It came as a bit of a shock, but Catwalk Queen is no more, for now at least.
Shiny Media went into administration on Friday, which means menswear site Brandish is also on hiatus. It’s no surprise that UK blogging companies were feeling both the effects of a recession and a more reticent advertising market than in the US but the sites were all doing as well as they ever have been. The response from fellow bloggers, PRs and media contemporaries about the news has been wonderful, with nothing but lovely things to say about the sites.
Catwalk Queen had some fantastic writers, people like Disney Rollergirl, Fur Coat No Knickers‘ Rachael, Selina from Flying Saucer and of course ex-Editor Kimberly Foster. Brandish was voted top 7 best men’s sites only last week and featured the talents of Will Reid, Jonathan Smith, Colin Chapman and Seb Law, all of whom know an incredible amount about menswear!
It’s not all boohoo though, through working at Shiny I got to interview great people like Hadley Freeman, Zandra Rhodes, and Fantastic Man’s Jop van Bennekom. I also shed a little tear of excitement hearing Natalie Massanet explain the birth of Net a Porter and lapped up the collections London Fashion Week and Graduate Fashion Week. I don’t think I’ll ever find another job where they pay me to make camel noises or spit on camera, but it’s been decided for me that it’s time for something new.
