Alexa Chung: Blogging & Building Your Platform | S2, E4 | Future of Fashion I British Vogue

in this series we've been milking New York City dry of the fashion industry's most influential in intriguing business savvy players this week for the final installment of our educational staycation we're rising to the ultimate fourth challenge delving deep into one of the 21st century's greatest literary inventions the fashion blog hi guys in order to do the subject justice will be rattling through a quick potted history of the evolution of the medium before looking to the future with a woman who's found huge success the unlikely combination of bar humor and high fashion Leandra Medine of Man Repeller thank you so much for watching my show don't forget to subscribe to the British Vogue YouTube channel thank you very much I would like the cheong and it is on in the last series I saw a couple of comments where they thought we were being disparaging about bloggers and I actually must admit that I felt very threatened by the blogging community when they first appeared on the scene because suddenly they were sitting crumpled in Fashion Week and as a highbrow it girl no but everyone was like what are they weirdly doing it I think people really scared of them because they had so much power suddenly and so quickly years ago today exactly actually I started a fashion blog called style rookie the rise of the blogger is arguably one of the most disruptive fashion innovations of the past decade in the early to mid-2000s driven by the magical combination of easy online publishing and inexpensive digital photography a handful of fashion fanatics across the world began to publish online Diaries featuring candid clothing reviews emotive style musings and wonderfully naive DIY fashion shoot every guy this is Brian mm 17 early pioneers included Patricia Hans idols style diary the ever exuberant Brian boy London's finest Suzy bubble queen of sheet gallon store a and kooky eleven-year-old tavi Gevinson of style rookie who floored the competition with her preteen take on high fashion Gordon like yeah a new form of fashion media was born and the most meticulous ly managed and regularly updated of these blogs swiftly built a loyal fan base of viewers as far as the industry was concerned this Democratic movement with the rug right out from under their feet as if from nowhere these hugely influential blogging behemoths appeared selectively reviewing and publicizing fashion products free from the constraints of traditional advertising funded journalism this is Natalia really clutch which somebody was stuck for a dog they bought a a dish of water it was a waiter story of the day great moments past as Brian boy gets a bag in his namesake designed by his hero Marc Jacobs Alexander Wang and Rodarte dedicate their front road to blogging's finest Emily Weis launches into the gloss and Tavi enrages numerous fashion journalists with her view blocking headgear of gargantuan proportions as fashion weeks come and go bloggers fill the front row ranks and a new fast-paced low-budget unfiltered and highly personal journalism becomes the norm images flow freely and instantly from catwalk to a global online audience and the way we experience fashion changes forever moving into 2012 or so there's a second wave post blog environment the cat is well and truly out of the bag and the Internet is flooded with fashion blogs it's a case of survival of the fittest and only the superior specimens survive Instagram arrives and selfie cameras elevate narcissistic tendencies to a whole new level but it's not all bad news in an age of over saturation simply posting a picture of your cute outfit and pageboy Bob just doesn't cut the mustard to be relevant you've got to have a voice and more importantly something to say I live happier the focus table passionate fashion and the most successful bloggers mobilize their influence branching out into activism design podcasting and more it's come a long way from where it all started I think that's yeah we are on our way to into Leandra who started a blog called Man Repeller which is hugely popular than millions of followers on Instagram I don't know how you measure success in blogs but imagine lots of sign ups traffic's will ask her have you heard of Man Repeller it's like this blog to go on blogs do you know what a blog is blog sorry it's like writing in a diary and then giving it out to million people she's called Leandre yeah yeah hello hi sorry bit late for going you look nice hey where's your skirt from Topshop shop what for Man Repeller started as a college project authored by journalist in training Leandra Medine whose self-deprecating comedic fashion focused commentary hit a real chord with women all over the US and beyond so this is typically what an editorial meeting looks like Alexa thanks over a period of six years since the blog was conceived she's won awards topped a multitude of power lists published a book and has developed Man Repeller into one of the most respected voices in the industry do you have no ideas a bad idea policy no ideas a bad idea know that we do not have that policy what we have learned is that many ideas are bad idea unsurprisingly she's got the cream of the crop of young women queuing up for a job in the no hoe office as she forges crunchy colorful new paths in fashion publishing so this is a resume that we just received for someone who'd like to intern at mera pehla this summer oh my god how amazing so the instead of ingredients she's got language proficiency Spanish 100 English hundred percent French fifty percent how key Oh she calls his Froot Loops in a world of Cheerios that's why she chose her boobs Siri is literally Syria you what did you study at university I went to school for journalism and I started Man Repeller when I was a junior to hand in with my resume when I applied for jobs at New York magazine and The New Yorker mm-hmm because those were the two places I wanted to work but what what came before Man Repeller were there any other blogs out there I had a blog before Man Repeller yeah gone telephone was cools burgers and bagel real nice the byline was just kidding this has nothing to do with bagel and how did you come up with the name Man Repeller and how bored you of that question well no I'm actually not bored of that question because every time I every time I'm asked it I get to answer it and every time I answer it it gets a little bit spicier like I start you know peppering new deep-lying basically not lying I was broken up with my husband at the time and he wasn't my husband yet he was like a ex-boyfriend right and I was also dating another guy and another guy right were you doing that new okhla thing well you can date multiple people without at one time well I thought I was I felt so cool I was like riding this high horse and I'm like look at me I'm dating three guys at once each and every one of them is obsessed with me and then I had this realization that none of them actually liked that I was still single it's Saturday night and I'm watching a movie with my mom mm-hmm so that's how you came up with memorable so I was complaining to my friend about this while we were at Topshop and she was like why are you so surprised look at all the clothing you're about to try on and I was like oh and then we went into the dressing room and I took off my pants and she's like my last time you got a bikini wax and that's how Man Repeller was born so do you think you have to have a bikini wax to get a boyfriend no but I don't think it's unhelpful if you want to have a boyfriend who's going to pleasure you with his mouth right I'm sorry I said that that's okay it's probably not gonna make the car it's hard for one to remember and cast your mind back to a moment before memorable existed and that terminology was bandied around did that phrase exist before you made it a thing no the phrase did not exist but I think that man rappelling which is essentially dressing for yourself regardless of what that means is a social condition that has existed in fashion since its establishment eight traction really really fast I think partially because I was very active on Twitter and I think as a result of that a couple of editors at places like refinery29 in fashionista and the New York Daily News were following me and so when I started posting links to articles they would see them and then write about them on there so you were giving them content for free basically and they'd be like oh look at this funny new website it's called Man Repeller and then Refinery picked it up and then the New York Daily News reached out and then six months after I started the New York Times profiled me and I was like that's it I'm done this is the end of it finished see you later I can't wait to tell my kids I was in the New York Times in 2012 but then I was wrong it wasn't done the number one question people Google a lot is how the blogs make money mm-hmm that'll books right now I'm just kidding when I started Man Repeller brands would email me and say either we'd love to collaborate with you or do you sell advertising and I was managing it on my own and just you know pulling it out of my butt all right like Nasty Gal was our first advertiser and they were like we'd love to run banner ads and I was like that will be $2,000 please first up I don't know how much money that is I was like no okay I was a better online business most people charge them based on a cost per impression or a cost per click okay they don't just charge flat fees I say you know like when you're younger and you play Bank no because like I was busy literally sitting in a field drawing my horse okay while you were playing bangs I was like I wish the Pippi had pink hair so we sold some banner ads or I sold some banner ads but not really it was mostly collaborations with other brands so I did I made a trench coat with a brand called Griffin that's no longer in existence but that was because of your collaboration problem on another MacGuffin mm-hmm so collaborations appearances okay ready guys action hi guys it's me Leandre and today we're gonna paint some happy clouds on my face no we're not and everything is so different now with Instagram so many of the blogs that were around when I started are no longer they no longer really have a presence on desktop because they just do a program yeah how is that become up and pullin pause I don't this well because it's that's a lot of influence right it's become a new form of media Instagram people charge as much as like ten thousand dollars for a post mmm and they make that and then they probably go to saline and buy necklaces you don't do those days no we don't do that because our head of monetization really understood Man Repeller right off the bat and that our metric of success was going to be measured in influence and quality versus actual quantity mm-hmm and she has a very very good sense of what works for us and what doesn't so I've never actually had to put in place a strategy for her because her taste is just so on point were you always this confident or did you gain confidence through your sight doing really well do you think I'm confident you're taking a risk which I think some people are kind of intimidated by the idea of putting themselves out there even right well I definitely trust my instinct every I trust my gut and I think I have good ideas yeah even though sometimes they're not good ideas there's a difference in my mind between an entrepreneur and a smart businessperson I think that I'm much more entrepreneurial than I am actually business savvy okay you know so I'm a very innovative thinker and I'm certainly ahead of what's going to happen well in terms of media but I freeze when the operational stuff comes up one actually comes time to hire a new developer or look for an Operations person I'm just like I can't do this when you're interviewing for new people to join the team what are you asking about and how relevant is their degree or something that they've had work experience at in terms of what you're looking for for the more operational and tedious roles that work experience is obviously really important but mostly I like to get a sense of the people like what do they do on weekends how do they respond to situations if we're at restaurants are they thank you to the waiter or waitress when they're coming by that's always a pretty good way to measure what kind of people they are sometimes you just get a really good feeling about someone when you sit down with them can you break down what some of the people in this office for example are doing so we have a deputy editor who's essentially my creative right-hand then we have a photographer who shoots all of the original content a managing editor who manages making sure that all of our contributors are hitting their deadlines then we have a social media director and a Content strategist because you know the homepage on a website isn't really a homepage anymore only like 15% of our traffic hits the home page most people are coming in sideways while a media Twitter feed the Facebook right and then we have a sales team and they just work on bringing in the monies what advice would you give anyone that's trying to start their own media company slash blog hmm so the thing I say beyond be really nice be streamlined don't try to be something for everyone just be everything for someone is that even beyond actually coming up with your concept it's really important to remain vulnerable because you're you're very very honest with yourself when you're feeling vulnerable and it's sort of like self-awareness that comes out of that vulnerability is often very very helpful in your decision-making process hmm so be vulnerable remember where your priorities are and keep that in mind that's lovely and open your legs yeah I really found it inspiring to talk to Leandra immediately sort of took her advice and started telling my colleagues different ideas for how we could run our business it's interesting to see how fashion is evolving and I think all these brands are turning into media companies in their own right because they have to and the shopping experience is far beyond brick-and-mortar at this point it's like that might be the flagship and there's justification for having those shops like opening ceremony which has turned into basically a storytelling experience but that's not the be-all and end-all of the customers interaction with your brand incorporating tech can actually provide your business with even more of a backbone I think the takeaway thing from talking to all of those people has been that they managed to find the right partners in order to become successful if you're not very good at the business side or logistics then you should admit that and find someone that is and vice versa there's plenty of jobs out there for you and you know they're very much needed to people watching this I hope that they are inspired to just explore I think I think the thing that we've learnt from this series and the last is that there's so many benefits to doing internships in a number of different career options because all of that will feed in one day so just knowing more about your craft and it takes on like Brian Phillips he was working at a magazine and doing editorial and her huge interest in art and then he's parlayed that into a fantastic business model with black frame who provide that wonderful crossover you know stop feeling like there's a limited pool of things you can do because if something's oversaturated then why not be entrepreneurial and make up your own thing you don't have to always follow the crowd and actually the world would benefit from more creative exciting things I ran out of steam I'm tired leave me alone they talked to so many people so now I'm gonna nap and dream of fashion as per usual and that's it another series of the future of fashion draws to an end I'm off to continue my quest for world domination and bigger sleeves thank you so much for watching thank you so much for recommending this to your friends thank you and as ever subscribe to the British Vogue YouTube channel where I will see you soon bye for your comments in the Box gonna go down the stairs now you

Channel: British Vogue

Views: 434,784

Rating: 4.9725237 out of 5

Keywords: alexa chung, british vogue alexa chung, alexa, chung, alexa chung makeup tutorial, alexa chung vogue, alexa chung hair, alexa chung makeup, alexa chung hair tutorial, alexa chung style, alexa chung 2016, alexa chung interview, future of fashion, fashion tips, British vogue, fashion, vogue, vogue video, british, british fashion, vogue magazine, british style, Beauty, wall group, blogging, building your platform, how to build platform, Leandra Medine, Man Repeller

Id: LFrLvNazQAI

Length: 16min 54sec (1014 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 29 2016