As fashion brands, we all know the value of staying informed. It pays well to know the latest consumer trends, be aware of other brands great packaging and development and always watch your competitors. However in reality this isn’t always possible, with the hectic schedule of production, manufacturing, fulfillment, accounting, marketing and more facing a small brand. While tools like Twitter and possibly Facebook help to ensure you’re abreast of the latest news, a curated list of fashion-oriented newsletters is even better. Here are seven newsletters every fashion marketing should subscribe to, creating a curated glimpse of what’s current in the fashion industry.
Glossy
Glossy is the newsletter we love to see the most, as it covers issues, challenges and changes with the fashion industry as well as some cool strategic perspectives on how digitally-focused brands are achieving growth. The NYC-based publication has a distinct skew towards fashion technology, digital marketing strategies and omni-channel retailing, but also covers trends and happenings in the global fashion community.
Glossy is free, so there isn’t a reason not to subscribe to this resource, but for a slightly less fashion-oriented perspective, Tech.co is a great comparison to Glossy.
Business of Fashion
Business of Fashion is a near must-have for any fashion professional, however as a full disclaimer, it’s not free. Other than WWD, it’s the only other paid subscription we would recommend and dependent on your focus, Business of Fashion is our pick. The London-based publication is well-recognized as a global authority on fashion thought leadership, mixing a bird’s eye view of the fashion industry, with content from industry leaders and the latest business-related fashion news. Business of Fashion also uniquely covers international markets in fashion, their volatility and latest trends, great for long term trend forecasting, particularly East Asia and Japan.
While Business of Fashion probably has few competitors in terms of it’s international business focus, there are a few other publications that have notable stories covering thought leadership and high level trends in the fashion industry, namely Fashionista and New York Times Style.
Shopping Links
Shopping Links is our preferred partner in managing any influencer marketing campaigns, so a little biased here, but their newsletter has improved over the past year. Their latest iterations include a roundup of other top content, which is standard for all of the top newsletters. Shopping Links provides highly relevant tip and tactics for engaging specifically with fashion influencers. Shopping Links has also begun to expand into the intersection of influencer plus affiliate marketing, a promising area for fashion brands in the future.
While Shopping Links stands out as a newsletter solely focused on fashion influencers, there are similar platforms that cover content marketing in general and a few that skew to lifestyle brands, such as Brand Backer or Hypr as well as some very solid platforms dedicated to social content marketing such as the Content Marketing Institute, Social Media Examiner and Social Media Times.
Fashionista
Fashionista is akin to the national daily newspaper. It can easily be considered the New York Times of fashion. It covers everything that happens, not only in fashion proper, but also topics ranging from advertising to emerging designers to politics to social media. So long as there is an impact on fashion, it will probably be covered by Fashionista. However, to someone newer to the industry (and for veterans alike) the articles always have a more relatable perspective, thus making it one of the better newsletters for broad-fashion interest.
One thing about Fashionista is that they do have consumer focused roots, so there are a lot of trendy fluff pieces and listicles talking about the latest “it-sweater” or whatever “fashion girls” are dying over today. However, Fashionista can be loosely compared to Business of Fashion, The Cut or New York Times Style, as there is the occasional strong industry feature or op-ed and the news and business sections consistently deliver.
PR Couture
PR Couture is arguably written for the greener fashion marketers rather than veteran PR professionals, but nevertheless PR Couture serves as a great resource and refresher about the fundamentals of Fashion PR, with great articles for improving one’s skill set and methodology in the field as well as incredible profiles of #girlbosses who have built their own communications empires, such as Lori Riviera of The Riviere Agency. Occasionally, they produce great content focused on digital, including new social strategies and other tools for a communications professional.
As PR Couture decidedly skews towards the early communications professional, it’s slightly harder to find a publication that addresses a similar demographic so well. New York PR Girls and Fashion PR Girl were two that definitely spoke to the recent PR grad, but neither has the consistency or industry presence of PR Couture. For a twist, we would compare it to StartUp Fashion, which is more for the fashion designer / entrepreneur, but occasionally carries strong PR advice.
Daily Front Row
The Daily Front Row makes for a great digest. In fact, it’s biggest asset to a fashion marketer or entrepreneur is that the Daily tracks most major moves in fashion media like a hawk (including their own). This makes the Daily a great resource for keeping tabs on your go-to editors’ glossy changes, almost as quickly as they update their Linkedin. It does however skew towards larger national publications and media houses. The Daily’s other great asset is breaking headlines / news. Typically, you will read it here first or see it in your inbox first. Outside of that, its great to know a little about the movers and shakers local to the NYC social scene, as the Daily does talk about all the “it” parties, galas and events only a small circle of industry insiders ever attend.
If the Daily Front Row is leveraged for it’s breaking headlines and media news, then its closest comparison will be Business of Fashion or Women’s Wear Daily, although the Daily’s (Front Row) articles are almost always decidedly shorter than any other publication. If the focus is on staying abreast of fashion parties in the Hamptons or other events and social circles, then there are is no shortage of publications from which to compare such as Cosmopolitan, Guest of a Guest or your local fashion gossip blog.
Women’s Wear Daily
Women’s Wear Daily needs no introduction and is often mentioned by many of the publications listed above as a credible source on the latest fashion news. Don’t let the title fool you, however, as the publication documents far more than womenswear and is often the first publication to cover emerging designers at tradeshows, fashion shows and top tier fashion colleges. What the publication lacks in fluff and trendy content, it makes up for with mind-numbingly articulate and comprehensive coverage of all the latest retail, technology, manufacturing and economic news affecting the industry, as well as all the latest on major runways, accessory and beauty trends around the globe. Simply put, WWD is highly complete and if it were the only publication one subscribed to, most would be none the wiser.
Due to the decidedly more business-like stance of Women’s Wear Daily, the only real comparisons would be The Cut, Business of Fashion or possibly New York Times Style. Again, it would be wise to mention that WWD is subscription only, with limited free access, so most will choose between WWD and BOF. However, there are far worst choices of business-oriented fashion publications that lack the comprehensive editorial coverage and accuracy of these sources.
While these seven publications topped our list for a curated daily look into the fashion industry, there are literally hundreds more, with honorable mentions for publications like the Cut, Vogue, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal . . . the list can go on and on. While we believe these are seven publications fashion marketers and fashion brands should subscribe to, feel free to share your favorites and daily must reads in the comments below.
Featured Image: Plastic BCN
