Adrien Field is one of the online world’s multi-talented generation, not only has his own blog, Garconmag.com, but he’s also a freelance fashion writer, stylist online fashion contributor to Vibe.com and has recently completed his debut novel entitled The Making of a Social Climber. Phew... so in between blogging and wearing outlandish outfits, Swide caught up with Adrien to ask him before about his online life.

LIFE PRE-BLOG

I don’t think I had a life pre-blog. I started my first fashion blog right around the same time that I moved to New York a few years ago but I only recently started infusing my personality and point of view into each post. Before I was afraid that if I blogged from the first person no one would take me seriously. These days it’s all about the personality-driven blog. If you have a platform, that is.

I’m also the online fashion editor of VIBE Magazine so blogging has really become my career.

ONLINE IS A WAY OF LIFE – DO YOU OPT FOR A NON-WIFI SPOT IN YOUR SPARE TIME OR IS YOUR BLOG ALL CONSUMING?

I hate being disconnected from the internet, even for five minutes. I am a compulsive email checker and now I’m addicted to Twitter as well—which I’ve been on long way before Ashton Kutcher and Oprah jumped onto the bandwagon.

I was just in Mexico last week and even though AT&T warned me not to use my iPhone, I had to go ahead and check my email. It wasn’t so nice coming back to a $700 phone bill.

 DO YOU STILL READ PRINT MAGAZINES?

I love print magazines. I almost think of them as a guilty pleasure since they’re so costly (especially the European imports) but they inspire me in ways that I just can’t replicate online. I am sort of old-fashioned at heart and I don’t think I could ever adopt a Kindle or anything like that. I’d have a hard time thinking of a greater pleasure than taking the New Yorker into the bathtub with me. Okay, that’s a lie. I can probably think of a lot of things better than that. But that’s definitely up there.

 

THERE ARE SO MANY BLOGS OUT THERE – HOW DO YOU SORT THE GOOD FROM THE BAD? WHAT ARE YOUR CRITERIA?

I divide blogs into two categories. There are those I go to for news items like The Cut and then there are the personality driven blogs that are really more just entertaining but don’t really impart any knowledge. I try to waver somewhere in between both extremes where I’ll blog relevant fashion news with my two cents thrown in and I’ll also post the odd picture of me frolicking on a beach somewhere.

 WHO IN YOUR OPINION ROCKS THE BLOGASPHERE? DO YOU SUFFER FROM BLOG ENVY?

I was just recently introduced to Garance Doré’s blog, which I’m obsessed with. She does beautiful photography but her personality comes through as well. I was also really impressed by my friend Mary Rambin and her blog morethanmary.com during New York Fashion Week. She live streamed everyday at the tents, meaning that people could actually watch her at the shows and backstage in real time. I don’t think anyone has ever done that before.

HAVE YOU EVER BLOGGED WHEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE AND REGRETTED IT?

I probably have blogged under the influence and then deleted whatever absurdities I wrote by the next morning. I am much more guilty of Twittering under the influence. That’s basically a given anytime I’m around champagne at a party. Which is just about any given evening.

STRANGEST PLACE YOU’VE BLOGGED FROM?

I use my iPhone to live blog certain events. I’ve been blogging from the front row at New York Fashion Week well before the Wall Street Journal got on that story.

IS THERE A PERSON YOU WISH WOULD START A BLOG?

There is a ton of people I wish would start blogging, if only so I could live vicariously through them. Suzy Menkes from the International Herald Tribune is one of them. She is my idol. I wish she’d do a blog about her life and what she does each evening. I swear that’s not creepy.

 HOW DO YOU SEE TWITTER IMPACTING ON BLOGGING?

I think Twitter has pushed blogging to become more personality driven since it really indulges peoples’ voyeuristic side. It’s made the flow of information so immediate. My twitter explodes during Fashion Week as I try to update during the shows as much as possible. It lets people feel like they’re experiencing the same thing in live time.

Follow Adrien on Twitter at twitter.com/adrienfield

MOST EXTREME BLOGGING SITUATION?
Probably the backlash from the post I wrote excoriating the fat model Lizzie Miller after she appeared in Glamour. That was the first time I received hate mail. I can’t imagine what Karl Lagerfeld gets after some of his sweeping judgements.

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL POST?
I suppose that depends on how you measure success. In terms of traffic and number of comments, it would have to be the Lizzie Miller post. Read the post here.

FOR ANY BUDDING BLOGGERS – WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE ON MAKING IT WORK?
It’s important to have a unique point of view. Anyone can just reblog the latest collaboration between H&M and whomever, but you have to go beyond that. Accept that you’re not going to be Style.com. Just be you.

FOR ANY BUDDING BLOGGERS – WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE ON MAKING IT WORK?
It’s important to have a unique point of view. Anyone can just reblog the latest collaboration between H&M and whomever, but you have to go beyond that. Accept that you’re not going to be Style.com. Just be yourself.

A LIFE IN THE DAY OF A BLOGGER
I have constructed my life so that I live in a bubble more or less. I don’t get out of bed before 12PM except when we have VIBE editorial meetings twice a week at the office.

The first thing I do when I wake up is grab my phone and read through emails. For me, the day doesn’t begin until I shower so after finishing with whatever correspondence I received during my nocturnal hours, I have to do that. I’ll usually get coffee and try to write at least a blog post or two before heading out to meetings or showroom appointments. I have at least one or two events to attend each evening so I try to get my work done before then though this invariably doesn’t happen.

I do most of my blogging between the hours of 10PM and 2AM and usually I’m in a bathrobe on top of my bed for this. I’ll finally fall asleep around 4AM after passing out to a NetFlix movie.

 

Check out Adrien's blog at www.garconmag.com or follow him at twitter.com/adrienfield

With special thanks to Adrien Field

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