@baby_beauty21 channel video no. 84 script

Working title: CHATTY MORNING VEGAN MAKEUP ROUTINE (MY CAT DOES SOMETHING CRAZY IN THE MIDDLE) [This needs to be crazier, need people to click on it for more $$$$, need to finance my third round of lip filler)

Kayla: Hi guys, welcome back to my channel!!! So today, I’m going to show you my usual makeup routine. Like, you know ya girl doesn’t really wear that much makeup. I like really like to let my skin breathe as much as possible. Skincare is the real makeup, you guys. Like, I can’t even stress this enough. I drink a lot of water. Like a lot.

[PAUSE, drink water, make sure to show the water bottle logo, possible sponsorship!!! We should totally get Evian or Fiji, that’s super bougie.]

Kayla: So yeah, I just totally wear like 3 makeup products everyday. Just, a light NARS tinted moisturizer, a Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm, [PAUSE to duck face for the camera, show my full lips] and Maybelline’s Great Lash Mascara. Like that’s it! Maybe a touch of YSL Touché Eclat concealer under the eyes for a bit of touch up, and maybe the tiniest swish of Glossier’s Boy Brow. I mean, brows are like a necessity, like I can’t live without my brows. That’s like against the laws of feminism!! That’s just not who I am, right? And as a final touch, a bit of Nars Laguna bronzer on my cheeks. And as a final, final touch, I am just adding this Kylie liquid lipstick in the shade Slay. Just a suuuper natural metallic cobalt blue lip color. It’s super wearable! Just don’t forget to line your lips first or else what’s the point! So, like, that’s literally all the makeup I put. Just something super light! Natural, you know,  for going to school in sweatpants and a messy bun!! Like I spend 5 minutes doing my makeup everyday. I use my fingers most of the time.

[Reach out for Kylie Cosmetics brush kit in a nonchalant way. Needs to be super #authentic. Have to figure out how exactly.]

Kayla: Oh, and I just remembered! I have been trying this brush set from Kylie Cosmetics, just to like give them a test run. I’m doing this for you guys, to really know if it’s worth the $300 price point. I mean, I got this for free, and I am affiliated with the company, but this is really my honest opinion! You can trust me, you know? I wouldn’t, like, lie to you. But, like, you really should go out now and get it. Like this brush set just saved my entire life!!! Like I can’t imagine how I was living before I used this. It is soooooooooo amazing, like, you can’t even imagine.

[Poke brushes on face to show how soft it is]

Kayla: This is not vegan per se. But sometimes you just have to make sacrifices somehow. Like if you find something that works for you, you should just stick with it right? Like, we are all trying our best but I think a 100% vegan lifestyle is not realistic. It might even be bad for you, you know what I mean? But, anyway, if you are interested about these brushes, you can click the link below and use my promo code BBY2K18 for a 5% discount! A STEAL!!

[Force cat into frame to humanize me and to help make my image more approachable.]

Kayla: Oh my god, [Research for a cute, relatable cat name]! I totally didn’t see you there, you crazy guy. [Somehow force the cat to lick my face? Or touch my hair. Need to research how.] Oh my god! Like this is everyday for me, you guys. I just have my caramel macchiato iced frappuccino, do my makeup super quickly, cuddle with my cat, maybe call my banker in the Bahamas, create fake accounts to boost my engagement and binge Netflix! Like, I’m just super chill all the time.

[Drop cat and shoo him away. Cut this part from the final edit.]

Kayla: So anyways there you go, guys, just like a super simple natural makeup for everyday. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and follow me on IG!!!! Thank you so much for watching, guys. Besos!!

[Blow kiss to the camera with a wink to look sexxxy]

[Fade away to black. Chug the bottle of Smirnoff I took from daddy’s liquor cabinet and have a nervous breakdown, off camera.]

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Click here to view F303 in its entirety

Hidden Error

“If you think I am stepping in there with my studded Marni leather shoes, then you don’t really know me.”

I am looking at the beach somewhere in the south of Spain. The longer I look at the hot sand, the same color of my favorite Nars bronzer, the more I regret not packing more shoes. It was a choice between my suede Chloe espadrilles or a Celine blazer. A tough choice, but Phoebe Philo won, as always. So here I am, standing at the boardwalk of the beach, negotiating.

Alejandro, tan and tall and built with manual labor, smiles at me, the same way one would smile at a clown in a children’s party. Or maybe he smiles because he agrees, he doesn’t really know me. And nor I, him. I met him in a pub on my first night here, and I love how you can still make a connection just by looking at someone. Smiling. The silent, but palpable corporeal language that people have used way before we relied on swiping on dating apps.

“Okay,” he gives, walking back to me. “Let’s go to town and buy you some sand appropriate shoes.”

“Later,” I said, settling on a wooden bench on the paved boardwalk. “Let’s stay here for a bit.”

His brown, rough, angular face wrinkles into a big smile and somehow seized my heart, a dusty organ I did not know still functioned. After years spent with little men with big boats and bigger egos, you just learn how to tune things out. For me, security is diamonds in the vault, Dior shoes in the wardrobe, and money in the bank. Things men my age cannot provide.

Yet here I am, frolicking around with a Spanish carpenter. A carpenter! But then again, I am on vacation in this anonymous town. It’s not Cannes, not Ibiza. Not even the Maldives. I can give myself a few weeks to stop the climb, to have fun, to breathe. When I checked out of my Ritz hotel room, I checked out of my life. With everything I needed in my Rimowa suitcase, I took the next flight of Paris and it lead me to this corner of Spain. I turned off my social media notifications, I haven’t checked my email in days. I imagine letters piling up in my box  at the front desk, strange men in expensive suits knocking on my empty room.

All that is a 2-hour flight from here, and yet it feels so distant. I close my eyes and let the warm sun caress my face, my ears focused on the sound of the waves crashing softly on the shore. I am transported back home. Home home. To a tiny, anonymous island not unlike this coastal town. I think of my mother who made our living through catching fish and selling it in the wet market. Her body frail but unbroken, skin burnt and wrinkled. Security back then meant a calm sea, a basket full of writhing tilapia, and enough firewood to last the night.

I think of one night in particular, crouched in the steady bonfire, eating dinner, my mother prying open a particularly rough-looking oyster and finding within a pearl smaller than a tear drop. She cleans it with the underside of her shirt, and hands it to me. “Always keep the island with you.”

I wonder what she would have thought of me now. Today, I have bigger, much bigger pearls, but I wonder if I still had the island with me.

In town, I stumble into a shoe store and find the owner behind the counter, his hands busy polishing a shoe. Pairs of espadrilles in every shade of beige imaginable lined his store. I land on one in particular, made with a leather in a delicious shade of canary yellow. I put it up and ask for my size. The owner comes back with a brown box, opens it and give me the pair. I try them on. They fit me perfectly. Egged on by the shopkeeper, I decide to get them.

23€. A bit steeper compared to its canvas equivalent but everything is in leather that was sourced and handmade in Spain, explains the shopkeeper. I pay for them, thank him, and wish him a nice afternoon. I chuck my Marni shoes in the box, and keep my sunny leather espadrilles on my feet.

23€. What can I get in Loewe for 23€? Not even a keychain.

I walk back to the town plaza where Alejandro is waiting for me, nursing a cup of coffee in a busy café.

“Happy?” he asks as I approach his table.

“Happy.”

I sit down next to him, feeling all mellow. Maybe because everything here is so slow compared to Paris. This small town seems to be suspended in a bubble, where time is put back into its abstractness. It has no physical grasp on people here. No one ever runs for anything. No one seems to be running late. Missed the bus? Have an ice cream and wait for the next one.  Missed happy hour? It’s always happy hour.

Here, they all live seemingly untouched by the problems and aspirations of the world. An aging lady in a bulky polka dot blouse discreetly retouches her rouge, and I wonder if she ever heard of Jacquemus. There is not a single Hermès bag in sight, and yet the women, and men, are impeccably dressed. Not in trendy fashion per se, but in clothes that make sense to them. You could tell that every choice is deliberate. A red patent leather t-bar kitten heels match a red patent leather clutch. The lavender pigeons printed on an indigo tie relates to the plum-colored suit jacket that frames it.

I sit there drowning in soft, happy murmurs of a language I don’t understand, next to a man I will probably never see again after this summer. I bump my chair closer to him and rest my head on his impossibly big shoulder.

Suddenly, my Net-A-Porter basket filled with shiny things I was convinced I needed seem so far away. Because it is. Here, I have nothing to prove. Currency is how big you smile to your neighbor when you pass her by in the morning, or how much vino you pour into the glass of your dinner guest.

There is sand in everything I own, but I somehow feel more alive.

My Marni shoes, trapped in a brandless brown shoe box under my bed, never again saw the light of sun that summer.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

No New Name

It’s 2018, and clouds of colored chiffon is enough material to go trending. Spring/Summer 2018 Paris Fashion Week had several strong points, but probably the most talked about was the revival of the Schiaparelli as a couture house. Except, they have been releasing collections since 2014, under the directorship of Bertrand Guyon who was formed within different Parisian couture houses starting from Givenchy, Galliano in Dior, and Christian Lacroix. In 2017, Guyon and his team managed to put Schiaparelli on the official calendar. Within days, the Italian fashion house is again in the headlines of fashion magazines and, more importantly, the mobile screens of the ever-elusive millennials.

In a time, when emerging brands take center stage, a trend wild card is slowly revealing itself: the revival of heritage luxury brands. These storied powerhouses are trying to make their way into a new era, the 21st century. Is it something that we can look forward to for seasons or simply just a vibrant but ephemeral burst of fashion nostalgia?

Thierry Mugler, one of the designers who defined the aesthetic of the 70s and 80s, has been relegated into a beauty brand name in the popular consciousness as of late. In a surprising power move, the Mugler brand announced a new creative director for its ready-to-wear, Casey Cadwallader who worked in the exotic skin and leather department of Loewe, and in the design team of Acne Studios. As someone who knows how to talk to today’s fashion crowd, Cadwallader breathed new life into the house. Deconstructed couture denim jeans, PVC trench coats, diamond-crusted fungi earrings, it is certainly looking fresh these days at chez Mugler.

Revivals like these, however, are not always a success. Delving into the archives and trying to bring it back today means prying a designer’s name out of fashion history — and this is make or break. Such relaunch could either add onto the brand’s story and create a new life cycle, or it might taint and even take something away from its already established place in fashion history. Courrèges, a name synonymous to the 60s and the Space Age era, had a resurgence in 2015 when Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant took the helm. Heavily guided by the archives, they made geometric vinyl leather jackets, metallic mod skirts, and asymmetrical capes. It was instantly picked up by department stores, raved about by fashion critics, and linked by fashion “influencers.” The hype died down as quickly as it boomed, and after only two years the design duo quietly slipped out the door, giving up on the house’s attempt to be relevant again.

What did not work? A disinterest from fashion consumers? A superficial understanding of the archives as opposed to looking at the design spirit of the original creator? A fear of falling away from the original aesthetic and as a consequence not really creating anything new? Probably the combination of all these.. and maybe a pinch of bad luck.

The main thrust for archival brands is emotion. These are the clothes our parents wore, or aspired to, during their heyday. An aging mother seeing her teenage daughter wear a Courrèges PVC jacket as she sneaks out of the house reveals a fashion full circle. It favors a connection between generations, educates us more about fashion history, and peppers our personal sartorial choices. For fashion nerds, slipping into a body-hugging dress with a Mugler tag that is not vintage is a specific kind of pleasure. To see Poiret, a name we usually just read in history books, on the official fashion week calendar is surreal and riveting.

However, like everything in fashion, it will always be a hit or miss. It is a risk that puts a whole house’s heritage on the line. While a designer renaissance is very much possible, fashion today is a tricky terrain to traverse, leading us to believe that some toiles are better left in the archives and some names in history books.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

Find The Future

It’s sale season. Today is the day that you will finally purchase the pastel blazer that you’ve carefully kept in your online cart for the past month. Just as you press the “submit” button, the page loads your worst online nightmare:

Error 404. The page you are looking for no longer exists. Feel free to browse our other available products within Amazon’s Find store.

It must be a mistake. You refresh your browser to no avail. You go back on your browsing history in a desperate effort to locate your precious pastel blazer.

In the meantime, what is Find, and why does your Amazon search seem to be populated with only clothing items from this brand? The answer lies in the web of ungoverned user data collection that has been taken advantage of by technology companies.

As Amazon makes fashion accessible to more potential customers, the reality of how they were able to create the “perfect product” is hard to ignore. On a daily basis, Amazon collects a large volume of user data and buying habits. Since it also sells other brands on its platform, the tech giant is able to monitor and analyze consumer behavior and translate the data into products that can better cater to the consumers’ tastes. Charmaine Garzón, an analyst at Google, validates that “if Amazon were to establish itself as its own brand, then it would in effect have a lot of new data on consumers (like what type of clothes would it’s brand be most known for, whatever it is they would primarily focus on monopolizing or enhancing the quality of that product).”

Once the products are launched, Amazon can also strategically place them within its website to match user browsing records; for example, a search for trench coat that would have returned other fashion brands’ trench coats may now only display Find’s coats—or at least position Find’s merchandise in the top results. The line of consumers’ consent of their data release becomes blurry when tech giants like Amazon are able to use aggregate data to engineer a fool-proof product that they then throw back at the consumer for purchase. Amazon already has an algorithm that scours the internet to locate prices of items that are sold on Amazon, and then it subsequently lowers its own prices to give them the most attractive pricing. Therefore, the case of the disappearing pastel jacket becomes even more interesting. Since the law has not yet caught up with technology, the game remains unchecked. In the future, Garzon thinks that “the next steps would [be that] each company feel[s] pressure to have to find something within their brand to specialize.” Sandra Ofori, project manager at Equinix (a data center company that stores the online information of Amazon, Facebook, and Google), agrees: “where does diversification/ specialization lie if tech conglomerates take over?”

Find also calls into question the way online retailers deal with counterfeiting. eBay and Amazon give an average person the platform to sell and buy whatever they like, but many times, these sites also become platforms for counterfeit suppliers to traffic fake products. Will Amazon now be forced to crack down on accounts that sell fake Chanel and Gucci purses? Will they be finally forced to only sell products from vendors that have been approved by the brand themselves? Or will they only increase scrutiny on how Find is distributed? As Amazon enters the world of fashion, they inherit the problems that heritage brands like LVMH and Kering have been battling for decades.

Ultimately, technology companies claim that their products and platforms exist to make human life easier and simpler. But the cost to access the simplification remains hidden until it really is too late. Would we be equally upset if LVMH (with their $49 billion in revenue in 2017) or Kering ($17 billion dollars in revenue in 2017) decided to launch a new brand? Probably not. The difference between LVMH’s luxury portfolio and Amazon’s Find is that as a top player in the fashion industry, LVMH is governed by anti-trust laws that limit monopolies. This also applies to the cosmetic industry and explains the never-ending competition between industry leaders, Esteé Lauder Companies and L’Oreal Inc. Meanwhile, Amazon is dominating the publishing industry, disrupting the food industry (with their recent $10 billion purchase of Whole Foods), and calmly cruising into the fashion harbor with no checks or balances.

These once seemingly small breed of online institutions have steadily climbed the societal ladder to become forces to be reckoned with. One website that originally started off as a way to sell books online has quickly ballooned into an enterprise that not only sells books, but has extended its reach into the food industry via its purchase of a large grocery store chain. Another online application which started off as a way to rate people has grown into a social network that over one billion people connect to on a daily basis. Then, let’s not forget the kingpin of them all—a platform that handles 40,000 searches every second, totaling to about 3.5 billion searches per day, to become the most used search engine in the world—the so-called owner of the internet.

In the case of technology giants, we’ll need more than a refresh button to reverse the Error 404 that awaits us in the future of tech fashion.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

In With The New

In May 2017, after one of the Met Gala soirées, Kylie Jenner posted a photo of her and her sister, Kendall, posing with a cast of famous rappers like Diddy, Wiz Khalifa, Migos, Travis Scott, and Jaden Smith. Within a couple of hours, Diddy reposted the photo—only he decided to crop out Kylie and her sister from the shot. With that, #DiddyCrop became the new trendy way to decolonize our minds from mainstream distractions. In the case of fashion, New York, Paris, London, and Milan, have been drilled into our subconscious as the OG fashion capitals. But according to who? In our version of events, it’s time to #DiddyCrop these cities and focus on new locations that not only breed young talent, but also house the infrastructure for them to succeed in the business of fashion.

Los Angeles

The City of Angels is known for its obsession with avocado toast, bleached hair, and palm trees. Unbeknownst to most, Los Angeles is a powerhouse for design, production, and distribution. So much so that for the past ten years, Sunset Boulevard has hosted Los Angeles Fashion Week as a way to raise “the profile of fashion in the United States with focus on the emergence of Los Angeles as one of the most important cultural cities in the world.” While the other fashion capitals are just tuning into the significance of street style, LA’s fashion has been heavily influenced by street style of many decades. In fact, Los Angeles’s free spirit served as the perfect incubator for world renown 7 For All Mankind jeans.

We caught up with a local designer, Ellington Bramwell, who founded his streetwear brand, Subtl in the summer of 2016 while interning at a corporate media company. After “feeling constrained by the work, supervisors, department’s environment and being static,” Bramwell created Subtl as a form of self-expression.

Bramwell agrees that Los Angeles is an emerging fashion capital because “artists in LA refresh and give new perspective to the constructions of producing, distributing and consuming fashion.”

Subtl draws influence from other LA streetwear brands such as Golf Gang by Tyler the Creator and Jerry Lorenzo for Fear of God. However, what makes LA special is its ability to marry both the business of fashion with the creativity of design, all while retaining its edgy connection to the communities that call the City of Angels home. Bramwell admits that “though LA is not recognized for producing the finest leather, LA-based shops, artists, and design/fashion studios redefine how fluid fashion is. The way we think of fashion in relation to our communities is unmatched.”

This unmatched relationship between the consumer and producer is what has made LA an incubator for new talent. And as LA Fashion week heads into its tenth year, brands like Subtl will reap the benefits of producing and designing in a city that appreciates its creativity.

Seoul

If you like the sound of street style and bespoke couture, then Seoul is your spirit city. Min Joo Kim, fashion enthusiast from Gangnam (the Beverly Hills of Seoul), agrees that Korean boys will have you doubting whether you even know what style means as they strut down the street in their perfectly-tailored-yet-edgy ensemble. After the split between the north and south, Seoul entered a manufacturing revolution in the 1960s and 1970s that has propelled the city into the renowned capital that is responsible for technology magnate, Samsung (and their hefty $223 billion in revenue).

As the country enjoyed the economic benefits of the manufacturing boom, another industry was slowly climbing up the ladder of prominence: the fashion industry.

Seoul’s advantage comes from the government’s emphasis on economic development. This allows brands to have access to an easy chain of networking and connections. Rira Yang, a Korean designer, affirms that “it’s all about production and communication, it’s easy, cheap, and quick to produce in Korea and build up a communication strategy with all the events, celebrities, influencers, and magazines.”

Similarly, not only have designers taken advantage of the local resources that Seoul has to offer. In fact some have even outgrown the city to become internationally renowned. In the case of Korean designer Adererror, Yang credits their international success to their authenticity of staying true to their Seoul roots. “They started from Korea, didn’t care at all about the international market or about catwalk shows. The owners aren’t even designers, but they started to get international attention, were invited to a Berlin gallery, collaborated with Maison Kitune and entered big retailers like SSENSE.”

The local and subsequent international success of Adererror goes to show that emerging fashion capitals not only serve as incubator cities for new designers, but local success is sometimes enough to get a brand noticed internationally. Instead of Seoul designers searching for opportunities to showcase their collections in Europe, Europe came looking for them because of their tremendous local success. Ultimately, it is not necessary for local brands in emerging fashion capitals to seek international validation in veteran fashion weeks. To succeed locally is sometimes enough to feed the Seoul!

Lagos

On the African continent, Lagos has carved out a reputation for itself as the city where anything can happen. So much so that Amaka Osakwe was able to revive an ancient way of indigo-resit dyeing known as Adiré into a contemporary fashion line that has been debuted by Michelle Obama, Solange, and Lupita Nyong’o. Maki Oh, Osakwe’s a Lagos-based brand, had its first show at New York Fashion Week in 2018. But before getting to showcase on one of the top runways, Maki Oh was born out of city that is a mix of chaos, opportunity, and determination.

This is Lagos. In 2017, Nigeria led the continent as the country with the largest GDP in Africa and Lagos was no doubt the single handedly responsible for that figure. As a former capital city of Nigeria, Lagos is the home to many technological, financial, and manufacturing industries. As stakeholders and investors form unions with start-ups, the city continues on a path of economic independence. Such independence led to fashion designer Omoyemi Akerele, to launch Lagos Fashion Week in 2011. Since then, LFW has proven to be a force to reckon with on the continent and internationally. In fact, this year, Naomi Campbell walked the Lagosian runway for Lanre Da Silva Ajayi and Tiffany Amber from Nigeria and KLûK CGDT from South Africa.

Xennait Obomeghie, model and fashion blogger from Nigeria, agrees. “Yes, Lagos is definitely an emerging fashion capital. In fact, at the moment it is Africa’s fashion capital.” With tastes similar to Naomi Campbell, Xennait says “some of [her] favorite contemporary designers in Nigeria include Maki Oh, Lanre da Silva, and Deola Sagoe.”

Naomi Campbell’s presence in LFW was not simply a supermodel appearance. Instead, it was an international recognition of the significance of Lagos by a legacy supermodel and contributing editor to Vogue. In fact, Campbell has repeatedly called for a Vogue Africa and her participation on the Lagosian runway formally acknowledged the innovation, style, and emergence of Lagos as a fashion capital.

Ultimately, it’s imperative that we #DiddyCrop out Paris, New York, Milan, and London from our brains as the official fashion capitals because around the world, cities such as Los Angeles, Seoul, and Lagos strike a flame that legacy cities simply cannot sustain. The ease of networking and access to an ecosystem of creativity is limitless in these cities. Moreover, as consumers dig deeper for brands that represent them and are aligned with their communities, now more than ever, we need to exercise a redirect in the way we perceive fashion capitals.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

Out With The Old…

I’ll never forget the rush I used to get when I had to run to the mall last minute to find the perfect dress. Now, I just scroll online to find that dress and hope it fits when it arrives on my doorstep. But is this constant scrolling going to replace our traditional way of shopping? Maybe. Is e-commerce responsible for the demise of the brick-and-mortar retail experience?

Jørn Backmann Thyssen, the owner of Dagny fashion boutique in Denmark, began his journey in 1994 as a creative buyer. After working for different fashion companies, seven years ago he started his own brand, Dagny, named in honor of his grandmother. With his 25 years of experience in buying, wholesale and retail around the world he can attest to the shift in consumer behavior.

Even though Jørn is very traditional in his ways of producing and selling, when asked about the shift, he comments, “I think it is a part of the new world. You have to be online today. I am selling online as well.”

Regarding the future of retail, Jørn believes that “what will take over is maybe showrooms of collections and inspirational shops with tablets from where you order what you like and get it delivered later at your home.”

As far as Jørn’s own collections are concerned, 100% of the fabrics come from India, although Dagny does not look like an Indian brand. Jørn has been able to pick and create styles that would be best suited for his customers. This customization and personalization is something that will never go out of fashion. “There is maximum sales from my store. People come because of me, how I dress them and guide them. That is something you do not get in online stores.”

As the world shifts with new technologies, the relationship between a brand and its consumers will remain until there is this kind of connection and loyalty. We continue to explore and shop from Amazon or Asos, by just with one click the only thing we are saving is time. Gratification is found both in online and in-store shopping. We should stop pitting online stores and physical boutiques against each other. It is not so much a question of who rises and who falls, but more of figuring out how both could co-exist to cater to the increasingly complex nature of consumers today.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

Once Upon A (Face)Time

Whenever I attempt to sleep before midnight, be in bed at a reasonable hour and for once get a proper shut-eye, I find myself in a downward spiral called YouTube. There’s no such thing as “I’ll only watch a 10-minute video.” Next thing you know, you’re far down the rabbit hole, seeing the sunrise behind you and in need to get dressed for work.

You can find anything and everything on YouTube. It is the perfect distraction from life and an educational tool for adults and children alike. But more so, YouTube has transformed to become a platform for budding entrepreneurs to build a name and reputation for themselves. The Alphabet subsidiary was a way in for raw talents in music to be offered a contract by record labels. But today, talent is limitless. You can one day be creating a comedy sketch with a friend, commenting on a video game or even doing a quick beauty tutorial on your latest makeup haul, and be discovered by brands that believe in your voice.

Marketers have acknowledged that tapping into the world of “vlogging” can extremely benefit their brand awareness and sales. But unlike a decade ago, where bloggers were gifted with numerous products and easily be persuaded to write a review on their website, vloggers tend to be more frank and honest or so it seems. A simple opinion can make or break a brand’s worth and value, especially if they capture a mass market.

The deeper I delve into this vlogger culture, the more I get fascinated by their world. Many have become more confident in speaking the truth and in being in front of the camera. I can’t help but wonder if this the next phase of reality TV? Or is vlogging the answer to the age-old authenticity issue of social media platforms. Regardless, vlogging has given millennials and Gen Z an avenue to share a part of their lives without having showrunners or executive producers calling the shots.

Beauty industries utilize vloggers to get a first-hand review from their direct consumers the quality of their products. But also, these vloggers or self-proclaimed “beauty gurus” have an immense pull on the market. The beauty industry watched the game change from celebrities to influencers, to vloggers.

PR and advertising budgets have drastically shifted to produce collaborations, skin-care lines, and events for and with the vloggers. Their rise to fame can immediately make them millionaires overnight. In 2014, beauty YouTube vlogger Zoe Sugg broke numerous sales records with the release of her own line “Zoella Beauty.” The positive response made her a household name at only 25 years old. By 2016 she was already worth £3 million.

You also have Maybelline who tapped beauty vlogger Shayla Mitchell and developed the City Mini Palette. Laura Lee created a lipstick shade with MAC Cosmetics before launching her own line Laura Lee Los Angeles. Australian Chloe Moretto teamed up with Ciate London to create the perfect palette. The list goes on.

So for anyone aspiring to have their own business, achieve fame through social media or create a community who believe in the same craft as yours, why not lend your face to the camera, speak your truth and invest in the content that you produce. You never know, one day you can have a television show of your own or be a beauty mogul. The world is yours. And for me, I will be sitting behind my laptop constantly being hypnotized by these videos at the comforts of my own home.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

Fashion’s Baby Steps to Sustainability

When we talk of sustainable fashion, we usually think of small brands driven by their values and usually not backed by big corporate investments, so these labels usually do not have to answer to anyone when it comes to sale. But will sustainability in fashion remain a niche business, championed by the little good guys down the pyramid?

In a time of green washing, it is very important that we police brands who treat sustainability like a trend they need to ride on, resulting to half-hearted gestures that do not really amount to something significant. However, I think it is also vital that we remain open to what big brands are doing to make production cleaner. Here are a few baby steps from key fashion players.

North Face Moon Parka

In partnership with Japanese agency Spiber, the American outdoors wear company North Face crafted this winter parka with faux spider silk. Twice as strong as nylon and sturdy enough to weather the harshest of winter, this fabric shares the same properties as spider silk, without all the harmful factory production.

Chopard’s Ethical Sourcing

Heritage French jewelry brand Chopard has announced this year that all the gold they would use for their pieces would be completely ethical, evading dodgy mining practices and doing business only with people who bear the Fairmine certificate.

Browns Fashion and Old Rags

Even retail brands like the London-based boutique Browns are doing what they can to contribute to sustainable efforts. Collaborating with American designer Connor Ives, the duo made super cool pieces from repurposed garments. While Effectively giving these old clothes a new life cycle, this initiative also makes the contemporary consumers rethink how they look at their discarded pieces.

Vestiaire Collective and the Shared Wardrobe

Consignment stores have traditionally been seen as a way to buy into luxury when you do not have a lot of means. But buying and selling used fashion goods now take on a new meaning, that of circular economy. A cycle wherein the material waste loops are closed by repurposing old pieces or selling them at a fraction of its price via platforms like Vestiaire Collective who acts like a middleman and authenticity expert ensuring that the clothes or accessories you receive are not counterfeit and are in good condition.

ERROR: F303 LAUNCHES

As the MBA Global Fashion Media team creates a magazine each year, that time has come again and we’ve come to disrupt the publishing industry. Our magazine has gone to print and throughout the summer we will share individual articles that can be seen in the pages of our magazine, F303. To learn more about our mission, indulge in our introduction:

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Like an HTTP 303 error, the fashion world as we know it is being redirected. Today, the only houses that will survive will be ones that shift their brand model. Think Balenciaga: still iconic, but unrecognizable from when Cristóbal was at the helm.  

And just like the fashion world, the publishing industry is entering the same transformation. We’re entering an era where the most iconic magazines are folding due to a lack of readership and the inability to succeed in the digital age. Those who survive know how to mold themselves to the modern consumption of media.

Like upgrading to the latest iPhone, out with the old and in with the new. Welcome, F303. A fashion magazine for the digital age with the modern consumer in mind.

In the age of Instagram, we’ve fought through filters and FaceTune to see the reality behind the photo. At F303, we aim to showcase the truth behind the filters. As you flip through the pages, you’ll find work that tells the truth. Our articles are honest, our spreads tell raw stories. We are given the tools to hide any and all imperfections, but at F303, we want to disrupt that mold and show you the real us.

This isn’t just another fashion magazine you’ll want to look at the pretty pictures and put it down, either. Go down the rabbit hole and engage in discussions about the influence of technology in our everyday lives, and get lost in words that can transport you to another world.

In an era where we’re always connected, put your phone on silent, close your laptop and allow F303 to redirect your attention to something deeper.

F303

Fashion. Redirected.

Click here to view F303 in its entirety

La Vallée Village – Shoppers’ Paradise You Need To Check

Paris is always one of the shoppers’ paradises for those who are obsessed with designer goods. If you are one of them, and have already been to Galeries Lafayelle or Champs- Élysées, then arrange a one day trip outside Paris to La Vallée Village. There, you are not only spoilt with the choice of brands – the best thing are the prices. They are so much lower than you expect! However, before you start looking for bargains, there are some points you must be aware of:

1. Super crowded

I highly recommend you to go there during a week day, as during the weekend the place is super crowed. Also, prepare to wait in a queues if you want to enter highly popular stores like Gucci or Ralph Lauren.

2. Out of seasons:

It’s an outlet! You shouldn’t expected to find the seasonal items there! But for those who are looking for classic items, it is still a good place to explore!

 

3. Lack of luxurious brand

If you are searching for Chanel, Balmain or even Hermes, I have to tell you: Stay in Paris! However, you can still find some designer brands like Celine, Prada or Valentino…

If you don’t mind the three points above, I’m sure you will have a good time at La Vallee Villege, and you’ll definitely find your bargain there!