Mulberry Hits Wilderness Festival

I haven't been able to go on Instagram this week without seeing EVERYONE I follow posting photos from Mullberry at Wilderness festival. I am #welljel. Mulberry hit the festival to celebrate the line of handbags model of the moment Cara Delevingne has designed with Mulberry. The brand hosted a picnic at the arts festival, invited loads of Cara's cool celeb mates, added some press and lots of Champagne filled picnic baskets. With a combination like that, no wonder it was a great success.

This event has Instagram written all over it, which is a great for any brand these days. The picnic's setting was typical Mulberry: a walled garden in the grounds of a beautiful English estate, which was decorated with hay bales set amongst the purposefully over-grown grass, golden heart-shaped balloons imprinted with the iconic Mulberry logo, a 'Cara-Van' and Mulberry-check picnic blankets to top it off.

Not only did they host the chicest festival picnic ever for press and celebs, they also created a 'Mulberry Loves Craft'  tent that allowed festival go-ers (and yes that's the dreamboat Douglas Booth having a go too in the image below..) to make their own customised and monogrammed Mulberry leather bracelets. This is a great idea that allows for interaction with the brand, and gives people the chance to have a slice of Mulberry, even if they can't afford a Bayswater or Cara for that matter.

If like me you weren't lucky enough to go to Wilderness festival, Mulberry fans have the chance to win their own leather bracelet, as well as a Cara Delevingne Collection tote and newspaper by sharing a picture of their best homemade and handmade creations on Instagram with #MulberryLovesCraft and @Mulberry_Editor included in the post. This is a fantastic way to promote consumer engagement and creates free advertising for the brand.

The association with Wilderness festival gives the brand a cool and current image and shows they have a fun and humble personality that's not afraid to get a little bit muddy.

Talk about festival chic.

 

Suzy Menkes and the New Digital World

Tonight I watched this interview between Suzy Menkes, one of today's most respected and legendary fashion journalists, and Imran Ahmed, founder of Business of Fashion, the leading site for up-to-the-minute news from the fashion industry. Suzy has recently been named International Vogue Editor for Conde Nast International, a role that will see her write a global column several times a week, to be published on Vogue websites from all over the globe, including China, Brazil, India, Russia and Germany to name a few. Suzy joins Conde Nast International from a long career at the International Herald Tribune and New York Times newspapers, where her legendary journalism brought a serious and honest tone to fashion writing. Suzy herself says one of the reasons she accepted the new role at Conde Nast International, was that she feels it's incredibly important to keep up with the ever-evolving times. Suzy is not afraid of technology and this role seemed the perfect transition to be able to utilize the internet and it's up to the minute benefits.

Suzy began her career back in 1987 , a time when iPads, Instagram and digital cameras didn't exist. It's fascinating to listen to Suzy talk about her career back in these days when fashion wasn't instant. Back then, a fashion show was for press and buyers only, and had a certain mystery allure to the general public that no longer exists now that all shows are live-streamed and images of the shows are up on social media before the model has even left the catwalk. You can now even pre-order items from the catwalk, as they are going down the catwalk as seen at Burberry and I'm sure many other brands next season. In the interview, Suzy mentions the frantic process of getting film from a show sent on a bike to be developed straight after the show, choosing the best photos to be developed, then being biked straight to the newspaper with the hope of not missing the print deadline for the next days paper.

I could talk for hours about this subject. It's amazing to think about the transformation the industry has been through with the introduction of the internet and social media, in particular when it comes to fashion shows. Something that used to be for the eyes of the elite is now accessible to the world. Fascinating.

ASOS #ASSEENONME

Today I read that Kim Kardashian is releasing a book of her seflies (god help us). It seems like the #selfie craze that has taken over the world is getting more and more popular by the day. I have already written about a few brands who have seen this craze as an opportunity to create interactive and incredibly successful social media campaigns, and ASOS are another brand that are using a hashtag social media campaign as a way to keep consumers engaged.

#ASSEENONME is a simple but very effective initiative by ASOS that encourages consumers to upload a selfie of them in their latest ASOS purchases to their Instagram account, add the hashtag #ASSEENONME and waaah-lah, you instantly have a global audience. The best photos then get added to a new #ASSEENONME area on the ASOS site. Pretty cool hey. Not only are the best photos added to the site, the photos are then categorised into menswear and womenswear, then sub-divided into product categories. This is a great feature as it makes it easy for consumers to browse specific product easily to find inspiration.  But what is really the cherry on the top of the cake is the clever feature that links consumers photos that appear in the gallery to live product on the site, meaning you can click and buy something there and then if you want to re-create your own version of the selfie. In fact, just in the space of writing this I've seen so many pieces I want to buy...better get my credit card out.

Love this.

It’s safe to say I’ve been on quite a journey in the last 7 months. After traveling round Australia, New Zealand and soon Indonesia, by myself and with friends, time is coming to an end which means time to get back to real life. The life of a traveler is amazing. A carefree, adventurous and whimsical existence. A life that is exactly the opposite of my life prior to this trip. With home time looming soon, and the task of finding a new job on my return, I’m getting that itch to dive back into industry. This is my way of collating all my ideas, interests and inspirations. I want it to cover a range of different topics, and hopefully it will inspire me to get back into researching and learning, things I love, and things I haven’t done whilst being on the road. I’ve decided to leave my old fashion—starts—here blogspot blog and start fresh. Can’t wait to get stuck in..!