On Thursday this week, I had the huge pleasure of spending time with the Jasper Conran Bridal team, following a personal invitation to attend the exquisite Jasper Conran Sackville Street boutique in the heart of London. I spent the morning of the same day with the immensely talented Phillipa Lepley – one of London's leading couture bridal wear designers, and a name that has been mentioned in the same sentence as 'royal wedding dress', on more than one occasion {though Phillipa told me exclusively this week that she has not landed the design job of the century}.
I feel truly privileged to have had this opportunity and am looking forward to sharing my experiences with you soon. For today however, I wanted to reflect on my thoughts of the past two days since my London trip.
I was expecting for the conversation with the super welcoming and really very lovely Jasper Conran bridal team, {who won me over in an instant with tea and macarons in pretty pastel shades}, to be focused largely around wedding dresses, bridal wear trends, which fabrics were going to be hot next season, that kind of thing. And indeed, we talked about these things, but what we ended up talking about more, were blogs, and bloggers – and their huge and increasing influence, particularly in the UK wedding and fashion industries.
The Jasper Conran team are a savvy bunch who are very aware of the benefits of online social media and are using it to their best ability to help market the brand (Mr Conran has a well designed, informative and regularly updated website and blog, and is also utilising Twitter and Facebook). What took me quite by surprise however, was their interest in what I do as a blogger and the role and influence of Love My Dress.
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Imagery Copyright (c) 2011 and Supplied by kind courtesy of Jasper Conran
I don't think the enormity of that quite hit me until I got home and was conducting some more research for my piece on Conran, and found this interview he participated in with the brilliant (and anonymous) fashion blogger, Disneyrollergirl…
"Bloggers are making their own magazines, so voila, you can have your own empire. I think it's just beginning to dawn on people that blogging is business and we are very aware here that times are changing all the time. We’re anxious to keep up with that and be informed and be able to react to it."
I have spent the past 48 hours reflecting on this and I still have to pinch myself to realise it.
Love My Dress is amongst a group of UK wedding blogs that the industry is really beginning to take note of. This fills me with pride and excitement, but fear and pressure in equal measure. Knowing that so many people out there are paying so much attention means I can't slack on this project. It's the real deal. But it reminds me too of what a hugely privileged position I'm in; I get to regularly share the most beautiful weddings with my readers (something I will never, ever tire of) and I also have a powerful platform that I can use to help raise the profile of smaller and/or independent brands who might otherwise struggle to get the exposure. And on a personal level, this is hugely important to me and worth all the late nights 🙂
For the record, I adore this wedding blog with a passion and LOVE the opportunities it provides to work with and support so many brilliant people. It takes a huge level of commitment and hard work keeping these pages updated – it isn't easy, but it is most definitely a labour of love. If I could make the equivalent of a Girl Guide's oath to honour my commitment to this blog, I would. For now, you'll just have to accept that 'I promise to do my best to fill my duty as a Wedding Blogger, to help promote the talent of industry colleagues and make Love My Dress a trusted and respected online resource for daily bridal inspiration'… 🙂
Taken from the same Disneyrollergirl interivew with Jasper Conran….
"{blogging} allows the public to become the editors and that is right and proper. Because the public go with what they like, rather than being told what they're going to like. It's wonderful that people are being discovered by the public without having to be a superbrand."
I salute you Mr Conran, for being amongst the first of the luxury brands in bridal wear to give recognition and support to what we as 'Wedding Bloggers' are working hard to achieve and the impact our efforts are now having across the wedding industry.
Have a super lovely Sunday everyone – pop a comment in the box below to share your thoughts – it would be great to get some dialogue going around your thoughts on wedding blogs. You might also want to read the Love My Dress 2010 Reader Survey results here – they make statistics look chic and elegant. Really 🙂
Much love,
Annabel xXx
♥
More Thoughts for a Sunday here…
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