FEATURE: St. Francis College advertising student Suzanna Gregoire turned her fashion blogging hobby into a full-time business. Blogs have become the most popular media outlet for fashion and beauty aficionados.
Fashion and beauty bloggers update on a daily basis to express themselves through their reviews of cosmetics, fashion photos, information and contests for their devoted readership.
Gregoire is no exception -- she transferred to St. Francis last May from Tamarac, Florida to pursue her career in advertising. After submitting resumes to numerous internship programs, Gregoire found it harder than she thought to obtain a New York City internship.
Instead of giving up, Gregoire decided to take matters into her own hands, saying: “Why work for someone else and help their business to succeed when I could create my own?” She decided to turn her fashion blog into a business.
Along with her fiance's advertising and sales experience, Gregoire turned her creative outlet into her very own internship -- and her web site business Fashion With Fifi was born.
What started as a hobby quickly turned into a fully-fledged business. Since May, Gregoire, a.k.a FiFi, has a business that employs fourteen individuals from nearly all around the world. There are employees from Porto, Portugal to Phoenix, Arizona.
The blog’s name comes from Gregoire’s childhood nickname, “FiFi.” Her business card and blog utter the mantra Gregoire lives by, “Fashion Is Foremost Inspiration.” The link is http://fashionwithfifi.com/
The blog is a perfect place for women to discover the latest news in fashion and beauty.
Gregoire said: “Our content provides real life advice and solutions to a loyal and active base of consumers in search of meaningful products & services. Our loyal base of followers use our revered 'Look Book,' 'Shoe Of The Week,' 'Beauty Solutions,' 'Fashion Circle Sale Alert' and other spotlight pages when deciding on everything from which products to buy to which conventions and events to attend.”
Women of all shapes, sizes and walks of life will find something interesting on the blog. “Fashion comes in different shapes, colors and sizes. We cater to all women – and not just the size 0, high end types,” said Gregoire.
Gregoire makes it her mission to remain truthful and credible to her loyal followers -- “ I pride myself on credibility so I wouldn’t write, feature, or promote anything that I wouldn’t wear, use or like myself.”
Gregoire establishes a relationship with her followers by updating her blog daily and circulating contests and the chance to win free stuff.
Fashionwithfifi.blogspot.com has provided Gregoire with a lot more than field experience.
This past September, Gregoire was invited to attend various fashion shows during Mercedes Benz’ Fashion Week in New York City.
Like most media-savvy individuals, Gregoire has become a self confessed ‘blogaholic.’ The ability to update in seconds anywhere there is an internet connection has become the reason so many fashion and beauty writers are leaning towards blogs instead of print media.
Blogs are the new medium for information in today's world: they’re easy to use, take seconds to update and are mostly free to access.
Gregoire said, “You’re more likely to go to PerezHilton.com to get the latest celebrity gossip than wait a whole day to read about it in Page Six in the New York Post. That’s what makes Fashionwithfifi.com so great. Why wait a full month for the next issue of Cosmo Girl, when you can read about it at Fashionwithfifi.com weeks in advance?”