With the Web and social media at their fingertips, the style-minded need not wait for the fashion establishment to dispense its monthly advice. Increasingly, they’re taking matters into their own hands, blogging, creating collections on Pinterest and other social sharing sites, or, to use the lofty term du jour, curating.
That trend recently inspired Self magazine to adopt a new tagline, I Curate My Life. Now, it’s extending that idea to a forthcoming standalone site, Selfcurateyourlook.
The site, which Self is calling a “virtual trunk show,” rolls out in September, the kickoff to the fall fashion season. It will present Self staff-selected products and a rotating series of advertisers’ products in sleek, catalogue-style displays. While they’re not actually deciding which products are featured, visitors can save products they like to a personal look book and share items of interest using Facebook, Pinterest and email. They will also be able to click to buy products.
“Self’s Virtual Trunk Show enables consumers to curate their own style while aligning with Self’s editorial fashion expertise and our advertisers’ brands,” explained Laura McEwen, vp and publisher of the Condé Nast title. “This site will also align Self more closely with our fashion and beauty partners.” She said Self also had a number of revenue-share deals in the works, which she couldn’t elaborate on.
Making deeper inroads with fashion and beauty advertising is a key goal of the site. As a health and fitness magazine, Self has a well-developed beauty ad base; fully 40 percent of its revenue comes from beauty advertising. Fashion/jewelry and watches/accessories account for only 5.3 percent, though, while fashion retail is about 6.1 percent, according to McEwen.
So far, the site seems to be on the way to accomplishing its purpose: Self has signed up Vince Camuto, Swatch, NFL Women's Apparel and Neutrogena as advertisers for the fall.