I was always obsessed with fashion, magazines and styling. I can remember saving up for things through my many, many teen jobs – babysitting, working in a hair salon and in a local clothing store. I knew pretty early on that it was what I wanted to do and I was sure that one of the only ways I could get there – as a girl growing up on the Wirral (near Liverpool) – was to do lots and lots of work experience. While at Newcastle University (I studied English Language), I entered a Clothes Show Magazine competition. Part of the prize was to appear on the early-Nineties morning TV show, Style Challenge. Amazingly I won and met a brilliant team of people – including the super-talented producer Jane Galpin. I took part and kept in touch with Jane and hounded her into letting me do work experience with her team in London after I had graduated. As soon as I left, I moved down to London initially staying with my aunt in Kent initially, and spent the next six months fashion assisting at the BBC. It was such a massive learning curve – I had my little A-Z (no Google maps then!) and wandered around learning the fashion grid, picking up clothes from all the PR agencies, making tea and generally making myself invaluable.
While I was assisting at the BBC, I started doing unpaid styling tests in my free time to build up my portfolio. After I’d been working there about six months, I was manning the desks in the office and answered the telephone to a producer on another morning show wanting a recommendation for a fashion stylist. Even to this day I don’t know where I plucked up the courage, but I said I could do it – because I knew I could. I asked Style Challenge’s senior stylist Melissa Dick (now Editorial Director at Condé Nast International) to vouch for me and she did. I met the show’s on-screen stylist, who was then fashion director at The Mirror. We got on well, I worked hard and she invited me to be on her fashion team. Interning is so important – it got me all my early career breaks. I totally believe in the power of having a great, can-do attitude, even if you are the only one left at 11pm clearing out a fashion cupboard when you haven’t eaten all day and yes, that happened often! Of the many interns I have had over the years, I have always remembered the good ones – and when I could, offered them a job.
I was 24 years old when I was made Fashion Editor of the The Sun, the country’s biggest selling newspaper. At the time I was Fleet Street’s youngest-ever fashion editor and it was incredibly exciting but also terrifying. I inherited a team despite never having managed anyone before and had to come up with daily ideas, liaise with very senior journalists, as well as selling in my page ideas to the paper’s editor. Fashion wasn’t taken very seriously when I took on the role and the fact that I was young meant I had to work very hard to get the production teams and sub-editors on my side. I am very proud of the fact that when I left ten years later, I had increased the fashion pages from an occasional lingerie-based double page spread to almost eight weekly pages of brilliant high street fashion, working with some amazing photographers. I met my husband there too!
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I later joined the team at LOOK magazine as Senior Fashion and Beauty Editor directing all of the main fashion and beauty shoots and shopping pages. I managed a team of nine, plus five interns and worked closely with the editor and deputy editor on daily ideas as well as long-term projects. I loved the 360 aspect of compiling the mood boards and working with the design teams to put ranges together, approving samples and making changes, then working with my own team to bring the clothes to life in our own shoots. Digital strategies became more and more important as the battle for online content grew ever more present. My teams were expected to work across every aspect of the brand as a whole, whether it was online, through advertorials or for the magazine. I was heavily involved when LOOK launched their iPad edition, with Tap to Buy click-through on every item. We also worked very hard on an entirely digital issue, so all the photo-shoots had behind the scenes videos online and every item featured could be purchased.
I launched my blog a year before I started at LOOK Magazine, so I was already pretty confident in my digital skills. But where online is concerned, you can never rest on your laurels and it undoubtedly gave me the mind-set to keep learning. I think what working on a magazine – and on a daily newspaper – has taught me is to always ask what a piece of content offers the reader. That’s really important to me. My blog isn’t a vanity project – it has become my business and I want to offer readers a well-edited version of what’s currently out there. My editing experience also means I flat-plan my weekly schedule, so I know exactly what I want to post and when. I treat The Edited very much in the same way I treated pages at a magazine or newspaper, so lots and lots of planning.
I just really felt like my work/life balance just wasn’t working. I always trust my instincts – and it just felt as though I had to seize the opportunity to build my own brand and in doing so, could work for myself and be around more with the kids. I was – and still am – so excited by the fact that I’m not ‘Erica from such and such a publication,’ but actually just Erica.
Leaving print to focus solely on The Edited was just the right time for me. I’d been working in print for the best of seventeen years by the time I left last September. The blog had started to do really well and I had big plans, but I was getting frustrated at the fact there weren’t enough hours in the day to do what I wanted with it. On a personal level, my son Charlie was about to start reception at primary school, my daughter Lila was starting pre-school and my husband James had just been made Head of News at The Sun, so had very long hours. I just really felt like my work/life balance just wasn’t working. I always trust my instincts – and it just felt as though I had to seize the opportunity to build my own brand and in doing so, could work for myself and be around more with the kids. I was – and still am – so excited by the fact that I’m not ‘Erica from such and such a publication,’ but actually just Erica. It’s terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time! The Edited is my brand and the opportunities that stem from it are really exciting.
Initially the blog was called Modern Mum Must-Have and despite the name, I wanted it to be a bit of an antithesis to the mummy blogging movement, focusing more on fashion, lifestyle and all the things I’d worked on in my career. I wanted an outlet during my second maternity leave, so used it as my own online magazine, editing all the lovely things I had found, or trends I’d spotted. The Edited was the name I had originally wanted, but was persuaded by colleagues to stick with the mum idea. After two years, I knew what I was producing was being held back slightly by the URL, so I took that digital leap of faith and thank goodness the domain name I’d wanted was still available. It’s been the best decision I’ve made.
I’m not sure you can ever get the balance of managing a career and children right. I am definitely guilty of checking my emails and Instagram way too often during the afternoon when I should really be building something amazing out of Play-Doh with my daughter! The kids are at school so I have pockets of time, plus we have help with the childcare one day a week, from our amazing nanny. Having help means that I can schedule in meetings, visit press days and have that face-time with people, which isn’t just important but completely necessary now. Having help means that I can schedule in meetings, visit press days and have that face-time with people, which isn’t just important but completely necessary. My husband works very, very long hours but he works a four-day week, which means I get to have him around one day too and he is really hands-on with the kids. I plan my week strictly – I have a couple of hours every day when I can work. It does mean working in the evenings as well, but it’s all about balance. The blog is my business now and I want it to be as successful as possible. I just also want to eat dinner with the children and give them time too. Whoever said you could have it all was lying – I constantly feel guilty!
There’s definitely no magic formula when it comes to blogging. If I knew the answer, I would be rich! I think you have to be authentic – really honest about who you are and what you like. It has to be your taste and style that people buy into. You can’t just try and produce a carbon copy of what someone else is already doing well. Being accessible is so important too. I have built up a brilliant, genuine group of loyal readers who I appreciate so much. I will always try to reply or respond because they don’t have to read my blog, yet they do! It took me a long time to put pictures of myself on The Edited, but I have found that since I started doing outfit posts, people have connected with me so much more. Whatever the reason for it is, I’m so happy they have.
If anything, I have become more confident with my style since having kids. When I worked in an office every day, I worked very much to the ‘dress and statement jewellery’ formula. Since becoming freelance and working from home, I have developed much more of a polished but casual approach to dressing. I was talking to a friend my style recently and I think it’s seasonal. In the summer I am very Boho, so tend to be drawn towards anything embroidered, peasant or rustic. I’m much more about colour in the summer too. In winter, I am much more of a pared-down, minimal uniform dresser, with outfits built around a great coat (I am a coat obsessive). I repeat buy navy wide leg trousers, crew neck cashmere jumpers, Breton tops and Stan Smith trainers, which I can mix in with everything else.
Over the years I’ve become much more focused on my style. I used to randomly buy pieces that I liked, but that wouldn’t necessarily work well with anything else I owned and as a result sat unworn in my wardrobe. I have worked out what suits me so tend to stick to similar colours and styles – navy blues, khakis, tans, and black and white. Years of styling shoots has made me confident when it comes to mixing tones, prints or patterns too, so I might put things together that other people wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. Colour definitely doesn’t scare me. My husband would disagree but I actually don’t buy as much as I used to do.
This interview has been edited and condensed. Photographs by Dvora and art direction by Naomi Mdudu.
Nice profile piece on my friend Erica Davies. We don’t talk that often and the article helped me catch up on what’s going on with “The Crazy Brit.” Also, you have a very nice blog with some very good topics. Enjoyed it.