Style blogs and their selling power

I have to admit, most of my shopping is fueled from reading other blogs. I will be minding my own business going through my daily blog reads and all of a sudden I find myself in an online checkout because of what I just saw someone wearing or writing about.

The main reason is that I think the way some bloggers (especially Elin Kling from Style by Kling) style themselves is far superior to the way the retailer may style the same piece. (Well Elin is a professional stylist and has and H&M collection out in Sweden right now).

Take a look at the two images above. Which coat would you buy? The coat that Elin is wearing looks cool and casual, whereas I think the coat on the right from Zara.com looks a bit dumpy. You can buy this Zara coat online for £119 here! ;-) 

This is exactly the reason why so many bloggers get stuff for free! Retailers know that a blog can fuel the need for a product when you see someone wearing or talking about it. It is virtual word of mouth and it clearly works on me.

photo: left-StylebyKling.net, right-zara.com



Worldwide Fashion Night Out

Free Champagne, mini cupcakes, discounts, Hermes scarf tying sessions and photoshoots in Liberty. Free beer, mini cheeseburgers, exclusive t-shirts, and free manicures. This all happened one night when I told my friends that I could show them a good time without spending a dime. Cities all over the world including London, Paris and New York held Vogue's Fashion Night Out to enliven the consumer spirit. Most shops in London were serving free drinks and other goodies to get us a little tipsy to buy things.




The icing on the mini cupcake of the evening was walking into The Gap on Kingly Court and viewing Garance Dore's illustrations drawn larger than life on the walls downstairs along with her photos and an inspiration wall. The Gap let her do three t-shirt designs and they produced only 69 pieces (to coincide with The Gap's new denim line and establishment year 1969), and I was lucky enough to buy the design with the red frames! I was only sad to find out that Garance had left that morning to New York and so I will have to wait to speak to her again.