With 12 million monthly unique users and 750 posts published across channels each day, it’s hard to remember a time before Clique Media. For the uninitiated, this might require a bit of explaining. You see, while the many not ring a bell, you’re more than acquainted with the sites under its growing umbrella. Who What Wear, My Domaine and Byrdie ring a bell? It started almost a decade ago with the launch of Who What Wear. The concept is simple: it’s the ultimate destination for immediate access to what our favourite trendsetters are wearing. What pair of flares is Alexa Chung wearing today? Your answer is usually online on the site within hours. It eliminated gossip from the world of fashion, focusing solely on the styles of the women sporting them. Dedicated beauty site, Byrdie followed in 2011 and home décor destination My Domaine in 2013.
Katherine started working on the concept for Who What Wear back in August 2006 with co-founder Hillary Kerr. They taught each other Photoshop and launched just two months later, initially as a newsletter. “We sent it to about two hundred of our closest friends and family,” Power tells me when we catch up in the restaurant at the Rosewood London. Mind you, said friends included many a fashion editor, not to mention the likes of Rachel Zoe and Jessica Alba. In those days, blogging was still a relatively new phenomenon – the only big sites at the time were the likes of Perez Hilton, you get the idea – so the pair relied heavily on word-of-mouth to drive traffic to the site, which soon became the ultimate destination for celebrity followers and fashion aficionados. Nine years later, the pair reside not only over all three sites; their growing empire now extends beyond its own platforms, exclusively representing a large, curated collection of top blogs like Song of Style, Atlantic-Pacific and The Chriselle Factor.
“At the heart of our business, we’re a media company but we’re going much further than that. To be a media business today, you have to be flexible,” she tells me, settling into her seat. ‘Something that’s working today might not work in three months time. Things are constantly changing. It’s about staying ahead of those trends and embracing the new. For me, that’s what makes it exciting,” she continues. “I’d hate for us to be the same company as we were five years ago. The fact that we constantly have new ideas and challenges excites me. Literally, a social media platform can pop-up, which can completely change our business strategy in 24 hours. The challenge is always keeping our eyes open to see what’s going to be next.”
Until recently, most of the forces behind the world’s biggest sites have followed a similar path to success. Out of personal passion and interest, they began publishing words and images with a distinct point of view, striking a chord with a niche audience, tapping into personal opportunities on the way. Katherine did things the other way round. When she started with Who What Wear with Hilary back in 2006, she was already something of an industry veteran, having spent several years working as a the West Coast editor for both ELLE and ELLE girl magazine, scouting new fashion and lifestyle trends on the West Coat, translating those into the pages of the magazines. Rather than going to college, she cut her teeth working for a film producer and later an art consultant before joining the team at Bolthouse Productions, one of L.A’s most recognised events companies (remember the place that Heidi worked in The Hills?). She set up the branding division there and was responsible for filling their events with the crème de la crème of tastemakers and celebrities, often working with brands on product placement too.
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”1213528″]
This business experience, mixed with years working in print armed her with everything she needed to identify the gaps in established fashion media and the know-how to turn that into revenue. “Being a magazine was fun but I always say that if I wasn’t doing this job, I wouldn’t be going elsewhere to be a fashion expert; I’d be running another business. I don’t where it comes from but I’ve just always been entrepreneurial. Do you know how when you’re little, you get those toy kitchens? Well, while everyone else was playing house, I opened a restaurant. It’s always been in me.”
Her work dynamic with Hillary is interesting. “I really work on the business side of things. I oversee strategy, sales, operations and technology. Hilary is a great writer,” she says. “That’s how she started so she’s focused on that. We’re both really lucky because our partnership has really worked out,” she says candidly. “The key has been that when we started, we hadn’t known each other for that long. We’d been friends for about a year or so when we launched Who What Wear so it was a lot easier compared to if we’d been friends from kindergarten and our families were intertwined. We have very different skillsets that don’t really overlap,” she continues, “ so we each have this understanding that if one of us feels strongly about something, the other will accommodate it.”
Being a magazine was fun but I always say that if I wasn’t doing this job, I wouldn’t be going elsewhere to be a fashion expert; I’d be running another business.
The real reason we’re catching up is because of the duo’s latest project: two brand new designated UK sites for Byrdie and Who What Wear. Why now, I ask? “We started looking at our largest markets out of the US and the UK was at the top of the list. We really wanted to create meaningful brands so it was important for us to establish each brand and give them a real home and presence in the UK.” The premise is simple: the new sites will play home to content focused on British celebrities and tastemakers, and all the trends and new designers popping up on this side of the pond. “We’ve always been attracted to British style,” she explains. “I was trying to remember when it was that we discovered Alexa Chung and I think it was the beginning of 2007. It kind of spawned this whole release of British tastemakers into America who started inspiring our style. That’s the cool thing about the Internet; instantly we were able to pull images and be inspired by the styles of women from across the world and introduce them to our American readers.”
That’s only the tip of the iceberg with that the pair has lined up for the next six months. May will see the launch of their third book, a tome focused on getting ahead in your career rather as opposed to being rooted into style advice like the past two. And if you’ve been paying attention over the last few months, you’ll know that February marks the big unveiling of their long-term fashion line with Target, exactly a decade after it all began. The debut collection will include nearly 70 pieces, all priced under $49.99 and is made up of two big seasonal collection and regular monthly drops. “It’s been in the pipeline for two years. We couldn’t even tell our employees,” she reveals. “There were only four or five people in the company who knew.”
The big question is: what does that mean for Clique Media moving forward. Is maybe a beauty line the next step? “Products are definitely something we plan on creating for all of our sites so there’s a lot more to come. There may be a Byrdie beauty line already in the works, who knows…”
Photographs by Nikko LaMere