Read CoutureCast Interview | All CoutureCast interviews are copyrighted and property of CoutureCandy.com 2007

Jill Johnson: Hello, this is Jill Johnson, CEO of Couture Candy. Today I’m thrilled to be interviewing Catherine Power and Hillary Kerr, founders of WhoWhatWear Daily. The new online magazine, WhoWhatWear Daily, gives you the latest in celebrity fashion and beauty tricks the second they hit the street or the runway. Launched by two former Elle magazine editors, the site only talks about what people are wearing and if they don’t have something nice to say, they don’t say it all.

Thank you so much for being here today. I’m very excited to be talking to you. You guys are doing such a great job with the website.

Hillary Kerr: Thank you. We love it.

Jill Johnson: Yeah. You’re getting a lot of attention, a lot of publicity off the site which is fabulous. I was going to ask you a little bit about your background today and how you differ from the average blogger out there.

Hillary Kerr: Well, I think that we’re different from the average blogger in terms of what we’ve produced actually looks like a magazine. It’s not your average blog template. We photo edit from thousands of pictures to put together a specific story a day. And we also have a strong fashion background. Catherine was the west coast editor for Elle and Elle Girl. And I was on staff at Elle in New York. So, we come from an insider’s point of view as opposed to most bloggers who are on the outside looking in and commenting.

Jill Johnson: Right. You must have been so busy. That’s a lot of work getting all that information together.

Catherine Power: Oh, definitely but fun. We have a great time with it. It’s wonderful working for yourself.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, I agree with that. What made you decide to create WhoWhatWear Daily?

Hillary Kerr: Well, I think we found ourselves, or at least I did, looking at all the celebrity gossip blogs online and weekend magazines but really I was just going there to see what people were wearing. And there’s so much gossip and nonsense that sort of goes along with it.

So, we wanted to create a place where you can only see what people are wearing, where we don’t care about who anyone is dating or what their disorder might be this week. And we just wanted to create a site where you can focus on the fashion and the celebrity’s personal style. Also I was seeing so many magazines, regular magazines folding and turning into online only, that we figured that the internet was definitely the place to be.

Jill Johnson: That’s true. You know, I have a background before I started CoutureCandy.com I had a retail store for sixteen years. So, I know what you mean. A lot of the retail stores are folding and a lot of people are going to sell online so I think this is a smart move. And good timing, too, for both of you.

Hillary Kerr: It’s great because we can put up the most recent photos the minute someone steps out of the Chateau we can have that set up the next day so we don’t have that same lead time as a regular magazine. So, it works really well. And I think that immediacy is sort of what everyone’s interested in right now.

Jill Johnson: Right, definitely. How do the celebrities respond? I mean, they might be caustic of being harassed and like you said, other bloggers talking about their eating disorders and their boyfriends and what their doing. It seems that they just can’t get out of the eye of the paparazzi. I’m very happy you guys are focusing on something more positive. Have you gotten any response?

Hillary Kerr: Yes, we have actually. That’s kind of our point in creating this, as we wanted a site that a stay at home mom in Missouri could look at for inspiration or the top stylists in Hollywood would subscribe and all the celebrities, too. So, we do have a lot of celebrities that are big supporters of our site, as well as some amazing stylists and then we just have a bunch of regular, awesome people all over the world and they’re all reading kind of the same thing. And the celebrities are just happy because they’re also interested in what everyone else is wearing, too but it’s probably hard for them to go to a newsstand and buy Us Weekly.

Supporting that kind of thing, they can just go there and then literally just see that we portray them in a great light and then we have really great response from that.

Catherine Power: I mean plus the thing is I think that so many people are so negative that it’s nice to have that out in the world like something like this is what our opinion about great fashion is and how people can get it. And because that’s aspirational and inspiring, the celebrities then are glad to be a part of it.

Jill Johnson: Right. That sounds like it makes a perfect sense, for sure. And people really do care what the celebrities are wearing. And I think not just because they are in the media so much, you can’t help to see it, but some of the celebrities have all the stylists and all the resources right at their fingertips. So, what they’re wearing is pretty much the best of the best is available out there.

Hillary Kerr: Yeah, I think it’s interesting because it’s kind of the right timing for this. When I was growing up it was that the big fashion houses were influencing the way Hollywood would dress. And now we’re at a place where these young, amazing pacemakers in Hollywood are actually influencing the designers.

So, it’s sort of the tables have turned. I think it’s so important for people they want that immediate access to what the celebrities are wearing because there are just so many girls out there right now, what’s the best personal style.

Jill Johnson: Who do you think has the most impeccable personal style? Besides yourselves.

(Giggles)

Hillary Kerr: Catherine and I are really very different.

Jill Johnson: You guys are really cute. I saw your picture.

Catherine Power: But I like, I’m Catherine, like the more riskier girls, obviously, Kate Moss, the Olsens. I like the Richards sisters. Anyone who sort of like takes chances. And Hillary loves the more classic girls.

Hillary Kerr: It’s true, I like Rachel Bilson and Jennifer Goodwin, and I think that she in particular has wonderful red carpet style. Reese has been looking amazing lately, too. She’s really been turned out.

Jill Johnson: Hillary, you’re the one that’s from New York?

Hillary Kerr: I’m actually from San Diego, originally.

Jill Johnson: But you were working for Elle New York?

Hillary Kerr: Yes, but I was in New York for a number of years on staff at Elle.

Jill Johnson: It’s seems like that kind of style. I mean, that might influence you a little bit.

Hillary Kerr: I think that something’s really nice is that Catherine and I have many shared points of view and we have many incredibly different points of view. And so, we try and represent all, you know, it’s like I probably a little more mass and she I probably a little more high end and the combination of the two is great.

Jill Johnson: Right. And it allows for a lot of diversity which is wonderful.

Hillary Kerr: Exactly. And you know, when we were photo editing all these pictures it’s like she’ll look at something and I’ll look at something and we will see completely different things. It’s like she’ll pick up on the trend, I’ll pick up on something else.

Jill Johnson: How do you translate fashion trends and what celebrities are wearing into your own personal style that you see so much?

Catherine Power: It’s actually not as hard on our own things because I mean, as long as you remember a couple of important points. You have to take into account your body type. If you’re almost six feet tall, you don’t want to go for Mary Kate style. You want to look more towards Cameron. That kind of thing.

Also, it’s really easy even if you don’t have a lot of money because there are so many different versions of things you could look at on the runway or in the magazine and then you can go out and find your own interpretation of it. What I like to do is go to a vintage store and find the trendiest piece of the moment that everyone’s wearing but find my own version of it so that, a) it’s less expensive and b) no one else is going to have it.

Jill Johnson: Interesting. I’m a big fan of vintage clothing, also. What are some other big fashion no-no’s in your opinion?

Hillary Kerr: I know there’s a lot but the biggest no-no is probably not knowing when to give a trend a rest.

Catherine Power: Yes, and we have something, we have a time out corner on our website. And right now, we have black nail polish. It’s just, we’ve seen it, every mom, every celebrity has done it. When you go and get your nails done and you realize that every single person is getting the exact same Linkin’ Park, after dark OPI shade. Generally, when it’s time to stop.

Jill Johnson: That’s helpful. I think Chanel’s all constantly sold out their black polish, too. So, you make it easier on us.

Catherine Power: Right. Yes.

Jill Johnson: What are some of your favorite upcoming spring trends?

Catherine Power: Well, I love, there’s a lot of metallic going on. There’s a ton of metallic accessories, metallic make-up and they’re doing this silver nails, it’s going to replace the black.

Jill Johnson: That’s a good tip.

Catherine Power: As we saw on the Chanel runway for spring, everyone’s nails were silver. There’s also metallic in clothing that you can find different interpretations of Balenciaga did on the very futuristic metallic pants and everything and you can go to American Apparel and find sort of a less expensive version of those pants.

There’s also a ton of white shoes which are very tricky to wear but if you do them right we‘ve seen them kind of that.

Jill Johnson: How would you do those right? What is your favorite wardrobe?

Catherine Power: The problem with white shoes is that you have to really look at the way they are made. It’s kind of hard to pull off a cheap white shoe because they look cheap. So, it’s like if that’s an important piece for you then I would suggest you sort of save up some money. Because there are a lot of white shoes on the spring runway and I’ve also seen a lot for fall 2007 so we know you can get a couple of seasons out of them.

Hillary Kerr: And that which is something that’s nice is that fashion rules are not so hard and fast anymore. You can wear white shoes going into fall; you can wear white shoes with back types. It’s a lot more flexible.

Jill Johnson: Can you please tell our listeners out there, who knows, to make sure your white shoes are in good repair. Toe weaving it will totally blow it for me.

Catherine Power: Oh, that’s smart.

Jill Johnson: Yeah and the scarves, the bag and scruffy white pumps, it makes me think of the 80’s.

Catherine Power: Yes. That’s why they’re tricky but there are some designers that are really getting it right this spring.

Jill Johnson: Can you think of a particular trend right now that pack a lot of punch that is easy for a lot of different people to wear, I’ll say it’s inclusive, and a lot of people can wear but it’s something really unique and fun? Does anything like that standout?

Hillary Kerr: I think that wide belts are big for spring. I think they’re very inclusive as well. We’re seeing a lot of double buckles, for example on the Gucci spring runway. And I think that’s something that for example Catherine is long and lean and I’m curvier but we can both wear belts, wide belts. And it just depends on what you wear with it. I might cinch it in over a dress, she might wear it with a longer tunic and skinny pants but it’s definitely inclusive.

Wide leg pants are another thing. We’ve seen so many skinny legged pants and I think that the fashion, it’s going to swing towards the wide a little bit. We have curvier girls can wear them, small girls can wear them, tall girls can wear them. What’s important to keep in mind mostly is if you’re short-waisted or long-waisted; if you’re short-waisted, then you can wear the lower rise pants.

Jill Johnson: The more slouchy look.

Hillary Kerr: Yes. And if you’re high-waisted, you can go with a higher waist as well on that sort of like the more classic Hepburn style, wide, wide toes.

Jill Johnson: Ironically, at Couture Candy we just did our stylist tip of the week last week and it was on wide, wide leg pants and people really loved it. We’ve styled a lot of really cool images. I loved the wide leg pants. They can be surprisingly lengthening. They can make you really slim and you can hide big platforms underneath them and that’s my favorite part.

Catherine Power: If you toss a pair of platforms underneath there spring wedges, you bring your big platform boots from Saw, anything like that and just make sure that you hem the pants sort of at a long length so that they almost graze the ground on the side. Then that should add another several inches to your leg and taller.

Jill Johnson: Who doesn’t want that?

Hillary Kerr: Long legs are never a bad thing.

Jill Johnson: Yeah. There you go. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about your site, too. For some of our listeners who haven’t been there, WhoWhatWear Daily.com, what are some of the main things that the readers get from your site?

Hillary Kerr: Main thing that we want to give our readers is inspiration. It’s definitely I want to encourage people to have their own personal style. While we do put a lot of red carpet photos on there, most of them are of celebrities as how they dress themselves.

So, we’re just trying to encourage people like here’s the trend, take from what you know and start your own style. Have some courage and take some inspiration away from it. And we also point out where you might be able to buy specific trends or how to get maybe the exact one that someone is wearing or a less expensive version.

We also have a couple different great elements to the site and one is ‘what was she wearing’ where you can write in if you’re a subscriber and ask us about an unidentified bag that you saw someone carrying in a weekly magazine, we’ll let you know what that is. Or you can write in to ask a stylist if you have a question about a new trend, how to wear something, if something is still cool. And we always answer these people’s question, so we try our best to get everything done.

Jill Johnson: Actually, I had two emails this morning and I thought of you girls. One of them was from a customer looking for a particular item. And then the other one was from an ex-employee of ours who is now at CBS and she got your newsletter today with the Fashion Tee?

Hillary Kerr: Yeah.

Jill Johnson: And she saw Couture Candy, so thank you for that. She was very happy to see our name. She loves your site.

Hillary Kerr: Okay. Cool.

Catherine Power: It was our pleasure.

Jill Johnson: Wonderful. So, WhoWhatWear Daily comes to your inbox everyday. And I’m sure the listeners would love to know how easy it is to sign up for your magazine.

Hillary Kerr: Yeah, it’s free and it takes about, I don’t know, ten seconds. You can just go to WhoWhatWeardaily.com and you enter your email address. And it’s especially great for people who are really busy because basically we go through and read every magazine on the stand and you don’t have to.

Jill Johnson: And think of all that recycling you’re saving. We always have sacks of magazines here. And also, can you sign your friends up?

Hillary Kerr: Yes. If you see a story you like, there’s a send a friend icon that you click on, you can send that to them and they can join if they want so that they can start going to the site.

Jill Johnson: Wonderful. So, I hope everybody out there goes and visit the website. You’ll love it. Girls, you’ve been so inspiring and helpful and you have so much knowledge about fashion that I know a lot of people will love your magazine. So, go to WhoWhatWeardaily.com and sign yourself up.

Thanks so much, girls.

Catherine Power: Thank you.

Hillary Kerr: Thank you.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, I really appreciate it. Have a good day.

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