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 (#ulink_682dc894-1043-5ec3-9110-0992302e7d1b)
Be accessible and easy to find (#ulink_682dc894-1043-5ec3-9110-0992302e7d1b)
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 (#ulink_28a790b1-238a-5452-a00c-b2d8c0592b96)
August 1994
Get ready to shop the globe (#ulink_28a790b1-238a-5452-a00c-b2d8c0592b96)
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 (#ulink_211d8f9b-2258-5db3-aeda-db50c82ee574)
June 2000
ASOS changes the online shopping game (#ulink_211d8f9b-2258-5db3-aeda-db50c82ee574)
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)
