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by yablon | February 23, 2015

a brunch to celebrate the launch of LFW

Push PR’s LFW brunch for digital media

Brunch is still the most fashionable of meals, not least when attended by a certain crowd of international fashionistas – in the guise of style bloggers and digital media.

Last Saturday, held at the private apartment of a recently opened Hoxton Hotel in Holburn (say that before a strong coffee!), in swooped the most clickable online girls ready to celebrate the launch of London Fashion Week before their weekend of shows kicked off.

But the point of the brunch wasn’t simply to ensuring these influencers were properly watered and fed. Because, you see, Fashion Week is now very much led by those who lead our digital world. It’s no secret that Instagram is driving real growth for fashion and that those designers who are engaging digitally are doing two to four times better in today’s market than those who are not.

Sarah Mikaela of Framboise Fashion

To kick off proceedings, we heard a few words of digital wisdom from our hosts – Emma Hart, founder and creative director at Push PR as well as the Danish/Australian fashion blogger, Sarah Mikaela, of Framboise Fashion.

And then, you can well imagine, as we sat down to break-our-bread, social platforms were ignited and hashtags punched in. One girl (to my left) had more than 8000 likes for her snap of personalised notebook and calligraphy place setting – even before my plate was clean.

Lucy from The Luxe Life and Anneli from What I Bought Today

the brunch tables were surrounded by Push’s client wares… jewellery, accessories, bags, shoes, apparel, resortwear and beauty goodies…all on display for wandering eyes…

Kelly from The London Chatter with Sarah Mikaela

In between sips of strong coffee and mouthfuls of eggs benny, chit chat was, of course, mostly digital too. I find everyone tends to be ‘a sharer’ in this social-media-sharing world. Cameras boasting wifi, tips for image editing, the latest in vlogging and micro-blogging, how best to capture outfit posts… it suddenly occurred to me that none of the guests were in any rush to push off to the shows…

Victoria from In the Frow

Tamara from The Glam & Glitter, Anisa from Anisasojka and Mariko Kuo from Silks and Suits

This brunch was organised and hosted by PushPR. Do search #PushLFW on Instagram to see even more photos of the brunch as well as a sneak inside some of the shows.

homework hater

I (bloody) hate homework. Am I even allowed to say aloud something so anti-establishment, let alone type on a screen? Apologies if I’ve offended, but it’s the bane of my afternoons and, quite frankly, absolutely shouldn’t be. Sometimes I wonder what I would rather do – eat dirt? hand wash a jumper? or peel vegetables? And they ALL win – hands down. Because homework is evil and boring and not the way I want to spend the end of the day with my tired children.

Tonight’s evilness was a perfect example. Our homework hour was spent doing a Science reading comprehension about sources of hydration, a French word search and some tricky Maths problems. A couple of doors were slammed and pencils thrown and, only once we’d all had a big bowl of spag bol, had the tension subsided.

I remember once, at those infamous school gates, hearing talk of that school which doesn’t give their pupils any homework. Only lightly requested to read a book and relax once home from school, this genius institution immediately shone the light in my eyes. How very innovative, utterly forward thinking, I thought to myself.

Of course, real people in the real world do work after office hours but these underage minors have all that to look forward to and should really be allowed to play a game, discuss the trials and tribulations of their day and read ‘that book’.

Oh well… maybe… one day. Until then, we’d better run through those ludicrous spelling words.

This column first appeared in The Lady where I am their Mum About Town.

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Filed under Exclusive to website, The Lady Magazine

by yablon | February 8, 2015

INSTA-FEVER

Sometimes it feels like Instagram is the modern day grown-up playground. While some lark about, others take their photography and social exposure extremely seriously. But they ALL want to know how to skip faster, score more goals and make the most engaging of ‘mates’.

And so ensues the fascination with our followings… and the ongoing greed for this inst-image-fame? Insta-feed-fever has never been so high. But it isn’t all about the wide-spread contamination of FOMO nor house/fashion/boyfriend/juicing envy. Instead, there is an under current serge of massive brand engagement (much more than on Facebook and Twitter) as more and more of us drop brand/consumer barriers making comments and seriously liking those corporates. Plus there’s the Insta-lust as we admire some real photography or perfectly edited imagery.

Either way, here are my pointers for anyone either new to the club or keen to get a little more involved with the image crowd:

firstly, stop number obsessing. Don’t post motivated by who might LIKE. It’s dangerous territory. YOU are the only person who needs to like your images.
Share – and I mean properly share – something about yourself or your brand that you think we might want to know. And don’t forget to use the power of the picture caption to tell us why.
Add hashtags wisely – too many looks ludicrous and only a few of them are worth their weight in LIKES.
Research your hashtags before you use them. And then again after posting to comment on posts of the same vein… this way you’ll often strike common ground with a like-minded user.
Image quality needs to be high – a bad image is even worse than a bad brand image.
Cross-posting is multitasking but also does remind your Facebook and Twitter friends that you are busy over on Instagram.
Consumer plus product is better than product solo. I’m a lover of flat plan photography but I’d also love to see it worn.
Remember to LIKE and COMMENT on feeds you genuinely admire. Don’t just stare and move on… that’s rude.
Show us your face. Seeing the team (curiously) makes us buy into your brand message.

The list goes on and on. Sundays are better than Wednesdays and blue is more likeable than red but really it all comes back to posting those images you like.

But please do remember to play nicely in the playground of Instagram. Otherwise the teachers will have you doing selfie lines…

Follow me @lifeofyablon

page three?

I hate to be made a fool of. And, last week, I fell hook, line and sinker for the gag to end boobs in The Sun newspaper. Actually, News International tricked quite a few of us as we leapt for joy that – finally – our national rag had come to its sense and realised that boobs in page 3 don’t sit as well as they might have done 44 odd years ago.

The thing is I’m not a prude. Not really. There’s a time and a place for big bouncing boobs but I’m just not sure it’s page 3. A couple of weeks ago my 10 year old and I were admiring Allen Jones’ exhibition at the Royal Academy. She took the bondage pop art in her stride. I, in turn, glorified Jones as a pioneer and artistic rebel. A prime example of boobs that don’t disturb.

But how can I explain to my daughter as she flicks through a copy of The Sun that this is how some of our society choose to view women? Men who love cheap thrills and have forgotten what a beach in the South of France looks like. It becomes tricky boob messaging.

So, my point here is that I’m just not sure we still need Page Three, now that it appears to be back. I’m certainly not trying to restrict free speech nor ask women to hide under a burka. The debate is really one of national pride and not about banning a pair of naked naughties. It’s about the society in which we live and perhaps relocating the boobs to a less visible part of the daily newspaper.

This column first appeared in The Lady where I am their Mum About Town.

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homework hater

page three?

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