Hi, this is going to be short and sweet this week and regrettably this is the last newswire for a while.
It has been a fantastic opportunity to work on www.fashioncapital.co.uk. With a trusty team of …er…one (!) we have managed to make FashionCapital a leading information portal for the industry. It’s been amazing working with the highly talented Vanessa Camelia who has toiled so long and hard to make this site like no other.
I’ve seen FashionCapital go from a zero start to over 5.5m hits for the month of January 06 from almost 65,000 unique users. That’s a result that everyone should be proud of and the feedback from the users has been, in the main, outstanding. The site has been redesigned, constantly tweaked (much to the annoyance of Follow Me Technologies!) and always improved.We now have users from all over the world from Toronto to Tokyo, New York to Prague; Deli to sunny Cork!
We naturally made some mistakes along the way and we were certainly big enough to listen and correct the mistakes as they happened. Each Monday it certainly gave me a buzz (just like my old buying days for Principles for Women and M&S) to see the figures step up week on week.
Last week I credited the journalists whose commitment to FashionCapital was exceptional. A website is only as good as the information that it holds and we ALWAYS ensured that each home page article was genuine and exclusive for the site! I am still desperately hoping that we can keep this team of top fashion journalists together for the future with Jo Iles taking the lead. We certainly had passion to make the site the absolute best for all you fashionistas out there – and still do of course!
I have to say a big thank you to Alec and Gareth from Follow Me Technologies – how many times did I drive you both wild…but you must admit…it was worth it in the end. Congratulations to Gareth and his partner on the birth of his son Digby; brilliant name!
We also have to say the biggest thank you of all to the LDA and the Creative London team. In particular the one and only Graham Hitchen (I must have given you some hairy moments in the past!), the ever professional Robin Bramble, Cory Defoe who’s been a superstar over the last few months and the lovely Wendy Wyatt who’s brimming with fantastic new concepts.
We don’t know what the next chapter is but there will most definitely be a new page turning over shortly for FashionCapital – it’s just a bit hazy at the moment for lots of reasons.
Hang in there, please keep hitting the site and look for updates. The last uploads take place today, unfortunately, but where there’s a will there’s always a way. You will be able to access the site and log on to the community icon but regrettably I won’t be able to post any replies.
As much as the last few months have been a roller coaster I wouldn’t have changed anything regards to the last five years of working for the London Fashion Forum and designing and creating FashionCapital. I have met some amazing people who are now well and truly friends, implemented projects that have helped literally thousands of designers and their businesses to succeed and learnt a wealth of information about the wonderful world of fashion.
Life is an adventure and sometimes, however impatient we are, we have to learn to sit tight and let events unfold. Thanks to everyone out there that has been on that FashionCapital adventure with us.
Just a few passing comments – never be afraid of what the future holds for you and your business however scary it may seen. Keep your spirit level level (you know when something’s right and wrong so don’t compromise yourself!), find contentment in something you do and see everyday and work to make your dreams a reality.
Below is a snapshot of pictures that shows what we have been about over the last four years.
Best of luck to you all.Be HAPPY!
Jenny Holloway
Industry Advisor
