©20/02/16 This Saturday’s Q&A was with blogging duo for Today We Wore; A B B I E T R E A D W E L L & S A R A H W O O L L E Y Tell us about Today We Wore? Abbie: Today We Wore is our fashion and lifestyle blog, primarily on Instagram but we have a webpage too, (links below), its where we share our love for fashion, food and travel with our followers. Sarah: Today We Wore is a way for Abbie and I to show the latest styles and trends we love, and how we spend our free time to our Instagram and blog followers. It came about when we both decided we should join forces, as we both have differing styles yet have an overall love of fashion and wanted to share this with others.
How did your degrees influence and inspire you to create TWW? Abbie: I would say our fashion degree had a slight impact on our choice to start the blog, but we did it because its what we love doing, not because we felt it was necessary to do so because we study fashion. Sarah: My Fashion Communications degree has influenced TWW as I feel more informed on aspects of the best way to explore and photograph our outfits (and copious cups of coffee) whether this be on location or in the studio at LCA.
How was creating a fashion and lifestyle blog compared to how you expected? Abbie: To start with it was difficult to build up a following and to get people to notice our blog page and Instagram feed. There are so many fashion and lifestyle blogs out there with thousands of followers, who dedicate their lives to it and blog as a full time job. For us, it is more of a hobby and we don’t take it too seriously. We love to go out and shoot on locations and in the studio with a photographer to get a variety of shots to keep our followers interested in our blog. Sarah: The blog has been harder than I initially expected. Accumulating followers and building up a regular following base is the hardest factor I think. Regular blog posts come fairly easy as the two of us are never short of a new outfit or latest lunch venture.
Who are your favourite designers and ‘fashion icons’? Abbie: I would say my favourite fashion icon at the moment is Kendall Jenner; I love following her style and how she is coming into her own as a model. Sarah: My favourite designer brands have to be Saint Laurent and Tom Ford, the elegance yet masculinity from both brands are something I love. A fashion icon for me ranges from Rosie Huntington-Whitely, her style is effortless and always looks chic, to Kendall Jenner and Victoria Beckham.
What bloggers most inspire you? Abbie: I would say that I look up to blogger Asos Alice who is one half of French blogging couple Jaimetoutcheztoi. She has a very minimal street style, which I love and I enjoy following her on her travels around the world to various fashion events and her learning about her job as an ASOS stylist. Sarah Donaldson is also one of my favourite bloggers, she too has a clean and minimal aesthetic but she has a more sophisticated sense of style. Sarah: Bloggers such as Task Oakley, of A Bikini a Day and RosieLondoner inspire me to create more exciting content for the blog, and of course to travel more!
How do you think the internet, in particular the emergence of bloggers/vloggers and apps such as Instagram have changed the fashion industry? Abbie: Through exploring this subject through my dissertation, I would say that bloggers have some positive impact on the industry, people look up to them as role models and they seem to have gained a kind of authority within the fashion world. However, I also feel that some fashion bloggers blog simply to gain a ‘celebrity’ status and to get paid, whether that be in designer clothes or money from brands that they collaborate with. This has a negative impact on the industry as bloggers become untrustworthy and their intentions for blogging aren’t genuinely to connect to their audience and build up a community of common interests. Sarah: The emergence of bloggers and apps, such as Instagram, has made the industry more much accessible to most, whether this be viewing the latest happenings at London fashion Week to being recognised for the content on your blog/Instagram and creating a career from this, which is so exciting and recognition from brands you wear or bloggers you follow is rewarding.
What does your perfect day in Leeds entail? Abbie: I would say my perfect day in Leeds would involve finding a cool location or backdrop to shoot for a blog post, maybe find a coffee shop or café for brunch/lunch (always taking snaps of what we eat of course) and just finding interesting hidden away places to find inspiration from for the blog but also for my uni work (as that’s kind of important too haha). Sarah: A perfect day in Leeds for me starts with breakfast at Angelica, followed by a quick stop along Briggate, visiting Harvey Nichols, The Kooples and Zara. Spending the afternoon at the Harvey Nichols terrace photographing everything along the way. A shoot in the studio late afternoon, and ending the day with dinner at Crafthouse. A lot of eating and drinking I have to admit!
Both of you work together on TWW, do you ever disagree? Abbie: I wouldn’t say we disagree as such, we both have very different styles and ways of doing things; aesthetics is really important to me, I tend to focus on how to make things look visually pleasing and being consistent with posts, how images fit together is essential in capturing peoples attention, especially with apps like Instagram. We both come up with ideas for photo shoots and once we get to the location or studio, we encourage each other to interpret the idea in our own individual way and it is usually very effective. Sarah: The fact that Abbie and I have such differing styles of dress tends to mean we don’t disagree too much, as we know what we both like and respect that. Abbie tends to sway toward a more serious tone to a photograph, which I like too, however I also enjoy shooting and modelling in shots with more energy too. https://www.instagram.com/p/2dZdBylxpp/?taken-by=todaywewore
What was your most popular blog/Instagram post and why do you think this was the case? Abbie: Our most popular Instagram I would say was when we were in Paris, people love to see posts that involve travel and especially when it’s a popular place like Paris. Another one of our popular posts in Instagram was when we went for lunch at Harvey Nichols when we first started the blog, it was literally just a photo of our sandwiches haha, I have no idea why it gained so many liked but I guess that just what people like to see! Sarah: Possibly the photo of Abbie and I on our trip in Paris. Flat lays do well, as do photos of food/ coffee. People want to aspire to eat nice foods and dress well, and so this may be the case for the likes, and of course not the mention the well taken photographs and choice of filter..!
Whats next for TWW and for you both individually? Abbie: What’s next.. I’m still asking my self that question. In terms of TWW I think we will continue to blog and have fun with it definitely and even if we are no longer living near each other we will find a way to make it work. In terms of me personally, I intend to finish uni and look for an internship in London, my passion lies within marketing, PR and branding aspects of fashion, so I am hoping to find something I really love doing and hopefully in the future set up my own business. Sarah: I want to shoot more content for TWW and step out of our comfort zone – I think this will be exciting and could possible generate new followers. Personally, after uni is complete I want to travel to places I haven’t been to yet, I think this will be refreshing and exciting. After travels I want to look for internships possibly in Manchester or London. Keep up to date with Today We Wore on… Their website: www.todaywewore.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/todaywewore/ Find Abbie and Sarah on Linkedin at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/abbie-treadwell-139522b2 https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarah-woolley-7b8325a7