Day 2

So today seemed a little easier. I took a slightly later train and it made the journey so much easier and I still had plenty of time to get to the pop up shop. Wafa was not working at Sketchbook today, instead she was at the office for Dia Magazine so I was under the ‘supervision’ of the shop’s project manager – 22-year-old College of Creative Arts Epsom 3^rd year student Rachel. She studies fashion promotion and imaging and the shop is her brainchild and is a project for her ‘dissertation’.

I knew that I had the Exposure Press Day to attend later in the afternoon and that Wafa was meant to be sending me some work to do for her on behalf of Dia. I was told to start researching blog ideas for the Dia blog – Wafa and the rest the magazine’s editorial team are trying to come up with a new concept for the blog and make it sound more personal with its own voice. However, the internet has been so poor in the shop for the past couple of days that Wafa requested I make the journey over to Kensington to meet her at the office and work with her there. I had a bit of trouble trying to find the address on Google Maps since the internet was almost completely down in the shop – thank god for iphones! I managed to get myself over there by about 12:30pm using my GPS and discovered that the office was set up in the apartment of one of the magazine’s editors. It was a nice environment to work in – if a little squashed.

I got into a good discussion with Wafa and one of the other editors about the concept and voice behind the blog. I found that my opinions were valued and they really listen to what my thoughts were about the blog. I have a lot of experience of fashion based blogs and regular read a large handful of some of the more successful ones, so I was well prepped in my knowledge of what to works and what is too cliché. We discussed the importance of the blog being more about discovering the unheard of and the unusual – making sure to stay well away from the beaten track. I was then told to come up with several blog ideas to get the ball rolling, though Wafa is really looking for a Middle Eastern girl to write the blog because, for obvious reasons I’m not very intuned with Middle Eastern culture – not enough to be writing what’s in and out of fashion or art in the UAE. Wadfa asked me to create a moodboard for the blog’s voice (who will been known as Dia). Here is what I emailed to her last night:

At 4pm I had to dash back over to Carnaby Street to pick up a camera from the shop before shooting over to Little Portland Street (behind Oxford Street) for the Press Day. One of the girls from Sketchbook came with me, I only met her today and she was lovely. Sophie is a LCF graduate in fashion PR and she wanted to tag along with me to check out the press day from a magazine’s perspective, since she has been actively involved with setting ones up herself with PR companies she has previously worked for. We found the showroom easily and were greated by door staff and very loud music resinating around the opening space as a DJ was playing while journalists and fashion industry insiders mixed at the bar, swapping business cards and information, sipping on Skyy Vodka (a sponsor) and muching on cupcakes. We signed in and then a PR coorrdinator gave a us a tour of the showroom with at the brands and explained the new collections and particular rebrands. I took photos of the best pieces from the collections while Sophie helped by taking notes. This was in preparation for some blog posts I will write for Sketchbook – a heads up for whats going to be in stores come A/W 2010.

The collections were beautiful and I got to see some exclusive Terry De Havilland shoe designs which was so exciting. One of the biggest stories from the Press Day will probably be the total rebrand of Edun, the ethical clothing label started by Bono and his wif. It had started a few years ago but never really took off like people thought it would, now the clothes have a totally new perspective and they are something that people would want to wear. I fell a little bit in love, I confess. We received the cards of a PR guides and in tern I handed them Sketchbook’s business card. It’s useful to have the contact details for the PR company in case there is any extra information I need when writing up the reviews. Myself and Sophier were handed little goodie bags as we left, containing some luxury shower gel, a music album, a mini bottle of Skyy Vodka and a bottle of Vitamin Water.

I got to go home earlier that yesterday and was told to upload the images to my computer. Tomorrow morning before going to the shop I have to attend a Jaeger Press day at their store on Regent Street. I’m going by myself this time so I’m a little nervous but I guess now I know the sort of thing to expect. It’s all about networking.