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



Zara is finally online!

Zara is probably my favourite high street shop (apart from Topshop and Cos) and I have been waiting ages for them to catch up with online retailing.
Well, they have finally done it! I was ready to be blown away by their merchandise like I am in their shops, but I was very disappointed instead. Their lookbook is beautiful, clean and trendy, as shown above, but once you go into the online shop it seems like you walked into a completely different shop. The styling is very mumsy and the clean and chic style that Zara is known for is not being communicated.
The shoes and handbags are presented nicely, but they could do with a zoom tool here.

What do you think?

Summer Stripes!

I know it's a little early to think of summer when I am still knitting winter snoods but I just can't get enough striped tees!  It seems like I have been accidentally collecting stripes all year desperately hunting for the perfect one. Then I walked into Zara, it seems they can't get enough of stripes either, the entire new collection is full of striped cotton dresses, blazers, tees with chains on the shoulders, red stripes, blue stripes...you get it.
Looks like all I had to do was wait a year to find them.

Update!  My friend came into work today wearing a $29 Zara striped top with shoulder pads and dripping chains. What a great trend item to get all the looks in one for cheap!

updated: 29.01.10

Cover Up

The Snood. I have wanted a cozy cover up ever since I saw the Missoni AW09 show and now that there is a chill in the air I went looking. I found mine at Zara for £19 and I cannot take it off, it is so cute and cozy and I love the look when you pull it up like a hood.