I've enjoyed storytelling (and story-consuming) since before I could read.
At the age of three, my parents found me 'reading' The Usborne Book of Fairy Tales aloud. I'd memorised it from cover to cover, so I could devour it independently, at will.
It was The Chronicles of Narnia that really ignited my love of words, specifically The Magician's Nephew. I loved the idea of climbing into another world, although living in a 1980s house didn't lend itself very well to expansive attic spaces or cavernous antique wardrobes.
Speaking of wardrobes, I was as invested in their contents as the fantastical worlds to which they could provide time-travelling portals – specifically, fashion. In 2008, I completed my B.A. Hons in English Literature at the University of Warwick, having spent every university holiday nestled in the fashion cupboards of Vogue, the Guardian, Harper's Bazaar, WWD and Elle.
After starting my career in online journalism, I joined Net-a-Porter.com, where I ended up becoming Social Media Editor. In this newly created role, I travelled extensively, tweeted furiously, and spent an awful lot of time writing about beautiful clothes and beautiful people. During my tenure, I fulfilled two teenage dreams by being profiled in Teen Vogue and meeting the late Karl Lagerfeld.
Before I went freelance, I stepped into the red-soled role of Social Media Editor at Christian Louboutin, where I grew the brand to one million Instagram followers, oversaw the designer's launch on Chinese social media, and accumulated some very lovely shoes that still occupy a disproportionately large part of my home.
I worked as Features Editor at MatchesFashion.com – a specially created, part-time (and quite frankly, dreamy) role that saw me commissioning some of my favourite writers, writing about style, culture and art, and
interviewing lots of fascinating people, including Virgil Abloh, Flume, Lou Doillon and Wild Beasts.
As a freelance (and fancy-free?) writer, editor, strategist and consultant since 2012, I'm lucky enough to work with some of my favourite brands and publications, every day. I've helped shape the creative and digital outputs of Sunspel, British Fashion Council, Roland Mouret and Harvey Nichols (amongst others), while penning editorial features for the likes of Refinery29 and VICE. For the latter, I'm particularly proud at having secured interviews with the notoriously elusive Chrissie Hynde, Lars Ulrich and Ray Davies, as well as Craig David (with whom I chatted at length about homemade curry), and Naughty Boy, who gifted me a whole chocolate cake.
As well as writing for magazines, I also craft copy and devise editorial strategies for brands including 7 For All Mankind, JW Anderson, Amazon and Rupert Sanderson. Additionally, I offer strategic consultancy on social media and digital marketing for brands via The Fashion Digital, the agency-turned consultancy I founded in 2016.
I have provided comment for titles including Wall Street Journal, Vogue Business and WWD, sat on judging panels for Digiday and The Drum, and spoken at Pure London, Mastered Live, and more. I also created and taught Central Saint Martin's 'Social Media: From Dial up to Digital Revolution’ short course. I was honoured in the BIMA Hot 100 2017 and named as a 'Power Pinner' by Pinterest, having accrued nearly 600k followers on the platform.
If you've read this far, thank you. The only things left to tell you is that I live with my partner Chris –and our cats, Fashion and Slash – in South London (where we dream of living in Tokyo), and I really like marzipan fruits, vintage shopping, '60s girl bands and scouring the internet for scans of old FRUiTS magazines.
Photograph by Chris O'Donovan
