There is something so paradoxal, and yet so comforting about watching some of the most beautiful collections on absolutely drop dead gorgeous women from the comfort of one bed. I love this idea of drooling over beads, tulle, floral silk, furs whilst still being in my pijamas. It simply just makes me smile. Anyway here are my top three and I must say Diane’s latest collection about “a man in a woman’s body: smile, seduce, be proud to be you” completely did it for me. I love the idea of frilly, pretty and layered dresses/skirts under very tailored and manly jackets, paired with ridiculous accessories and killer heels.

1. Diane Von Furstenberg

2. Jason Wu

3. Anna Sui (The one that I least expected to blow me away)

xx

I really am not quite sure what put me off this collection or the previous one, or even the Jimmy Choo collection for that matter. I don’t know if it was all the sneak peaks and the talks surrounding the unveiling of the collections, or if it was the idea of queuing up for hours to end up having something that thousands of other women will have or if it was the collections themselves that simply didn’t attract me. But this suffise to say that I did no queuing, and own nothing from these collection,however I must say that every time I did end up feeling like I missed out and could have found something I really would have liked. Anyway, I was curious to see what the courage fashion bloggers, those who did stand in line for hours in the hopes of snagging that one special item they were lusting over, actually brought and what they did with they Sonia Rykiel x H&M garments. Did you guys buys any Sonia Rykiel x H&M? if so what did you get?

Sources: Emma, SMTW, and Andy

Sources: Caroline, Barbro, and Margaux

Sources: Isabell, Kim, and Pauline

I must apologise for the disturbance on the website, as a lot of you already know I changed hosts, so let’s hope things are better know. Also, apologies for the lack of posts, I am due to presente my thesis on Friday so I have my head stuck in my books for the while and my outfits consist of pyjamas, leggings and hoodies, i.e. certainly nothing worth showing :)

xx

I really like the idea that, not only are fashion bloggers being taken seriously, but also that the fashion industry seems to really be embracing the blogosphere at the moment which is quite nice to see. I thought I would share this little video (found on style.com) featuring some of today’s most influential fashion bloggers. Enjoy!!

This is the second interview I have done and both were pretty interesting. Today’s interview is with Joe from Befashionlike.com whom, like me, blogs about fashion bloggers and their unique style. However, unlike me he focuses on one blogger and one outfit, or a specific creator. Just like Chictopia and Lookbook, Befashionlike has often been for me, a great place to discover new talented bloggers. Anyway, I will let the interview speek for itself! (I have also posted below the original FRENCH VERSION).

Interview (ENGLISH VERSION)

1) What pushed you towards creating a blog about other fashion bloggers rather than about yourself? There is no doubt that there are many fashion blogs help by women but there are quite a few male bloggers too.

First of all, I would like to thank Toni for this interview; it is my second since the creation of the blog.

The idea for the blog came to me whilst I was doing some research for my first blog (meetatalent.com), I stumbled upon a website/blog that was much like a gallery with very little text. The principle is simple; the visitor connects himself and automatically sees all the news there is to offer! I loved the concept and thought why no do the same but with all the fashion blogs that are out there. Collecting fashion worthy news and looks to be then published on the blog with the source always available so that the readers can go back to the original source (indeed if the blogger offers me content then I have to offer him visitors in return). The goal of BFL is to allow readers to discover new blogs on a daily basis, and not only blogs but also illustrators and creators.  For the time being, I am mainly focused on female blogs, but maybe a couple months from now I will feature some male bloggers too, to find out you know what you have to do.

2) Do you think that one day you will step in front of the camera?

Honestly, no!! I really don’t think I have anything original to offer to the blogosphere, that is fashion wise. I will leave that up to those who enjoy being behind the camera, however you might find me someday behind the camera that is all I can say for the moment.

3) Since you have started your blog, what would you say are your favourite finds, in terms of fashion blogs, bloggers or even fashion communities?

My all time favourite, or as we would say in French « Mon coup de cƓur » would have to be StĂ©phanie from the blog Big Beauty, we are so use to seeing only skinny bloggers that when I discovered StĂ©phanie with her amazing outfits and her thousands of fans, I instantly liked the concept. More so, what is great is that she is extremely accessible because even though she is often sought after (TV, magazines, shows) she did not hesitate to answer all my questions when I was starting my blog.

Now, in terms of blogs with good tips and tricks of the trade there is problogger, and Independent Fashion Blogger, who both give really good advice.

Finally, in terms of communities, my favourites would have to LookBook.nu and weardrobe.com (which is a lighter version of lookbook).

4) Would you say leaned towards country specific bloggers or a specific type and style of bloggers?

Since I have started this blog, I have come across many different styles and I have come to realise that the looks of these bloggers don’t differentiate that much from one country to another. However, it’s not so much the style that changes but the attitudes that these bloggers have in their pictures. Indeed, on the one hand you have the more trashy style of the Americains in the sense that they are very daring and out there and on the other hand you also have the French BCBG style. So, to answer your question I will replace the word ‘style’ into ‘attitude’ and say that I have a soft spot, just like you do, for Swedish fashion bloggers, but also for the polish bloggers and of course the French bloggers without forgetting the girls from New York.

5) What do you look for in a fashion bloggers when you are looking for new bloggers to feature?

First of all, I look at the quality of the photos and the originality. A picture of bad quality and in a dull setting with have little chance of being featured on BFL and the same goes for ‘wedding’ look-a-like pictures. Some blogs have left me stunned right from the start and at that point I know I want to share them with my readers.

6) What would you like to see less of and more of on fashion blogs?

I really don’t have the pretension to give advice as my blog is only 7months old, but some blogs should stop putting pictures of bad quality if they can afford to of course, I understand full well that not everyone has the means of buying the best camera on the market, but the quality of pictures is without a doubt an important factor.

Also, I am not a huge fan of ballerinas, it doesn’t do justice to your figures ladies (what? I have the right to not like them don’t I)

I would love to see more pictures in more interesting and fun areas and more craziness. Off you go girls, let yourselves go wild but always stay classy of course.

7) Chictopia or LookBook? Do you think that one is better than the other, that they are the same or that they both have something different to offer?

I am more of a LookBook fan at the moment, as I have not yet had the time to check out Chictopia. Actually, my cousin represents the blog on LookBook (lookbook/befashionlike). I love the various functions that LookBook has to offer and the fluidity of the navigation (ranking by country, by brand 
), I might be wrong but I have the feeling that LookBook is aiming more for the quality rather than the quantity. I will give you my opinion of Chictopia during our next interview (ah yes dear Toni, now you have no choice but to do a second interview with me).

8 ) Being a newbie and a new to the blogosphere I am always on the look out for new things concerning the blogosphere in general and more specifically fashion communities. Not long ago I came across the sentence “good content does not sell itself” (which was a relief and a cringe moment). Of course, there are so many new bloggers everyday that it is no easy to stand out or to be noticed or even have your voice heard. What do you think about this? What tips would you have to give to neewbies like myself?

Good question, I actually asked this question to a few well-known bloggers and they refused to answer. I will confirm this, it is indeed very difficult to be noticed but I will share with you a few tricks as we are indeed a community and helping each other should be important. To get more visits here is what you should do:

• To start off, you should ask yourselves were to find traffic and what is my target?
• Presentation is key, a nice clean blog (like thefashioncloud.com) is always a good thing, also try and stay away from small pictures.
• Be consistent, keep your posts up to date at least 3 times a week
• Sign up to websites, which share information such as hellocoton.fr, news-de-star.com.
• Use Facebook and create a fan page and a group (why not both), when you update a fan pages all your members will be up-to-date which is not the case with a simple group. However, with a group you can send e-mails to all the members, which you cannot do with a fan page.
• Create a Twitter account and add all the people who have the same interest as you. Also it is important to link your Twitter account to your blog and your Fan page.
• Post your information on your fan page around 9pm, this is when mot people use or are on Facebook.
• Exchange blog addresses with other bloggers, but be sure to be able to offer something in return.
• At the beginning, all of this takes time, but after a while all you need is to spend 15min a day towards promoting your blog.

Here I part of my strategy to promote BFL, at the moment I have between 1.600 and 1.800 visitors a day.

9) One last word.

Thank you very much for this interview and see you soon on befashionlike.com (the best from fashion blogs)

Joe from BefashionLike
http://www.befashionlike.com
Twitter : http://twitter.com/befashionlike
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82510714276

Interview (FRENCH VERSION)

1) Qu’est ce qui t’as poussĂ© Ă  faire un blog sur les autres bloggeurs plutĂŽt que sur toi mĂȘme. Certes, il y a bien plus de blogs fĂ©minins mais il  a pas mal d’hommes qui font de bons bloggeurs mode.

Tout d’abord merci à toi Toni pour cette interview c’est ma deuxiùme depuis l’ouverture du blog.

L’idĂ©e de ce blog m’est venue lors d’une recherche d’article pour mon premier blog (meetatalent.com), par hasard je tombe sur un site/blog qui affichait ces posts sous forme de galerie et avec trĂšs peu de texte. Le principe est simple les visiteurs se connectent et voient tout de suite l’ensemble des news mis Ă  jour ! J’ai adorĂ© ce concept et je me suis dis pourquoi pas faire pareil avec les blogs de mode. RĂ©cupĂ©rer des news et des look puis les publier sur le blog en incluant toujours la source (Oui il m’offre du contenu il faut que j’offre des visites en retour). L’objectif de BFL est de permettre aux visiteurs de dĂ©couvrir chaque jour des nouveaux blogs de fashionistas, d’illustrateurs, et de crĂ©ateur. Pour l’instant je me focalise uniquement sur les blogs fĂ©minins, peut ĂȘtre que d’ici quelques mois il y aura des blogs masculins, pour le savoir vous savez ce qu’il vous reste Ă  faire.

2) Penses tu un jour passer de l’autre cĂŽtĂ© de l’appareil photo?

Franchement, non !! Car je n’ai rien d’original Ă  apporter en termes de look Ă  la blogosphere. Je laisse faire ceux qui aiment ĂȘtre devant l’appareil, par contre vous me verrez peut ĂȘtre derriĂšre la camera, je ne vous en dis pas plus pour l’instant

3) Depuis le commencement de ton blog, quelles sont tes petites dĂ©couvertes favorites, en termes de blog, bloggeuses ou mĂȘmes communautĂ©s?

Un de mes coups de cƓur c’est StĂ©phanie du blog Big Beauty, habituellement on ne trouve que des bloggueuses mince et la je tombe par hasard sur StĂ©phanie avec son blog “Big Beauty” avec ses tenues sublimes et ses milliers de fan, j’ai tout de suite adhĂ©rĂ© au concept et en plus c’est une fille assez accessible car malgrĂ© toutes ses sollicitations (tv, magazine, spectacle) elle n’a hĂ©sitĂ© Ă  rĂ©pondre Ă  mes questions lorsque je dĂ©butais mon blog.

Sinon cÎté blog qui donne des conseils il y a problogger, Independante fashion blogger qui donne plein de conseil (promotion, comment mettre en valeur son blog etc)

CĂŽte communautĂ© bien sĂ»r mes coups de cƓurs vont à  Lookbook.nu et Weardrobe (qui est lookbok mais en version plus light)

4) As tu un penchant pour des bloggeurs venant d’un seul pays particuliĂšrement? Un style particulier d’un pays sou d’un autres? Par exemple, moi j’ai eu un gros faible pour les bloggeuses SuĂ©doises ainsi que les Espagnol.

Depuis que je fais ce blog, j’ai vue des tas de style, et j’ai constatĂ© que les looks ne sont pas si diffĂ©rents d’un pays Ă  un autre, ce qui change c’est l’attitude des bloggeuses sur leurs photos. On  a le style trash  dĂ©jantĂ© des Americaines, le cĂŽtĂ© bcbg des françaises (je ne me lache pas trop) etc.. Donc pour rĂ©pondre Ă  ta question je vais transformer le mot style en attitude, j’ai un petit faible comme toi pour les bloggueuses Suedoise, ainsi que les polonaise, biensur les françaises et pour finir celle de New York .

5) Que recherche tu dans une bloggeuse (bloggeur) mode lorsque tu choisis de les “featured”?

Avant tout des photos de qualitĂ© et de l’originalitĂ©. Une photo de mauvaise qualitĂ© et faite dans un lieu pas terrible a peut de chance de figurer sur le blog ainsi que celle qui font photo de mariage.

Je peux te dire qu’il y a certains blogs (excuse moi l’expression) qui m’ont laissĂ©s bouche b, dĂšs la premiĂšre photo, et la je me dis il faut que mes lecteurs profites de ce blog.

6) Qu’aimerais tu voir de plus ou de moins sur les blogs de ces modeuses?

Je n’ai pas la prĂ©tention de donner des conseils car mon blog n’a que 7 mois, mais il faudrait que certain blog de mode arrĂȘte de mettre des photos de mauvaises qualitĂ© si elles le peuvent bien sur, bon c’est vrai que tous le monde n’a pas forcement les moyens d’acheter un appareil photo dernier cri, mais la qualitĂ© des images est trĂšs importante.

Bon je ne suis pas trop ballerine aussi, ça donne des fesses plates (quoi ??? j’ai le droit de ne pas aimer les ballerines non J)

Sinon qu’aimerais je voir sur les blogs, plus de photos dans des lieux insolites et beaucoup plus de folie. Allez hop les filles il faut se devergonder mais toujours avec classe.

7) Chictopia ou LookBook? Penses tu qu’il y en Ă  un qui vaut plus que l’autre, qu’ils se valent ou encore, qu’ils ont tout deux quelque chose d’unique Ă  proposer?

Je suis plutĂŽt Lookbook pour l’instant je n’ai pas eu le temps de tester chictopia, d’ailleur pour info  ma cousine reprĂ©sente le blog sur lookbook (lookbook/befashionlike). J’adore les fonctionnalitĂ©s offertes par le site et la fluiditĂ© de navigation (classement par pays,par marque..), peux ĂȘtre que je me fais des idĂ©es mais j’ai l’impression mais lookbook vise plutĂŽt la qualitĂ© que la quantitĂ©. Je te donnerais mon avis sur chictopia lors de la prochaine interview (hey oui Toni maintenant tu es obligĂ© de m’interviewer une deuxiĂšme fois).

8 ) Étant donnĂ© que je suis une “newbie” et une nouvelle bloggeuse je suis souvent Ă  la recherche de nouvelle chose concernant la blogosphĂšre en gĂ©nĂ©ral et autres communautĂ©s tournant autour de la mode. Il y a peu je suis tombĂ©e sur cette phrase ” Good content does not sell itself” (Un bon contenu ne se vends pas tout seul), bien sur j’ai pu m’identifier car c’est vrai que c’est pas Ă©vident de se faire connaĂźtre avec le nombre sans cesse croissant de bloggeuse mode. Qu’en penses-tu de cette phrase? A tu des idĂ©es Ă  suggĂ©rer ou encore des tips?

Aah ah ah, bonne question,( tu sais que  j’ai posĂ© cette question Ă  des bloggeuses connues et elles n’ont pas dĂ©niĂ© me rĂ©pondre !! pff bref ) et je confirme que c’est difficile de se faire connaitre, mais je vais vous donner quelques astuces, car nous sommes une vĂ©ritable communautĂ© et comme dans toute communautĂ© l’entraide est primordiale !! Pour avoir quelques visites en plus vous ĂȘtes prĂȘt ? C’est partie.

• Pour commencer il faut se poser les questions suivantes :
• Ou trouver du traffic? Quelle est ma  cible ? (fashionistas, fashionistas avec pouvoir d’achat etc..)

• Ensuite avoir un blog avec une trĂšs bonne prĂ©sentation (comme Thefashioncloud par exemple) Ă©vitez les petites photos.
• Ecrivez reguliĂšrement des articles au moins 3 fois par semaines
• Inscrivez-vous sur des sites de partage d’info exemple Hellocoton.fr,news-de-star.com
• Utilisez Facebook en crĂ©ant un fan page et un groupe, pourquoi les deux ?
  • Lorsque vous mettez votre fan pages Ă  jour tous les fans sont informĂ©s, ce qui n’est pas le cas avec le groupe.
  • L’avantage du groupe c’est que l’on peut envoyer un message a tous les membres du groupe, chose impossible avec la fan page
• CrĂ©ez un compte twitter et ajouter les personnes qui ont les mĂȘmes intĂ©rĂȘts que vous
• Liez votre fan page a votre compte twitter, ainsi lorsque vous mettez une news sur twitter elle sera automatiquement transmise Ă  votre fan page
• Poster vos infos sur votre fan page le soir vers 21h, c’est a ce moment qu’il y a le plus de personne connectĂ© sur facebook.
• Faire des Ă©changes de lien avec d’autre blog, mais attention il faut proposer quelque chose en retour et bien sĂ»r faire un mail personnalisĂ©. (Bonjour X, je suis Y du blog 
 etc)
• Et utilisez les outils du style Hootsuite afin d’automatiser vos tweet.
• Au debut cela prendra un peu de temps aprĂšs vous aurez juste Ă  consacrer 15 mn par jour a la promotion de votre blog

Voici une partie de la stratĂ©gie que j’applique pour promouvoir BFL, actuellement le blog fait entre 1600 et 1800 visites par jour.

9) Un dernier mot

Merci beaucoup a toi pour l’interview et à bientît sur befashionlike.com (the best from fashion blog).

Joe From Befashion Like
http://www.befashionlike.com
Twitter : http://twitter.com/befashionlike
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82510714276

Wearing: H&M Blazer, Zara black top, H&M Trend jeans, New Look boots and Topshop scarf.

As I said in my previous post, I spent last Sunday with the girls from ‘Kage‘ which was loads of fun. Their specialty is youthful yet elegant dresses, however they do make some fun T-shirt and some great studded leggings. I like the idea of discovered new up and coming designers. I thought that this was a great opportunity to show you a few of my new items (the Topshop scarf, the Kage t-shirt and my part leather legging) and to make a post with a slightly different layout. I hope you enjoy it!

DOUBLE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Want ‘Kage’ in your closet?

You can either place your order on NotJustALabel or wait a couple of weeks, and browse the whole collection of ‘Kage’ to your heart content on the Boutique1 website.

Wearing: Kage T-shirt, H&M skinny trousers with leather patches and Converse