Discussing Youtube, Life, And The Current State of Fashion with Bliss Foster

He is one of Youtube’s most meticulous fashion commentators, with a presence on the platform that only started in September of 2018, and his first video being directed to an audience of 2 - his parents. Almost 2 years later, he has 39,000 subscribers and a fanbase that appreciates his thorough and well-researched analyses. We had the opportunity of pinning him down and discussing with him, virtually of course, his career path, plans for the future, and thoughts on the fashion industry’s current state.

Firstly, do you describe yourself as a “youtuber”? 

Typically, I would refer to myself as a fashion journalist.

Could you briefly walk us through your background, both educational and professional? 

I have a literature degree. I didn’t really have any interest in fashion thru my younger years. When I was 23, I became absolutely obsessed. I worked at Helmut Lang for a while, spent some time being a stylist on the side. 

Then things really opened up when I started the channel. It was how I had always wanted to interact with clothes. Getting to fully engage with the narrative. 

That’s really interesting. Where did you grow up? 

I was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. 

You recently made your channel your full-time job. We’d love to hear a bit about your thought process and the things you took into consideration when making that decision. Did you have any worries or hesitations along the way? 

The thought process was mostly that I want to do this more than anything else in the world and I finally have barely enough support to make it happen. Now the only task is to grow the size of that support to make this a tangible business.

Walk us through the process of preparing a video - from the idea conception to the final product. 

Many times it’s just me trying to figure out if I have enough information to make a full episode. Once I have some concrete info to go off of — show notes, a detailed interview etc. — I can start going thru the show look by look and identifying anything that I might recognise. I make a script out of loose notes then just start talking in front of the camera. Eventually that can be edited into an episode. 

Would you say that your work process has taken any significant turns over the past almost-2-years?

The process is always getting tweaked in small ways. It’s always revolving.

The Margiela series was a big hit, and brought lots of new members to your audience - did you expect the series to be this successful and what do you think made it stand out from the rest of your content?

Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of success with that one, and I’m really thankful. I think a lot of people are curious about the “depth” of fashion as an art form. They want to know if this stuff carries as much meaning as a great film or a novel. The Margiela series takes Martin’s work and goes thru it, often look by look, to analyze the art. I think that’s something that hasn’t been done publicly before, people want to see what all is in there.

Do you see any lanes of collaboration between you and brands? If yes, in what capacity?

Mostly just ones of mutual trust and admiration. If I really like a brand and want to do a spotlight video on them, they will lend me product and I’ll make a full video on them then return the product. So far that’s only for small indie brands. I’ve done episodes on TEF (@tefkit) Hamcus (@hamcus) and NOT (@not_aligne). 

What was your opinion on the digital presentations and runways and which one appealed to you the most this season?

It’s like everything: some stuff works and some stuff doesn’t. Everyone knows about the big shows that went well, but I was also really fond of GMBH, Y/Project, and WVB.

Who is inspiring you right now in the industry? 

Wow, too many to name haha.

What would you say makes inspiration different from copying and how does one walk that fine line properly? 

I’m not fully sure that it can be described using words alone but I feel we’re in a time when the word “copying” is getting vastly overused. People will point to a yellow empire waist dress by Marc Jacobs and claim he copied a yellow empire Valentino dress from two seasons prior. When of course, Valentino did not invent the color yellow or the empire style. I made that example up but hopefully you catch my meaning.

A lot of brands have made detrimental mistakes in their communication strategies in the past couple of years. Which high fashion brand do you think leads the path communication wise? 

Hmm, I’m not sure I have an opinion on that one. 

What made you pursue communication with your following to such a degree?

Well I mostly just love talking to everyone! I’m naturally very extroverted, so a lot of communication with everyone just made sense for me.

To wrap up, as you and your channel keep growing and evolving, what would you say is the next step? 

Next step is to build up enough support to sustain this project as a small business.

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Interview by Ira Tassouli & Noamane Ragane, July 2020