A Powerful Interview with Fashion Social Media Editor

It was a pleasure to have a powerful interview with fashion social media editor Michelle Wagman. She is the CEO and editor of FashionEdits. As a lifestyle and fashion blogger, it was a pleasure for me to interview a fashion social media editor. On top of that, she is a female entrepreneur that made me even more thrilled. It was a truly powerful interview because I see there are so many female business owners like Michelle that start changing the business world for the better. Obviously, the fashion industry has changed. According to Michelle, the fashion industry started changing after 911. I had no idea. I thought it has to change due to the pandemic.

What happened after 911? According to Michelle, fashion designers started traveling less, meaning fewer trade shows to show their items. Also established fashion designers started getting into the retail business. That forced the fashion industry to change.

Before Michelle started her own business https://fashionedits.com in 2010, she had worked on New York’s 7th Avenue with fashion showrooms like Cherokee and the White Room and representing designers like Tracy Reese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Reese. She had experience in the international market in Europe and South America through her import/export company 4-M. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) with a degree in fashion merchandising.

The company’s main driving force is Michelle herself and another partner, Michell Rowe. Her mission statement tag line is Fashionedits – fashion authority, covering news, advising designers. Her company has two main areas. First, her social media website covers relevant fashion news, focusing on fashion, fashion news, and fashion designer. The second part of her business is also directly working with clients by helping clients to be able to define their business objectives and, by doing so, help increasing brand visibility and sales.

In my powerful interview with her, we talked about the fashion industry overall, her goal and where the company is headed, but we also talked about female entrepreneur challenges.

Q1 – How you started your business

For a long time, I have been in the fashion business, representing designers in multiply designer showrooms. Connecting fashion designer with retailers to sell their fashion or accessory collections. After 911 the fashion industry started changing. I saw the need to stay ahead of the industry and wanted to have my own business. The opportunity came when retailers (boutique owners) were complaining that they preferred to stay in their store and sell instead incurring the expense of traveling to the shows and seeing the same things. FashionEdits was born. FashionEdits named for editing through the many collections in the market and writing trade show reviews for stores.

Q2 – Where your ideas came from

With fashion industry started changing after 911, and the retail business started changing. And outsourcing of manufacturing the cloth line, the quality of fashion/clothes dispersed tremendously. And of course, technology and social media impact, I thought the fashion industry has to change, fashion should utilize and embrace technology. So going with social media fashion is natural process.

Q3 – How did you come up with capital

I have to say I am lucky enough that I didn’t have to go to borrow money. It all came from my own source.

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Q4 – What was a challenge

Like anything else, we had an idea and knew that we wanted to do it. Of course, we all know that launching a new business takes lots of learning, time-consuming, and trial and error. We had to go through lots of learning and trial and error to learn. Of course, unexpected events came up that we didn’t anticipate, so I had to readjust. The challenge was the time to learn and adjusted to make it better for the site. Also, find the right person to build the site. I am also a Mom, so try to balance time for my family and business was a challenge.

Q5 – What is your everyday like

I am a very spiritual person. So my day starts with yoga. I do hike daily and enjoy nature and clear my mind. After yoga, my work starts as I mentioned earlier; that I am also Mom, and because of the pandemic, I have to do homeschooling, so I spend the middle of my day doing that. I think it’s important, and I am lucky enough to control my time somewhat. And I catch up on work in the evening when I have quiet time.

Q6 – How is your company doing

I feel my company is going in the right direction. After years of our hard work, now I see positive growth. People are willing to contribute to my site posting, and we are getting bigger paid projects. And my social media site’s ad promotion is bringing money as well. Of course, we have to keep up with technological advances as social media is changing rapidly due to technology advancement; however, I see growth and revenue go along.

Q7 – What advice you can give aspiring female business owners

Do what you love and passionate about. Once you start a business, many challenges come about, and if you don’t have love and don’t have a passion for what you do, you can easily give up. But if you have love and passion for it, it is more likely you weather through that and stick to it so that you can build what’s your dream business goal.

So my powerful interview with FashionEdits social media editor with Michell Wagman lasted about an hour. Before the interview, we had a getting to know section briefly. I am always excited to know and learn about others, especially female entrepreneurs.

After thought

As you may or may not know, since 2007, women-owned businesses in the United States have increased by 58%, outpacing the 12% growth rate of the business overall. In May of this year, “why women entrepreneurs are critical to economic growth.” A Mckinsey Global Institute study found that advancing women’s equality could add $12 trillion to the global economy by 2025. Truly we, women, came a long way. I have my own opinion about women, money, and power. That’s why I see female entrepreneurs; it’s so refreshing and powerful. Here is interesting reading to learn about female entrepreneurs. https://whattobecome.com/blog/women-entrepreneurs-statistics/

In my powerful interview with Michaelle, we also talked about the quality of fashion and the manufacturing of fashion mainly done overseas. Price control still needs to be done. The business of fashion, where future fashion headed, and of course, sustainable fashion.

I enjoy good quality fashion items. That’s why I usually tend to buy fashion brand names clothes on sale, which may put me slightly behind the fashion trend. However, I don’t think that’s the issue. I feel that the classic style of clothes we wear reflects on us. Therefore, in my opinion, as long as you look good, you feel comfortable wearing, that’s all matter. I also think a normal working person like myself doesn’t follow an extreme fashion trend that will last one season.

I post every Monday and Thursday, so please drop by again. In case if you missed my post, here one related to fashion https://fashionbykukanaana.com/how-to-dress-up-for-a-small-holiday-gathering/.

If you are reading this blog and becoming a guest contributor, please email me at kukanaana@gmail.com. If you are a business owner in the field related to fashion or finance and want to be posted on my blog, please let me know.

As always, stay safe. Wear a mask, wash hands often, and keep the social distance of 6 feet.

Cheers 🎈🎈🎈