Frockwriter Live at MBFWA...and Frockwriter heads to Fellt

backstage at christopher esber SS1213/MBFWA

It’s that time of the year when we gather around the campfire that is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia and celebrate – or eviscerate – fashion design from the land down under. Since this journalist’s blogging career kicked off with live coverage of the event back in 2006 at smh.com.au and we have experimented with a number of different live coverage formats in the interim (e.g. last year's Fashion Week Uncut live blog, in tandem with Emma Ashton), it’s also the time of year when we usually try to come up with a fresh format for real-time coverage. Because that's just how we roll. This year it’s a newlook Frockwriter Live, the site we launched back in 2010 through the Posterous microblogging platform. Since Posterous is due to close at the end of April (sad face), we needed to find an alternative and this is it – for the moment. The newlook Frockwriter Live was developed with Johan Bergström and Daniel Kjellsson, aka Sydney Stockholm. Which brings me to the bigger picture Frockwriter news here: yes, we are hooking up with the Swedish house mafia. 

Nicole Warne signs with IMG as the MBFWA Insider

via gary pepper vintage

Last year Nicole 'Gary Pepper Vintage' Warne became the first Australian blogger to walk the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia runways – modelling for the Talulah brand. As MBFWA dramatically ramps up its social media program for the Spring/Summer 2013/2014 event, which commences on Monday at the new Carriageworks venue, the twentysomething Japanese-Korean-Australian beauty is about to add a couple of other blogger firsts to her resumé.

Frockwriter turns four. Where to from here?

4th july barbie/the couture touch

It’s the fourth of July, which makes it American Independence Day. And of course, frockwriter’s birthday. Now we are four. At this time, I usually take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights of the previous year. On this occasion, I’d like to take a more holistic view of the blog’s entire four year career, including some reflections on the experiment with the Press+ metered paywall, which was introduced in February. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe frockwriter is the world’s first fashion blog to introduce a paywall. As a guinea pig in this arena, I would like to provide some insights. It has been quite an interesting perspective on consumer behaviour.

Introducing Frockwriter+

Do or do not, there is no try, right? It’s been three years and seven months since frockwriter first saw the light of day. You never know when you start these things just where you will wind up. But here we are with 65,000 unique visitors and 100,000+ page views this month. Links to our stories on a plethora of blogs and mainstream news sites. And notably, beyond the growing number of visitors – many of whom are first-timers who arrive via much bigger sites – a dedicated core of readers who keep coming back to the blog time and time and time again. Some visit, incredulously, over 200 times a month. Traffic, links and consumer engagement are wonderful validation for any blogger. But you can’t pay your rent with them. Eighteen months ago, I introduced advertising. This has helped, but it's a Catch 22 situation: I can’t devote more time to the blog without compromising my ability to earn a living. And unless I spend more time blogging, traffic will never reach a sufficiently critical mass whereby advertising fully supports the blog. So I am trying something new: I am introducing a subscription service in the hope that those who do really value frockwriter’s content and are disappointed that there’s not more of it will be interested in supporting it. I’m calling it frockwriter+. I appreciate this a controversial move. In terms of the fashion blogosphere, as far as I am aware, it’s a fairly radical concept. Before you strike frockwriter off your favourites list in disgust, I’d just like to provide a little background.

Boutiques.com: Downunder's biggest fashion blogger buddies up with Google

gala darling

The countdown is on to tonight’s unveiling of Google’s new Boutiques.com fashion portal. After revealing the name and details of the site’s looks-matching technology, frockwriter thought we would hone in on one last, local, element: New York-based Kiwi Gala Darling. Frequently cited as one of the world’s most influential fashion/personal style bloggers - who calls her blog "The playgirl's guide to radical self love” and claims it boasts close to a million individual page views per month - Darling is one of a dozen fashion bloggers invited by Google to curate their own virtual fashion boutiques. Update 18/11: Now launched. Click (here) to check out her boutique and see who else is involved. Not bad for a magenta haired, tutu-rocking, tatt-emblazoned self-help dilettante, who launched into the blogosphere in December 2006 with a post entitled “Fashion help for recovering Goths”. Those in her native Wellington might know her better as Amy Paape. Reportedly a graduate of that city’s Chilton St James and Samuel Marsden Collegiate Schools, she moved to Melbourne in 2006, legally changed her name that year, then decamped to New York in 2008. Retail, as it happens, runs in the Paape family. Darling’s mother, Janet Paape, operates a Lower Hutt fashion boutique called She Designer Excitement, while her Porsche-racing uncle, Digby Paape, sells highend audio equipment at Bose Wellington. 

Cash for comments: The fashion blogosphere's liquid bonanza

stella mccartney for target australia launch, sydney, october 1st/little black book

They are literally throwing money at bloggers at the moment in Australia. Not in the traditional advertising sense, whereby a marketer pays to take out clearly-delineated advertising space in your publication. In fact it’s almost impossible to find many, if any, bloggers who are earning a living out of legitimate display advertising. No, affiliate marketing (pay per click or pay per buy) and sponsored, advertorial posts are the way of the world right now (although not on frockwriter, just to clarify once again). Westfield is currently recruiting a blogger for a 12-month, $100,000 contract. One of the finalists is 19 years old. That’s an extraordinary salary for a teenager. We mentioned the recent Target Stella McCartney launch for which six bloggers (pictured above, details below) were flown to Sydney and paid to write approved copy.