority of these sites is impeccable. I’ve bought online from Gucci, Dior, Max Mara, Stuart Weitzman and Self-Portrait and my purchases have all been perfectly wrapped and delivered for that perfect luxury, at-home experience. No shopping assistants or awkward glances included.

I adore shopping in luxury boutiques – Dior on Bond Street in London is my favourite store in the world. The interiors, the staff and the layout are just wonderful. But luxury buying has increased dramatically in the past six years or so due to the availability and ease with which you can purchase a pair of £600 shoes and have them delivered to your doorstep. And we will undoubtedly reach a point where everything, even that Hermès Birkin, can be customised, personalised and ordered from your couch at home.

(@inthefrow)

(@harrison)

Luxury shopping FAQs

As a blogger with a lust for luxury fashion and beauty, I often get asked about tips for buying and wearing designer accessories and clothing. So this is what I often reply to the top three FAQs:

How should I mix luxury and high street?

Buying an entire wardrobe of designer is not at all necessary. Great, if you have the disposable income, but not possible for probably 95 per cent of the world. Plus, you’ll be forever worrying about how best to wash everything you wear. Who has time for that when you just want to throw a white wash in the machine? My favourite way to wear designer clothing is to buy items that you know you will use extensively, that won’t need washing every time you wear them and can really enhance your look. For me, this includes bags, shoes and outerwear. The perfect dress I’d add in here too. So blend in your high street pieces: an amazing pair of trousers from ASOS, Topshop or All Saints, throw on a beautiful blouse from Reiss or Whistles and then layer over your new luxury jacket, add that designer bag to your arm and slip into those new designer heels. It’s my favourite way to enhance my whole look.

What is it worth spending your money on if you can only afford one luxury item?

If you’re looking to buy your first designer item, opt for a bag. It’s something you can wear every day, and if you choose the right colour, it will go with everything you own. I would usually suggest a robust, textured leather, black luxury handbag for the first item you invest in, as you can’t go wrong. It won’t pick up dirt easily, it won’t scratch significantly, it will match all of your outfits and you can wear it in any season. Either that or a navy or tan, depending on the colour tones you often wear.

(@inthefrow)

If you’re not a bag person, go for a pair of shoes. A pair that is appropriate for a lot of weather conditions and won’t ruin in the rain if you’re caught out without an umbrella. So stay away from suede and choose something in a slightly darker colour if you’re spending a lot of money. But if neither shoes nor bags are your thing then I’d suggest a coat. That coat you’ll always wear and get so much use out of. I have a navy Gucci wool coat that I couldn’t be without and it’s seen me through a number of seasons. I also own a few Balmain blazers, including a beautiful white tweed, which add a confident vibe to any outfit and go with pretty much anything in my wardrobe. And then I have a Burberry trench coat that works well in any weather. They’re bigger investments, but you’ll keep them in your collection forever, and probably hand them down later.

What’s your favourite luxury item you’ve ever bought?

This is a difficult question to answer, as I have only regretted one or two items I’ve ever bought. I have a Max Mara camel coat that has become a wardrobe staple. When I was younger, I would always look up to the women I saw strutting around in the most sophisticated camel coats, belted at the waist with the collar popped, and I dreamed of a day when I would own one. When that day came and I walked away with the coat of my dreams, I’d never loved an item of clothing more in my life. In my opinion, everyone, male or female, should have a camel coat in their collection.

(@harrison)

5

June 2005

Global connections for the smallest brands

I have found so many incredible, independent brands on my various shopping binges. I often scan the new-in sections of my favourite online department stores to see what’s on their rails, and by doing so, I’ve spotted items I adore from brands I’ve never heard of. Net-A-Porter, LuisaViaRoma, Selfridges, Matches or Mytheresa; I’ll hold up my hands and say that I scour these sites weekly to search for items to fall in love with. I’ve found beautiful jewellery brands, cool sportswear collections, stunning accessories retailers and even the most established of brands that had somehow previously bypassed my radar. And I don’t think I’m alone here. Without these huge online stockists, a lot of brands wouldn’t be given the recognition they deserve. It’s hard to be acknowledged when the market is saturated with messages and you’re not able to shout loud enough. While these sites may take a sizeable cut from the product sales and awareness that they enable, that percentage is probably worth it for brands that otherwise would have to rely on their physical or online store for word of mouth.

(@rawpixel/Unsplash.com)

We’re living in a world of possibilities and opportunities. Anyone can open their own store if they have something worthwhile to sell. Etsy revolutionised the marketplace for individual retailers in June 2005 by providing online storefronts for creative people selling handmade items. I remember the day when my step-dad decided he wanted to pursue a career in woodwork, and suddenly the house was filled with his creations; a beautiful coffee table, a kitchen worktop, shelving units, jewellery boxes, you name it. So I mentioned that he should start an Etsy store. A few years later and he’s managed to create and run a successful small business, all from our back-garden work shed.

It’s no longer just the largest of companies that are able to thrive. Social media has been a starting point for a number of upcoming brands to grow their business. Just look at Fashionnova and their rise to viral fame after countless social stars were paid to promote their clothing. They now have 12 million Instagram followers and a huge customer base. Whatever the strategy, as long as your product is good and your customers can find you, you’ve got the world at your feet.

Brands I fell in love with online

RIXO

RIXO was founded in 2015 by two London College of Fashion alumni with a love of vintage fashion. Their designs are so recognisable and desired all over the world, and again stocked at Net-A-Porter, which is where I stumbled upon their dresses. The prints and luxurious silks are always impeccable and it’s clear they are destined for amazing heights.

Saskia Diez

Saskia Diez is a German jewellery designer who opened her own online store in 2009, but who I personally found on Net-A-Porter in 2017. It is seldom that I buy items from brands that I don’t know much about, but I immediately fell in love with the delicacy of her creations and had added a pair of droplet earrings to my basket and checked out within five minutes. I’ve been hooked on her designs ever since.

Strathberry

Strathberry is a Scottish brand that is taking on the global accessories market. I personally met the owner in 2014 at a press day for new brands and their designs blew me away. But without this chance meeting, the Internet would have been my first introduction, as they were initially based purely online. They are now sold at Selfridges, Saks and Monnier Frères, inevitably opening them up to much wider audiences around the world. I followed their journey after our first meeting, as they followed mine, and we continued to chat and collaborate over the years since. With Meghan Markle becoming an avid fan of their bags, it catapulted the brand even further into the headlines and their bags sold out overnight. At the start of 2018, I launched my own collaboration line of bags and accessories with them, which again sold out overnight, much to my extreme elation. They’re bound to grow and grow, and I can’t wait to see all of their successes.

(Strathberry Collaboration Imagery)

6

April 2008

Inspiring a love of fashion

Five years ago, my other half didn’t own one luxury branded item of clothing. My accessories wardrobe is filled with a number of my favourite brands that I’ve collected over the years, from Dior to Chanel and Valentino, but my other half just wasn’t bothered. He wore his beaten-up Levi’s, Vans trainers and assortment of band T-shirts, and that was as far as his brand affiliations went. Which of course is absolutely fine; he rocked his style and it suited him. No one needs to own designer clothes if they’re not interested. But over the last couple of years I’ve noticed him becoming more interested in certain brands and trying new fashion styles. We all adapt our styles as we mature, but if you ask me, or him for that matter, it’s all down to the brands and clothing he’s seeing on his (or my) Instagram feed. He’s exposed to so many more styling ideas: those cool new trainers that just launched, that awesome logo-heavy hoodie, that new backpack. Fashion inspiration is everywhere – we cannot escape it.

Lookbook.nu was one of the first accounts I signed up to when I started blogging. It launched in April 2008 as a place to share a photo of your outfit, with a description of the items you’re wearing, and then other users can like it and comment. This platform is all about the love – no negativity or thumbs down are allowed, because what purpose does that serve? Lookbook was huge in its heyday, inspiring outfit ideas and serving as an image-based blog of sorts. That’s before hundreds of thousands of people started their own blogs to post their outfit shots on instead.

Two years later, Pinterest became another haven for those looking for visual advice on what to wear that day. I have scrolled the Pinterest feeds for OOTD (outfit of the day) inspo many a time when I’ve been at a loss for ideas. Pinterest’s filtering system is particularly useful; if you want to find outfits featuring the Dior Book tote or Louis Vuitton Capucine bag, you can. Thousands of them.

You only need to look at the abundance of university courses that have been established since the early 2000s, based on varying fashion topics from business to marketing and fashion design, to know that people want to learn more, see more and do more with fashion. But mainly, they want to dress better and feel better, and it’s because of the abundance of inspiration hitting their eyes every time they scroll.

Fashion is no longer an interest for a select few. It’s been opened up, democratised and offered up to the audience on a plate. In previous years, you would only see the latest Chanel Cruise Collection images if you actively searched for them. Now, they’re at the top of your newsfeed, gaining traction and being shared profusely – probably by you. The audience is hungry for the information, brand awareness is growing, bloggers are wearing the latest collections before they’re even on the shelves and everyone else wants to buy into these brands that their favourite online star is wearing every day. It’s an information and inspiration overload.

Christian Dior A/W17 (@inthefrow)

Even my mum, who has always liked fashion but not actively followed it or cared too much about brands and the industry, is trying new styles and outfits that she’s seen others wearing online. People are experimenting more, finding their own style and learning about trends, collections, brands and the way the industry ticks without even actively searching for that information. Personally, I’m so pleased to see more people gain their confidence and find an interest in the way they present themselves. If my wearing a short dress can inspire someone to buy it and wear a short dress for the first time, and feel amazing, then hell yes for inspiration. Let’s have more of it!

Where I look for fashion inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere. Like I said, you can’t escape it. But when I really want to find it, I do a number of things:

1. If I’m just hoping to be inspired by new items and how to wear them, I often spend a few hours going through the new-in collections of all my favourite online stores. Or, if I’m in the city, I’ll pop into their shops. Normally, you’ll quickly start spotting styles, shapes, fabrics or prints that overlap from store to store, so you can pick out the key pieces for the season.

2. Bloggers are popular for a reason – they’re often very good at spotting the best items in the stores. I find myself popping over to my favourite blogs when I’m in a funk and need some inspo, just to see what they’re wearing and how they’re styling.

3. Magazines are my go-to when I’m travelling. On planes or trains, if I have no work to do, I love opening the pages of Vogue, Elle and Porter magazine to check out the brand adverts and shopping pages, as they are often filled with the latest items to hit the stores.

4. Online magazines are another way to find fashion-styling inspo. I especially love Glamour online, which I am very proud to have started writing a fashion column for in 2018, as well as Marie Claire, Refinery29 and Cosmo. I just click through their latest fashion articles to see what’s trending.

5. Instagram, of course, is daily inspiration. Scrolling through my feed, I like to save the images that show items I want to buy or styles I want to try.

6. Pinterest is another weekly place I like to visit, to see what their top pins are and what others might be loving right now. Making your own pinboards also helps, when you want to save particular outfits or pictures that you love to come back to later.

7

July 2008

Retail goes mobile

What was the last phone app you used? Instagram, Twitter, Notes, Calculator, Mail? Whatever you want to do, there’s an app for it, and I hold my hands up in saying that I spend most of my life moving between about 10 apps on a daily basis.

When the iPhone app store was launched in July 2008, it was a space for games, social media apps and news sites. An assortment of 500 apps to kick-start what would become a rapidly growing hub of iPhone software. So rapidly growing that the number of apps now exceeds 2.8 million. The capabilities of our regular mobile phones got upgraded to the max and Internet efficiency enabled us to start using our phones on the go without having to wait 10 minutes for a webpage to load. It feels like a lifetime ago that the UK was upgraded to 4G in 2012, but now the idea that we used to survive on slow 3G connections seems laughable. It was 3G and 4G capabilities that catapulted ubiquitous mobile usage into the mainstream and now … well, we can buy anything we want from anywhere we want, as long as we have a connection.

(@benjaminrobyn/Unsplash.com)

(Billion Photos/Shutterstock.com)

Over the three years when I was researching for my PhD – focused on the app designs of our fave UK fashion retailers – I spotted all of the updates, upgrades and newly launched native mobile apps. Native apps are the ones you download on the app store that have been built specifically by the brand. It became a craze; every retailer needed one and they were all jumping on board, one after another.

These native apps and responsive mobile websites became more and more user-friendly as retailers started to realise just how important they were to sales. Larger buttons, scrollable images, one-click purchases and all that jazz. Just little tweaks that helped the mobile customer to shop the same way they would on a desktop, but in a handy, travel-sized format. The experience got so handy that it now encourages 66 per cent of ASOS’s customers to search and shop via their mobile. Very handy for ASOS, too.

While I was researching apps, I didn’t realise just how quickly I would fall out of love with them. They were so useful, but now I find myself heading straight to my web browser and searching for a website instead. It’s probably because I spend so much time on a desktop that I am used to shopping via a browser, and I’m in a habit of doing so. Perhaps I just need to give apps another chance, as it’s probably been three years since I used a retail app to shop. Yet ASOS (always innovating) have launched a feature on their native app that enables users to buy now and pay later. It’s only available via the app and will have acquired an entirely new audience for the brand. It’s such a clever concept and a brilliant way to keep people coming back to the mobile app time and time again.

However, as long as the retailer has optimised their website to be responsive to mobile screens, they’re likely to be benefiting from the huge waves of mobile traffic. Even for my blog, more than 50 per cent of my traffic is via mobile and tablets rather than a desktop computer. Brands had better make their mobile sites responsive, or their consumers won’t be.

(Sofie Delauw/Getty Images)

My most-used apps and why they’re amazing

Back when native apps were all the rage, I had app folders filled with my favourite high-street stores, so I could shop them on the go. But as I tend to use my browser for shopping instead these days, I thought I’d share the other apps that I use on my phone daily, and why they’ve become my go-to. I even checked my phone to see which were my most-used:

1. Instagram is number one, for obvious reasons. I’m almost embarrassed to say that 48 per cent of my battery life is spent on the ‘gram in 24 hours. I can spend hours just scrolling the feed, gathering ideas and swooning over how cute my friends’ dogs are.

2. Twitter is my place to read the news. I search through the latest trending stories and moments to catch up, and scroll the feed for a few minutes to see if I’ve missed anything happening in the blogging world.

3. Mail, of course. Every minute or so there’s a new email popping up, so I can’t escape it. I try to answer any emails as soon as they come in – I’m either proactive, or they will only be replied to the week after.

4. Lightroom CC is my go-to app for photo editing. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it allows for so much more control over your imagery, colours and style. I tend to edit on my desktop, but I’m using the app more and more these days.

5. WhatsApp is my way of keeping in contact with friends around the world. My best girlfriends are scattered across a few different continents, so we have a number of groups to allow us to continuously catch up.

6. Camera, because the iPhone camera just keeps getting better and better. Who needs a DSLR anyway?

7. Planoly is the app I use for planning out my Instagram feed. You can drag and drop your images around your picture board to create a faux feed, so you can check if your new photo will fit your aesthetic.

8. YouTube is my everyday go-to for relaxation and time out. If I’m doing my make-up in the morning, cooking, sitting in the bath, I’ll usually have a YouTube video playing in the background.

9. Notes I use daily. Whether I’m coming up with ideas and need to write them down, or need to send a note to my desktop from my phone over iCloud, I’ll write it into Notes and wait for it to appear on my other connected devices. I have Notes for most things going on in my life, to keep me organised.

10. Dropbox is my favourite for storage. My other half and I have one Dropbox between us that we throw work into when we need to ensure it’s backed up. Plus, it’s a great way to upload files from one device to another if your Airdrop isn’t working or if your device isn’t Apple.

8

March 2011

Kate sells out the Burberry trench

The fashion world went crazy when they saw the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, wearing that Reiss dress for her engagement photos, and the Polly Pushlock Mulberry handbag on a flight to Canada back in 2011. The items sold out in stores faster than the photographs could be printed. In the same year, the Burberry trench coat she wore sold out within hours, as did a £40 Topshop dress she wore back in 2007. This was before the days of Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, when online news outlets, TV shows and magazines were the first to pick up stories and publish them.

Then we saw Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, selling out the stock levels of Scottish accessories brand Strathberry in 2017 when she carried their tote to a charity event. The world once again saw the power of the Royals, and other influential faces, for selling out products in abundance. I was in the midst of designing my own collaboration collection with Strathberry when the images of Meghan broke. I was delighted. It sure did throw some more eyes onto a brand that I had loved for years.

Viral products are a phenomenon. An item suddenly picks up hype and goes out of stock overnight. A celebrity might wear it, a blogger might style it or a social star is paid to promote it. Suddenly the world and their mother own it and it becomes the most coveted item on the web. You may have noticed it happen in recent years with the popularity of the Chloé Faye handbag, Dior feminism T-shirts, Valentino Rockstuds, Supreme clothing, the Chanel Boy bag or a pair of Yeezy trainers. The more people wear it, the more people want it.

I remember the days of Von Dutch baseball hats, Rockport boots, Burberry baseball caps and Juicy Couture velour tracksuits – trends that exploded organically, even before the web, image-sharing sites or blogs. But now we’re in a place where there are a multitude of platforms through which you can promote yourself and be noticed, and it takes just one significant moment, or a culmination of moments, to send a product into a viral frenzy.

Kylie Jenner in Von Dutch (Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images)

How to spot and buy a viral item

This is a tough one – a huge social star with 100 million followers could share a product and it may go out of stock within hours. In that case, you’re out of luck unless you immediately google every retailer that might sell it. Use key words to describe the item you’re looking for, and the chances are Google will find it in the images or shopping tabs.

Viral items are not just the products that sell out before you’ve even spotted them, though. Rather, they’re the products that you see everywhere for a day or a week before they suddenly end up sold out in every store. Usually it’s because the blogging and Instagram community have caught on to a particular trend. They’re featuring it on their stories and Instagram feeds, so that product ends up going out of stock in a matter of days. That’s certainly what happened for the Aquazzura Christy pumps in 2015, the double-G Gucci belt, the black Balenciaga Knife boots, the Dior bandeau bra with the contrast straps and the Dior T-shirts from the same line by Maria Grazia Chiuri. All of these products were all the rage until the point when you couldn’t get your hands on them.

The best way to spot the items that are blowing up is to follow as many of the top fashion Instagrammers and bloggers as you can. If you start to notice one particular product appearing constantly during your scrolling, the chances are you’re looking at a viral product.

9

November 2013

Michael Kors is first to sponsor an Instagram ad

Can you even remember the days when you logged on to your social media account and it was only your friends’ pictures that would show up in the feed? I remember reading articles suggesting that Facebook was eager to start monetising the platform – to take advantage of the billions of accounts that logged in every day. I was so disappointed. I knew it would mean advert after advert slotted in between Natalie’s baby-scan photo and David’s booze-cruise snaps, and I didn’t want this friendly platform to change. But everything is different now. Nothing is free and you can’t spend a minute online without seeing someone promoting something or other. I can’t complain; as a blogger, I’m part of this issue.

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