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I first discovered Gwyneth Moore last summer. I was
interning at ITV Wales and I had been given an opportunity to write a guest
blog for their website. Fashion was my obvious choice but finding a current
story for this proved a challenge. I decided on a charity fashion show piece
and set up various interviews to help with my article. That was when I first
spoke to Gwyneth and I remember feeling a huge sense of relief that someone was
willing to help a trainee journalist. Due to this experience I knew that
Gwyneth would be perfect to interview in my quest to establish a successful
blog.
Why? Because she writes the most successful fashion blog in
Wales: cardifffashion.com, finally putting the welsh capital on the fashion
map. As she drove home from a busy day at work we discussed how she managed to
crack the blogging sphere.
“I’ve not necessarily got the background people expect me to
have.” She explained as I asked her how her blogging career began. Indeed,
Gwyneth was as a graduate of Fashion Design at the National School of Design in
Sydney and also has a BA in Communications and Linguistics. Growing up in
Sydney gave the blogger a different view of the fashion industry as she said
how “it was fairly undeveloped in Australia back when I was there; it has a
smaller population so it developed less quickly. But now it has a much better
following.”
This did not prevent her keen interest in the fashion
industry however as she has had some fashion illustrator pieces commissioned. But
she said “that I never wanted to be a designer, I was more interested in the
communication aspect.”
Gwyneth’s background in communication would be the footing
she needed to spot the increasing significance of the blogging world. She left
a PR job three years ago when she realised how social media was having a bigger
impact on communication.
“I wanted to develop my knowledge in this, sit down, and
then jump in. Facebook and Bebo were huge and fashion blogging was developing
so quickly.’ Gwyneth saw how the world of fashion was suited perfectly to
blogging as it was a place where someone could share many ideas in a place where
everyone had an opinion. Gwyneth had seen the potential and as she lectured in
the University of Glamorgan she saw a way to spread her knowledge.
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“It started as an experiment at first. I didn’t want to
focus on welsh designers as there are not enough of them. I came up with
Cardiff Fashion because, at the end of the day Cardiff is the capital of Wales
and I can’t change that”. Luckily with her PR background
Gwyneth was able to see how this fitting name for her blog would benefit from a
search engine perspective. If you Google Cardiff her blog is one of the first
to appear in the searches. This meant that after a lot of hard work her blog
became very popular.
“It is still fascinating for me on how this idea has turned
into so many other things” she said continuing with a list of the dreams she
has turned into a reality due to the promotion of her blog. Gwyneth has done a
project with Fashion Week, Channel 4 is regularly in touch and she is currently
writing a book on fashion promotion and communication.
But being a mum of two and having many jobs alongside her
blog has not made her success easy. “It does take time, I certainly believe
there has to be that consistency” explained Gwyneth illustrating how the
reality of blogging is not always glamorous parties and freebies.
I asked her what she thought made a good blog, keen to hear
what I would need to make my blog contain the same magic as cardifffashion.com.
“It all depends on good writing, like Susie Bubble as she is a bloody good
writer. Not every man and his dog can write a successful blog, there must be
good content”.
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I was struck by Gwyneth’s passion for this new world for
journalism. She had seen how her skills could be moulded to social media and
had made her own success through determination and hard work. Her blog continues
to thrive and before we said goodbye she told me how she had lots of new ideas.
“I really want to do more street style; there are really
stylish people in Cardiff. Some people don’t see it as a stylish city but they
looked pretty good to me last Saturday!”
See Gwyneth's blog HERE
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