Smashing Darling Blog

To catch the first half of this story you must go to PR Couture to read the interview Crosby did with Sarah-Jane before the change the magazine made from Fashion Central to Cause a Scene. The magazine is fabulous for many reasons, but numero uno in my book is because the highlight is on indie/emerging fashion design. If you are leading an indie fashion revolution like we are, it is good to know who is on your side and shouting out the indie goodness with and for you. When you are there don’t forget to read the Columns section. There you will find yours truely, PR Couture and Trend de la Creme with monthly features. Sharing what we know, what we are learning and what we think you need to know.

Trish: What was the reason for the name change?
Sarah-Jane: Changing the name was really the last stage in bringing the branding of the magazine in line with the way our content had evolved. We found that we’d been levitating towards very colourful and edgy high profile photography, that our celebrity features were focusing on the hottest online personalities, and that the style was suddenly attracting a new audience of fashionable teens  alongside de our existing twenty somethings. People that I’d considered at the top of the game were suddenly contacting me saying ‘we really like the work you’re doing, we’d love to be involved.’ The magazine had unconsciously become very popular due to its mainstream, high fashion approach to scene styles and alternative attitudes, and it felt like the natural time to embrace that and take it to the next level.

Trish: What changes did you make to the magazine with the relaunch?
Sarah-Jane: We really tightened up and focused our content, and really flagged up all the things that make us so different that we were previously just sitting on. The website relaunch has also seen the addition of a lot of new content… we have a VIP membership scheme full of exclusive content such as video shows, celebrity blogs, high fashion columns from some of the other best sites out there, online shopping discounts, and much more. We feel like we’ve made the transition into being a serious brand to be reckoned with, and it’s a very exciting time.

Trish: As fashion catches up with the digital age, what impact do you think it will have on the industry?
Sarah-Jane: It has a huge impact, totally redefining the way that the industry works and connects. The new sense of immediacy that technology brings has already revolutionised the way that the girl next door absorbs her fashion… she doesn’t need to wait until next season to read about the shows from six months ago, she can see a catwalk review posted online twenty minutes after it happened. Everything is so much faster; stores start to diffuse next season’s trends into their current lines, magazines are constantly revealing trends earlier and earlier… the industry now has to work at a much higher pace to maintain its authority over consumers who have so much access to their own information. The magazine readers of yesterday have become the bloggers of today, and online, every single fashion niche is catered for. People can communicate and collaborate with people all across the world without the fashion police telling them that their ideas aren’t on trend. Just as digital work changed the face of the music industry, the Internet is recreating the way we view and buy fashion… although, unlike music, garments are physical products, and unless we all start wearing holograms, the digital age will enchance our fashion tradtions, but not replace them.

Trish: Are you seeing a trend of smaller design houses starting up, and what role do you think the Internet is playing in that trend??
Sarah-Jane: Definitely. Of course, many of the independent brands have always been there, but are just more visible now due to their new online presence. But there’s also an entire generation of new designers who perhaps wouldn’t have created a brand without feeling empowered by the Internet to get out there and sell their products. They now have the option to cut out the middle man and connect and sell directly to customers, and to promote their work through a limitless amount of channels. Online selling permeates every site out there, you can even plug your brand and make sales from something as simple as Myspace or Facebook. The online support available to them is also a factor; with thousands of sites, blogs and online magazines dedicated to crafting communities, designer networking and opportunities for consignment, the advice that new brands can gain from people who’ve already been through it is a major asset.

Trish: In your opinion, what are the challenges smaller fashion companies face?
Sarah-Jane: Competition; there are an overwhelming number of options open to customers now, and with so many small brands using the same online suppliers and the like, a lot of products can end up looking samey, and with the tired ‘avoid being a high street clone, we’re unique and handmade’ slogans cropping up on every company’s site, it’s often hard, or not worth the effort, for customers to try and differentiate between them when it’s a lot easier to visit the Topshop website instead. Another issue I hear about from indie labels is proving their legitimacy… whilst the internet is a great tool for small brands, there is an element to it of the 15 year olds selling spray painted hair extensions on myspace, or companys that trade disreputably, which impacts on those who are reliable and well intentioned. It’s a real problem, and unfortunately we see lots of brands closing their stores from the sheer inability to get their products seen, trusted, and shifted. Luckily, there are resources such as Smashing Darling that are there to help them :]

Sarah-Jane
Editor in Chief

www.causeascenemagazine.com
www.myspace.com/causeascenemagazine

Want to know who you’re talking talking to?
See Sarah-Jane at myspace.com/sarahjaneadams

You can also see Crosby from PR Couture In our blog feature How Do You Wear Your Indie w/ her BFF and Editors Picks. Oh the romance of it all!

Same is true for Trend de la Creme in How Do You Wear Your Indie and Jill will be featured in our Editor’s Picks this Friday 8/29 so make sure you check back for that!

Please, comments are welcome! As always if you would like to be featured in any of these segments ie:

Interviews, How Do You Wear Your Indie or Editor’s Picks just email me trish(at)smashingdarling(dot)com