Almost Girl

Here is my interview in French Vogue translated. And while I do speak French, of course it was originally done in English so here it is. They took some stuff out so I just posted my full answers without any of the editing. I hope this doesn’t feel a tad too involved but what the heck!

Who are you ? Can you draw your selfportrait in 5-10 lines?
I am an entrepreneur and a blogger.I am a young woman who believes deeply in the social, intellectual, and artistic value of fashion. Because of my education at the University of Chicago I am deeply committed to the ideal of academically rigorous fashion coverage. Fashion effects everything we do in life, whether we are conscience of said effect or not, and as such it is a subject that should be studied and explored with the utmost seriousness.

What is your relation to fashion (are you a professional?)
Now I am! When I graduated from university my academic pedigree was not something that was wanted in the human resources departments of the magazines. I got in the door but couldn’t get a real job. But I desperately wanted to be part of the industry and to be a fashion professional. Thus I took my interest in fashion into my own hands and set about getting into fashion through the backdoor. Through Coutorture Media I slowly but surely have become every bit the involved professional as every other editor in New York City. On behalf of the two hundred blogs in the network and hundreds of thousands of readers in our network I attend press previews, showroom events, and parties so that we have photographs, videos, and editorial coverage of every major fashion event that occurs in New York City. You could say we are the one experiment in which citizen journalism has worked. Coutorture has shown people that new media is every bit as serious, professional, and interesting as the fashion books when push comes to shove. In that sense I would say that yes I am a professional. I work the equivalent of full time on behalf of the Coutorture community.

When and how did you start blogging?
I began blogging in March of 2005 as a way of taking control of my online identity. In order to keep it up on a daily basis I had to find a subject that was constantly fascinating to me no matter what my mood. That subject of course was fashion and it has kept me blogging for 18 months now.

What is your blog motto?
Where Plato and Prada Meet. Almost Girl as a blog focuses on the intersection of academics and fashion with a solid dose of industry coverage. I view fashion through multiple lens; sociology, economics, business, and politics all influence my writing. I was trained as a classicist, loving the Greek ideals of both wisdom and beauty. Sadly in modernity these traits are taken to be opposites Thus by taking two supposedly opposites, wisdom and beauty, and personifying them in Plato and Prada I hope I can show people that these ideals go hand in hand in the fashion industry.

Can you tag its main topics ? (10-20 words)
The fashion industry, designers, public relations, academics, the business of fashion.

What was your blog moment of glory?
Gosh, there have been so many moments; an interview with Cathy Horyn, an dandruff ridden encounter with Karl Lagerfeld, being commended in Women’s Wear Daily for my coverage of Fashion Week. However, I would say Almost Girl’s shining moment is a toss up between interviewing Anna Wintour of American Vogue and my review of Oscar De La Renta’s Pre-Fall Collection. Approaching Anna and having her agree to an interview was an exhilarating moment and was quite controversial in the blogospehere. Sadly I was cut off by a publicist before I could finish but Anna was exceptionally amenable to talking. I am very proud of my subsequent writing on the encounter. My review of Oscar collection however is much more reflective of the work that I do, weaving together fashion and intellect. When Alex Bolan the CEO of Oscar De La Renta told me that Oscar enjoyed reading my review I knew that my fashion blogging had made it.

What was your year 2006’s favorite fashion moments?
2006 was not a great year for fashion. We were in a transition moment between two ideals of fashion, extroversion and introversion which I think muddled perspectives in many ways. I would say my favorite moment came not in the collections but while attending Premiere Vision’s brief stay in New York City. Watching the creative team weave together trends forecasts for Fall/Winter 07/07 was a joyous experience. The duel idea of enveloping roundness and offensive resistance seemed so right for the moment of fashion we are moving into. I guess that means I prefer the development of fashion to the actual existence in some ways. My moments are about becoming rather than being. Which I suppose is how fashion should be appreciated.

Which are your favorite fashion magazines in the world ?
French Vogue! No seriously, you are the only fashion magazine I read. When I discovered fashion blogging I found I so appreciated the many perspectives of the authors that I didn’t have a need for fashion magazines personally anymore. That isn’t to say I won’t pick them up but as someone who is largely disinterested in fashion editorial spreads, once I found another source for commentary then fashion magazines lost relevance for me. I don’t care for spreads and frankly magazine commentary often just isn’t as good as the bloggers. If I had to pick a magazine I like it would be Lucky. I enjoy the perspective and I find it useful.

How many hours do you spend blogging on a daily basis?
I spend roughly 1-2 hours blogging each day. Some days when I have a particular interesting piece I might spend much longer. On Coutorture though I spend several hours each day editing.

How many visitors come daily on your blog?
I get on average 6 to 7 thousand impressions per day.

What is your blog income? and your 2007 forecast?
I make no money off of Almost Girl. I run no ads so there is no income. This is mostly due to the fact that there are no aesthetically pleasing ads available. Google ads are tacky and other ads tend to be large, pink, and owned by someone else. This is a huge problem in the blogosphere frankly as advertisers do not know how to reach blogs. One goal I have with Coutorture is to create a network of top quality high fashion ads for the blogosphere. We have the readers and marketers want to reach our audiences, so now the question is coming up with high quality ads.

In that sense I estimate if I ran ads for the standard 15CPM for one ad I think fashion bloggers deserve, assuming my traffic does not grow, I could make about 40K a year just from blogging on Almost Girl. Just by running a banner ad or two.

Have you already get ticket to attend fashion shows?
Yes. Women’s Wear Daily actually featured my fashion coverage of the Fall06 collections. We still experience some trouble from the old school public relations firms like Pierre Rogier and KCD but largely publicists recognize my reach (and the reach of the network) and provide very good seating for us. I attended over 80 shows this last fashion week so I would say I am getting enough tickets and if I don’t have a ticket I manage to get in anyway to report. I have gotten spoiled in truth. I used to be excited to have a ticket at all and now I get worried about seat placement just like everyone else.

How do you see bloggers’ future? (Becoming journalists, sitting next to them, or staying far away from them?)
I think that this is an unfair question in some sense. What bloggers do is very different from editors in many ways. Blogging is largely an adjunct to the fashion magazine industry. Really good bloggers will certainly have a chance to move in both circles but I don’t see blogging as competing with journalists or even necessarily needing to be compared to them. People blog for different reasons so any one end result would be a folly. I personally blog the way I do because I think fashion coverage should be more in-depth and intellectually rigorous. If there was a place I could do that as I journalist I would but until that happens I will make my voice heard online.

Who are fellows bloggers you appreciate the most?
My favorite blogger on this good earth is Susanna Lau of Style Bubble. She is a UK based blogger and her talent and enthusiasm astound me daily. She always has something fresh and honest to say. I also enjoy Kathleen Fasanella of Fashion Incubator. Her blog is like a DIY guide for budding designers. She helps design entrepreneurs find the tools and means to succeed. Other blogs I enjoy are Kingdom of Style, The Budget Fashionista, and the many other blogs that make up the Coutorture network. Each one of them has a unique and interesting voice that really adds to the fashion dialogue. I am so proud of the growth we have experienced together in the last year and I can’t wait to see what 2007 will hold.

Any comment to add ?
Of course I am very proud of the work that I do on Coutorture. Coutorture itself provides much of the support for the wider fashion blogosphere and I believe has been one of the driving forces behind the recognition of fashion blogging by the fashion industry. Every day we push to make our bloggers better known and recognized with public relations firms, with designers, with the fashion books, and with hopefully soon advertisers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 4:16 pm and is filed under And Now For Something Positive, Coutorture, My Glamorous Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.