Behind the Fashion Scene

About I am Fashion

2008-01-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

Q: What inspired you to set up your blog/site?
We started a blog because we wanted to have a place where trends and fashion from the runway and on celebrities can easily be understood and translated into down to earth, youthful street fashion. Back when we first started, there were a lot less fashion blogs. It has also given us an excuse to go window-shopping around the internet!

Q. So why did you decide to do a blog instead of a site?
We originally wanted to do a general teenage site, but we realised we wouldn't have enough time to do a complete website, (not to mention that we are html-challenged and not teenagers anymore). So we decided to focus only on our main passion- fashion and beauty (obviously). And also since blogs are more user-friendly and easy to setup, we decided on a blog instead of a website.

Q. How did you come up with your name?
We wanted to the name of our site to be catchy and actually mean something. Back then, we were in love with Chanel's classic elegant style, (and still are!) and decided to name our site from a phrase out of a Coco Chanel quote: 'I don't do fashion, I am fashion.'

Q: What challenges have you faced in regard to establishing and maintaining the site?

Our greatest challenge in establishing our site was in creating a background layout. Since we're technically challenged, for our first two background layouts, we had to get a friend to help us. But since then, we've learnt a few things about html and photoshop to be able to do simple layouts by ourselves now. As for maintaining the site, the most challenging thing is probably to finding the time to update it daily. But since blogging is something we enjoy doing and we have each other to cover for us when we're busy, it has actually not been that hard.

Q: What does a typical day at I am Fashion look like?
Our "office" is just wherever our laptop is, we've blogged in cafe's, airports and libraries. Although usually, we just work at home surrounded by . . . all our wordly belongings from our precious shoe collection to piles of schoolwork!

Q: Do you blog for fun or as a career? If for fun, how do you manage your time?
Yes, we blog for fun as a hobby. Sometimes, blogging is surprisingly therapeutical after a day of school. Time-wise, yes, we must admit that there are times when we are a bit push for time. But the good thing about being in a dual is that one of us can always cover for each other if the other really doesn't have the time to blog. And we like that we're pretty reliable and think along the same lines.

Q: How much time does blogging take up everyday?
It depends on the nature of the post. But typically it takes around 1-2 hours per post.

Q: Where do you come up with topics to blog about?
We don't have one specific source of blog topics. We just get our blog ideas from things in our daily lives -from what we discuss with friends to something we saw on the streets or websites. We think of our blog as a scrap book of sorts of the random fashion thoughts that occurs to us in our daily lives!

About Us

2008-01-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

Q: How did you two meet?
BG: We are both from Hong Kong and we met in high school during mandarin class and have been good friends ever since. We have bonded over shopping, community service and as the co-editors of our high school magazine. And of course there is I am Fashion. We also love to spend hours on the phone talking and overanalyzing about every little detail of our lives.

Q: Since you two live in different cities (Chicago/London) most of the year, how do you stay in contact and coordinate for the blog?
BG: By spending gmailing each other a LOT everyday.

Q: Do you both work in the fashion industry?

HG: No, we are both still students in college. In fact, we're both majoring in finance and economics related subjects that have nothing to do with fashion. :)

Has the success of this blog made you change your career directions at all? Will you be continuing in fashion journalism in the future or going to work in other professions?
HG: Nope. We love fashion but as you can tell from our writing, we don't have much potential of becoming journalist!

BG: I have to admit, blogging has made me consider a career in the fashion industry (not neccesarily fashion journalism, as HG correctly points out we obviously do not have the talent). I have even spent 2 summers working within it to get an idea of what it is like. While they have both been a great learning experiences and I learnt a lot (read related internship blogs), I'd like to keep my options open and explore opportunities in different industries as well.

How old are you? Where do you go to school? How do you have access to money? Do you work for your money or do your parents funnel it into a bank account that you can use, or can you borrow your parent's credit cards? I'm just curious because i have to earn every penny for myself.
HG: We're both 21. I am studying in London and BG is studying in Chicago. We realise that we are pretty fortunate since our parents still fund our purchases but we would like to point out that we generally shop way less than the impression we give out. (Only our really close friends realise this!)

BG: I agree. Blogging just gives us a brilliant excuse to window-shop online (which we love doing) and an outlet to share our shopping dilemas with others and get their input before we make a decision. We definitely shop less than it looks (I also do a lot of returning...).

Can we see pictures of you guys in your new year's dresses? Or just you guys in general? I like myself a good wearing today post.

HG: Um sorry, no. I'm a pretty shy and private person in real life. I don't even upload my photos into albums on Facebook!

Proof read your posts! There's always something wrong with your grammer or spelling!
Sorry! We try our best but most of the time, we blog around midnight when we're tired and are trying to finish off our school work, so we don't always have time to write or proofread properly. Just let us know when we write something wrong and we'll change it, (although there is no need to be overly rude about it.)

What items are on your "shoot me if I'm ever seen in this" list, as in clothing and accessories wise?
HG: I believe in trying new styles, so as long as you are personally comfortable in something, then it should be fine. Although I do think it's really unflattering when items aren't matched or styled very poorly.

BG: I also try to keep an open mind with fashion. Although I would like to think that I would not ever be seen in say something like leopard leggings with zebra print shorts and a floral top and a printed bag. *Shivers at the thought*

I am going to be heading to London for a week long shopping, sightseeing adventure and was wondering if you had a list of must stop stores or must see places?

HG: The truth about BG and me is that we are not adventurous shoppers. We shop in very mass market places like department stores and common shops (think Top Shop and French Connection,) although I do attempt to venture out to boutiques during the holidays. I think it's more because we lack the patience to shop in unorganised and small places rather than us not liking the products. So unfortunately, all I can recommend is going to Oxford Street and Covent Garden.

How about Chicago?
BG: Even though I love Chicago, I wouldn't actually classify Chicago as a fashionable city. So there aren't really must stop fashion places that is one of a kind in Chicago. But while you are there, I do love shopping along Michigan Ave (the mag mile) for the usual chain stores/department stores and the North Avenue/Armitage area up north near Lincoln Park (it is very neighborhoody there) for smaller shops. Ooh one place that I LOVE LOVE LOVE is Bravco on Oak Street and Michigan. It is a little store tucked neatly away next to YSL where they sell the most complete selection of hair products and nail varnish under the sun at cheaper (i think) than salon prices. As for sightsee, I'd say the Chicago Architecture River tour and the Signature Bar (on top John Hancock) are pretty standard places to go.

How about Hong Kong?
BG: As HG mentioned before, we're not very exciting shoppers. In Hong Kong, we like to shop at department stores like Lane Crawford and Harvey Nichols. We also have a very high concentration of a wide range of brand name boutiques over here, which are also great places to shop. The great thing about Hong Kong is that we don't have sales tax, we have great sales (even though it comes a bit late compared to the US) AND when its not on sale, frequent shoppers also get 10% off in selected stores. There are also many small boutiques sprinkled around HK that sells great clothes at cheaper prices, like in Causeway Bay, but alas we don't really have the patience to go through them all and find the good ones. Although I DO love to go to Causeway Bay for fun accessories like colored stockings and funky headbands!

Layouts Archive

2008-01-04T11:39:00.001-08:00

SS 2005
Unfortunately we did not save a version of our original layout. But basically, it was the same one as this Behind the Fashion Scene's layout: the minimalist default setting blogger provided with purple font and this creamy/yellow background. It was... definitely minamalistic.

FW 2005Nine months later we finally got our act together and created our first layout not provided by blogger with the tech and photoshop help of our friend T.

SS 2006
And that was the start of our biannual layout updating tradition.

FW 2006
By FW 2006, we finally developed some tech and photoshop skills of our own and this was our first original layout created by the two of us.

SS 2007Then we created a banner style layout and incorporated our own photos with fashion images. This layout even has a name: Walk Tall, Dream High.

FW 2007We liked the banner style so much we continued it for our next layout.

Contact Us

2008-01-04T06:47:00.000-08:00

Readers/Press

If you have any more questions for us not covered in this page or anything you want to let us know, simply shoot us an email at iamfashion AT gmail.com!

Link Requests

We'd love to exchange links with fellow fashion bloggers on our Links Page. Just send us an email at the same address with the heading "Link Request" and we will add you to our list. We usually update every month or so due to time constraint (and also we do get quite a few requests), so please do give us some time!

Companies/PR Firms

Please send any information to the above email. As for press kits and samples, please also email us for our mailing address. We'd love to work with the companies and PR firms to share with readers products that we love. However, we cannot guarantee that a particular product will appear on our site.

Acknowledgments (so don't sue us)
We use quite a lot of images in our blog, so we would like to acknowledge that the photos obviously do not belong to us and we want to thank the sites sourced at the bottom of each post.