Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, the founders and editors of the celebrity fashion site Who What Wear, are two in a growing cadre of online-only journalists in L.A. with print pedigrees. They were editors at Elle magazine before noticing that "a lot of magazines were going online or were folding," Kerr said.
Before starting their site, "we didn't see anything that addresses celebrity fashion in a way that consumers can relate to," she said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, June 09, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 25 words Type of Material: Correction
Fashion blogger's name: Freelance writer and blogger Erin Magner's last name was misspelled as Manger in an article about fashion websites in Sunday's Image section.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, June 14, 2009 Home Edition Image Part P Page 2 Features Desk 1 inches; 27 words Type of Material: Correction
Fashion blogger's name: Freelance writer and blogger Erin Magner's last name was misspelled as Manger in an article about fashion websites in the June 7 Image section.
With a subscriber list of 100,000-plus and 1.75 million unique visits a month, Who What Wear is a guilty-pleasure read, sans the Perez Hilton-style snark. Power and Kerr have a book due out in September, "Who What Wear: Celebrity and Runway Style for Real Life," based on the site, and they are developing a fashion news show with MTV.
Merle Ginsburg, one of L.A.'s most well-known fashion journalists, was tapped last year by stylist Svengali Margaret Maldonado and her husband, Mikko Koskinen, to be the editor of their fashion blog, Fashion Rules (fashionrules.com).
Ginsburg's experience and connections -- she was formerly on staff at W magazine and has written for publications that include Elle Decor and Rolling Stone -- make the site a rare insider's read among L.A. blogs. Recent posts included a play-by-play of a private dinner party with designer Catherine Malandrino, a heads-up on a VIP sample sale and savvy collection reviews.
She sees her L.A. location -- 3,000 miles from the heart of the U.S fashion industry -- as advantageous. "There is a ton of fashion happening here," she said. "In many ways, the way people dress in L.A. has become more interesting than New York because we have much more freedom and funkiness. Celebrities seem to start more trends than New York socials or models these days -- and even Europe seems more fixated on dressing L.A. girls than New York ones."
Maldonado, Koskinen and Ginsburg hope to add writers in other cities to expand the site, which gets 65,000 unique visitors per month. A series of books that Ginsburg said "relate to dressing in various cities," is in the works too. Instead of selling ads to make a profit, the site will eventually sell products.
Palos Verdes-based Kelly Cook is already turning a profit with the website Bag Snob ( www.bagsnob.com) and its offshoots, Couture Snob ( www.couturesnob.com), Tot Snob ( www.totsnob.com) and Beauty Snob ( www.beautysnob.com.)
Launched in 2005 by Cook and Tina Craig (who's based in Dallas), Bag Snob now garners 100,000-plus unique visitors monthly, and nets more than six figures a year via its affiliate programs with e-commerce sites including Net-a-Porter, Saks Fifth Avenue and ELuxury.
It works like this: Cook and Craig blog about a bag, then link to one of their affiliates where shoppers can buy it. The bloggers get a cut of the profits on sales that come from these links to their site. (And their recommendations are like a priest's blessing -- bags they laud routinely sell out on Net-a-Porter.)
"We wrote like we were talking to a girlfriend, and that really resonated with people," Cook said. "We talk about overpriced bags or blatant label whoring. My mom always said shopping would be the end of me, that it would destroy me. She was wrong."
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