Stephanie Huang SC ’16 had a valid reason for skipping class last Wednesday. Instead of attending a Core course, she sat next to Selena Gomez at the Adidas NEO Fashion Show on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City. Adidas NEO invited Huang to style and publicize the show after recognizing her prominent fashion blog, High-Stitched Voice. Along with other young bloggers from around the globe, Huang was treated to an experience that gave her exposure and knowledge of the fashion world. After returning from her trip, she sat down with TSL to talk about life in the front row.
TSL: Why did you originally create your blog, High-Stitched Voice?
Huang: Well, I did Lookbook half a year before I started my blog. The motto of Lookbook is it is a collective fashion consciousness, where you post your look on a daily basis. Once I acquired a decent amount of followers on there, I decided to create my own blog. Combining fashion and writing and photography—all of which I love—made starting a blog seem like a natural thing to do.
TSL: So how much traffic does your blog receive, and how did you acquire sponsors?
SH: On a good day, it gets from 500 to 1,000 page views. When I post on Lookbook, the post can get up to 3,000 views. As for sponsors, once they start noticing your blog and that you can be of benefit to them as an advertiser, they’ll just start sending you stuff. I think I got my first sponsor a month or two into blogging.
TSL: Cool! So on to Fashion Week. How did you get invited?
SH: I just got an email out of the blue from Adidas NEO. They said that they were having a show for Fashion Week, and “we want you to come.” Adidas said they would pay for my plane ticket, hotel, and meals, so naturally, I freaked out.
TSL: That’s awesome. So how long did you stay, and what was the actual show like? Was it at Lincoln Center where normal Fashion Week is?
SH: Well, it was on Wednesday night, before the official Fashion Week started, so we weren’t at Lincoln Center. Basically the reason why we were there other than social media coverage was that we were supposed to help pick the final looks for the fashion show. Adidas NEO has a young audience, so they really want that audience to be involved in the process. So on Polyvore, they had 20,000 looks submitted from people all over the world with the opportunity for their look to be in the fashion show. The company eliminated it down to 40 looks and they told the 12 to 15 bloggers that were there to limit it down to 15 looks for the runway. It was really cool being able to see it come to life, and it was so much better than I expected it to be on the models. We all sat in the front row, and it was funny seeing other guests eyeing us trying to figure out who we were. Afterward, I got to have a Q&A session with Selena Gomez, who is the face of the brand. Adidas also took us to do tourist things around the city and paid for our meals at nice restaurants. I didn’t have much free time, but I managed to go to SoHo and stores on Fifth Avenue.
TSL: Do you hope to pursue a career in fashion and go to Fashion Week again?
SH: Yeah, definitely. I’ve always thought that Fashion Week in September is a lot better, and it is really hard to balance that with going to a liberal arts school. I know it would be easier if I went to a bigger school to balance studies with fashion blogging and my career. There’s a lot of pressure for bloggers to travel all the time and do well when they are still really young. I still want to pursue a career in fashion, but I don’t think I want to become a full-time blogger. There are many people who do become successful and get from $5,000 to $10,000 per post. I think I want to do something more involved with writing and fashion.