Podcast Summary:

Lou Rogers discusses her journey founding Trendlistr, the rise of secondhand and vintage fashion. She highlights how brands have moved from high‑production editorial campaigns to influencer and affiliate‑driven content, and how sustainability should be a core paradigm for everyone working in fashion, including marketers. The conversation also covers practical advice for entering the industry: proactive networking, building a strong portfolio, and crafting a specific, credible personal brand.

Key Points:

  • Figure-first influence: Design campaigns around celebrity and influencer personalities on TikTok and Instagram rather than brand-owned content, as these platforms now shape consumer fashion choices more than traditional magazines or catwalks.
  • Secondhand positioning: Leverage vintage and secondhand fashion as a strategic differentiator that mitigates trade-offs in quality, environmental impact, and labour conditions while remaining accessible to consumers.
  • Balanced storytelling: Combine influencer marketing with high-production, narrative-driven campaigns that create immersive brand experiences rather than relying solely on quick, low-effort influencer content.
  • Sustainability from the start: Integrate sustainable practices into every stage of marketing strategy to make mindful consumption engaging rather than preachy or fear-based.
  • Specific personal brand: You can increase the chances of being hired by building a focused, proactive professional identity with clear niche expertise (e.g., digital fashion, e-commerce styling). Stay clear of sharing generic passion statements, and actively network and showcase your work.

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-generated.

Kiran Kapur, Host (00:01):
We are in the exciting world of fashion communication today.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (00:05):
Anyone can be stylish, anyone can be fashionable, but it comes with a lot of trade-offs. So we've made significant trade-offs for that accessibility in terms of quality, in terms of the environmental impact of clothing, and also in terms of the labour conditions under which that clothing is made. That's why I love secondhand fashion. Often you can mitigate those trade-offs.

Kiran Kapur, Host (00:26):
And I'm absolutely delighted to welcome Lou Rogers, owner of Trendlistr, and I will ask you more about that in a moment and assistant professor at Northumbria University teaching in fashion communication. Lou, welcome. Let's start with what is Trendlistr?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (00:44):
Thank you so much for having me, first of all. Trendlistr is my child of 10 years. I guess I was an early adopter in terms of the vintage, the secondhand fashion space. It is just what we did growing up. I didn't think it was unusual to go to car boot sales and charity shops, and we actually enjoyed it. So we did it as a lifestyle choice rather than as a necessity. So I think that also maybe changes the relationship a little bit that I had with secondhand clothing. And I started Trendlistr just after I left university. I did a master's in creative entrepreneurship and I wanted to set up a platform for curated secondhand clothing. So somewhere that existed in between the eBays of the world, the Gumtrees that felt like car boot sales but online and the high-end luxury resale sites that were already operating at the time.

(01:43):
I felt like there was something in the middle that was missing, but I tried to raise money for it, and I was told that nobody would want to spend money on old clothes. So I was unable to raise the money that I needed to set up the platform. And I ended up turning it into just a very sort of standard, simple online vintage store. I kind of went back to basics and abandoned the idea of the platform because I didn't raise the capital for it. But the nice thing has been that I've been able to keep that on. So as I've been working other jobs and getting my foot in academia, I've always had a bit of time in the fashion industry alongside. So Trendlistr at the moment is very much an online vintage shop, but it's something that I can have as a creative outlet alongside the teaching that I do.

Kiran Kapur, Host (02:33):
Can we talk a little bit about the fashion industry? So 10 years ago you couldn't get the funding because it was vintage clothing. That seems incredible when now we hear so much about vintage.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (02:47):
Yes, I think Depop sold to Etsy for a billion dollars. So I think that evidences the demand, but I was also raising money in the Northeast in Newcastle where I live, and I think there was an attitude of a lot of the venture capital firms or angel investors hadn't done anything in fashion before. So there was also an element of this is a new sector, this is not something that we're familiar with. I was also 21. I was also young, inexperienced, sole founder. So there were lots of different factors, but I always think about that now whenever I see that Vinted is now the biggest retailer in France that has overtaken Zara, H&M. I always think back to that and laugh to myself.

Kiran Kapur, Host (03:35):
That apart, how else have you seen the fashion industry change over time?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (03:40):
So I think there's been three real major changes in the fashion sector. I think the first one is this inversion of influence. So this inversion from the traditional fashion press into a more decentralised kind of scattered way of trends bubbling up and influence being something that goes across different areas rather than just being sort of a top-down. So from this pyramid-style model into something that is a lot harder to pin down. So I think that's been one of the major changes that's been largely driven by obviously digital media and social media, where people can become their own curators of style. I think fashion as an industry has become a lot more accessible. So moving on from the days where if you wanted to have beautiful fashionable things that you also had to have a lot of money, that you had to have maybe a dressmaker, the means and the access to those things, now that's no longer a consideration.

(04:50):
Anyone can be stylish, anyone can be fashionable or engaged with fashion, but it comes with a lot of trade-offs. So we've made significant trade-offs for that accessibility in terms of quality of clothing, in terms of the environmental impact of clothing, and also in terms of the labour conditions under which that clothing is made. That's why I love secondhand fashion because with secondhand fashion, often you can mitigate those trade-offs. So it's still very accessible and you can still access beautiful, well-made pieces in a way that is more ethically sound. And then the final thing, which I think is also really exciting as a fashion communicator and as a fashion educator, is that fashion is being taken a lot more seriously. So some of the conversations I think that would've been had 10 years ago when I was going to, I went to fashion school before I did my master's, I studied fashion photography, and it was kind of a bit of an open joke that I was throwing away my good education to go and pursue fashion.

(05:54):
I think nowadays there's a very different attitude around it. It has more legitimacy in the cultural sphere. So those are the three main changes I would say that I've seen.

Kiran Kapur, Host (06:04):
Yes, I mean, you're right. I was thinking about my own attitude to fashion now. And yes, I don't necessarily read the fashion press either. There are people that I find stylish so I can follow them and go, "Oh, that looks nice." You can see something, you can click it and you can go, "Oh, reverse image search. Where did you get that from?" And that sort of thing. Yes, fashion has definitely changed from the days when you only wore what Marks and Spencer's told you to wear, essentially. So how do you think communication around fashion has changed? Because presumably that's changed alongside the way that fashion has been more acceptable.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (06:37):
Definitely, definitely. I think obviously we've moved away from the big branded editorial campaign being the main focus of fashion communication. And we've moved away from the catwalk being the main focus of how our brand communicates its value, its worth, its brand attributes. And again, we've moved into something a lot more fragmented, which has its benefits because it means that more people can participate in it. We can be a bit more creative, a bit more responsive, a bit more dynamic as things are changing. But I think that also sometimes is a shame, that fragmentation, because there is something really artful and really considered about a thick issue, for example, of Italian Vogue from the late '90s and the campaigns in there and the editorials and the high production value of things and these really big teams coming together to produce something. And there is a craftsmanship there that isn't necessarily always present when you do just send out some packages to some influencers and hope for the best and get them to do a try-on video in their bedroom that they probably recorded in 20, 30 minutes.

(07:58):
It's a different way of doing things. And I also think now with AI, this kind of hollowing out of this idea of creative collaboration that someone can just enter a prompt, single-handed, produce something instantly, that also feels like, let's say, a slightly more negative shift in that it is removing that human element. It's removing that sense of teamwork of creating something that is orchestrated, but orchestrated in a really beautiful, compelling, striking way. And I think a lot of imagery at the moment is quite forgetful and a lot of catwalks are quite forgetful as well. And maybe that's just because there's more and we're bombarded by more, or maybe that's just because the way that we're making them now. There's less investment in time and in budget, and the money is going into different things. It's going more into afiliate links, influencer marketing, and away from the brand's owned content in terms of how the brand wants to set the stage for itself.

Kiran Kapur, Host (09:01):
Which must be incredibly complex for the brands. I have much more control if it's my catwalk, my set of images, et cetera, et etera, than if as you say, I'm asking influencers to do this so that I can get the affiliate links.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (09:17):
Yeah, definitely. And I think it also lends itself to a certain type of brand proliferating, which again tends to be not always, but tends to be based in the kind of fast fashion model, the mass production model. And that type of marketing really relies on pushing a message of over-consumption. You don't just need this one hoodie in one colour. You need every hoodie that we do for every sort of exclusive drop. And the exclusivity of it is not based in the time it takes to create or the people who are making it, but it lies in how many you decide to print at that one time. So that's a bit of an interesting artificial aspect to it as well. So yeah, I guess in terms of that shift, yes, it's democratising fashion in a lot of ways, which can be really good. But also I think it lends itself to certain business models which aren't the business models that we should necessarily be putting to the fore as responsible fashion practitioners.

Kiran Kapur, Host (10:24):
That's really interesting. Do you have a sort of favourite fashion campaign?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (10:28):
So many. I love this question. So many. But I love, again, the campaigns that were done at a time where that would really be your window to the world. That would be your brand showcase. That be the way that you immerse people. And I think there have been studies done that show if you can successfully transport a viewer into a narrative, it's more likely to lead to positive outcomes for your brand. So I really like these campaigns that are kind of world-building. One that I think of a lot is the David LaChapelle Make Love Not Walls campaign, which he did for Diesel. I think it was about 10 years ago, maybe a bit more. And that was a really kind of campy, colourful, bold, pro - LGBTQIA anti-war, anti-violence campaign at a time when that really wasn't the norm to see in fashion magazines. I think now we expect that of brands.

(11:26):
We often demand that of brands now. But actually in the early to mid - 2010s, that was not necessarily seen as the remit, and it was quite politically provocative as well. So I thought that was very well done. And Diesel is a brand that has really kept up with these really dramatic campaigns. It's kept working with the same photographers and creative teams, and they always do a really good job of telling a story. So I love that campaign. And the other one that I loved that was more recent was the Burberry Bus Aunty campaign, which was actually working with an influencer. So Bus Aunty is a lady from I believe North London who would take these very candid videos on TikTok when she was waiting for the bus. And she would be talking to the camera like that, and the bus would arrive, and everyone, oh, it's Bus Aunty.

(12:17):
And she just kind of had this really warm, bubbly personality, and that's why people gravitated towards her. But also she represented an image of a Londoner that goes against what maybe the far right wants to portray. And I think it's fantastic that Burberry is a brand that is so associated with British heritage and is so associated with London and Britishness, brought her to the fore for this campaign. And they did do a whole editorial photo shoot around it. So they took her out of her usual kind of TikTok realm and put her in this fantastic high-production value fashion shoot with models on a retro London bus, and she looks fantastic, but it feels subtly political, but it also just feels very authentic and warm and lovely because that's the kind of figure that she is and that's why she first gained popularity. So I thought that was a really creative way of integrating the brand heritage with someone who is one of these new wave of influencers, but doing it in a way that felt meaningful, not something you just want to scroll past.

Kiran Kapur, Host (13:29):
Yes. And also getting those high production values in. So you've got an absolute marriage of high production values, which Burberry needs. I mean, it's that type of brand. And yes, I can see that that's a wonderful collaboration coming together. So you mentioned TikTok. Is that now more important than magazines and catwalks? Is it all TikTok and Insta, or are there other areas that we should be looking at? What's the importance?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (13:59):
So I think TikTok is important, but I think it's definitely probably more influential than fashion magazines at the moment. I would definitely say that magazines unfortunately have kind of lost their footing a little bit because they were so heavily reliant on print advertisers in order to stay running. But I think it's more celebrity style and influencer style, which is conveyed through TikTok that has become more influential. So I think the platform itself is almost buy the buy. I think if it wasn't happening on TikTok, it would be on Instagram or it would be through some other vehicle. But I think the way we think about fashion, we've gone from being brand-first into figure-first. So whether that is what celebrities are wearing to perform on the red carpet or what celebrities are capturing themselves in for their Instagrams, their social media feeds, or whether that's looking at influencers and their personal style, even though that's also heavily dictated by the brands they're working with.

(15:05):
So their personal style is a bit of an oxymoron. I think it's really that shift that we've seen. And TikTok and that sort of fashion responds to the catwalks, I think. So it kind of goes catwalk into figure-led fashion. But then from figure-led fashion, I think that's what has the bulk of the influence then on how we as individual people maybe react. I think we feel more removed from the catwalks in a way,and everything becomes filtered through how celebrity stylists interpret that and how influencers interpret and showcase that.

Kiran Kapur, Host (15:45):
I think is that partly because catwalks went down as they were so stylised, that you looked at it and went, "Well, you wouldn't style it like that. You wouldn't wear it like that in the real world." Whereas, at least if I see it on a celebrity, however much I know it's curated, I know it's a real person wearing it in a real street.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (16:03):
Definitely, definitely. I think so. And I think obviously, catwalks, a lot of the time, the styling is more avant- garde. Like you say, it's a bit less wearable. It is about making an impact and getting the press coverage rather than showing, well, this is how you would wear this piece. And as much as we like to think that there's more diversity on the catwalks, I think we can all agree that relatively speaking, in terms of body shape, body size, it's actually very uniform and has been for a long time. So I don't think we've really had a meaningful shift in that except for maybe a handful of brands that have been quite proactive in doing that.

Kiran Kapur, Host (16:43):
I'm always intrigued by what actually goes on as opposed to what we see as a consumer. So if you were lecturing me about fashion, what's the sort of areas that you talk about, perhaps areas that we might not think about?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (16:57):
I think a lot of it comes down to how to get your foot in the industry. I think that's something that people don't necessarily think about or we've got this kind of view of the fashion industry as being very glamorous and aspirational, but what is the reality of that maybe? And obviously the reality is that a lot of people in fashion do get jobs through connections. I think that's starting to shift a little bit now. The nice thing about it of course, is that you can make your own connections. So you can start networking, you can be a bit more proactive about it. But I think there is that slight gap between the aspirational view, the Devil Wears Prada view, almost of the fashion industry and actually the mundanity and the monotony of the day-to-day of a lot of it, which it shouldn't put people off really, but I think it's something to be aware of.

Kiran Kapur, Host (17:55):
Yes, we all have this Devil Wears Prada view, don't we? That is what it actually is. And we're all potentially Anna Wintour, but it's just not quite like that. So how does one get a foot into the fashion industry? You just said that's a key thing.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (18:12):
Yeah. So whenever I'm working with students and talking to students that have aspirations to go into this area, I mean the main thing really is meeting people, talking to people, taking advantage of opportunities, being proactive, volunteering for things, not necessarily working for free for hours and hours, but just in terms of if you could submit some of your university work for an award and get put forth for something, why not do it and see what happens? Go to that optional guest lecture because people that come and do guest lectures at universities want to speak to students. They're happy to hear from you. You can connect with them on LinkedIn afterwards. And we've had some great examples of that working in practise where I've done modules with brands, my students have done work for those brands, and then they've actually seen that and said, "Well, let's do a placement." So there's actually been internships that have come out of that.

(19:09):
But I think we are unfortunately operating in an employment landscape where a lot of students are applying for jobs through these electronic portals or looking at job websites. You're up against hundreds of other people, hundreds of other graduates. You are possibly producing your CV with AI or using it to help you. The company is probably scanning that CV with AI or using it to help them. And as a result, you have this kind of impasse where it is kind of two computers talking to each other. So how do you get around that, and how do you stop yourself from being lost in this kind of electronic two-way sort of situation? Well, the way that you do that is you actually get out there, and you talk to people, and you have to start doing that long before you need that opportunity. And this is sometimes what's really hard to explain to people is by the time you need the contact to get your placement or your internship or get your first graduate role, if you haven't done anything up until that point, it's very unlikely that you will meet someone and within a week they will say, "Come and work for me".

(20:22):
So I think it's about working proactively as soon as possible, meeting people with no expectation because you don't know when those connections will pay off. But the more that you build up your network, the more that you put yourself out there, the more that you showcase your work, even if it's work in progress, even if it's student work, get it on LinkedIn. Tell the world what you're doing. People will not find you. You need to go and find them and connect with them. So I think that would be my main piece of advice. And also to focus your time studying. Yes, I know everyone wants to get a good grade, and I understand that, but actually the focus needs to be creating a portfolio or creating some work that you're proud of, that you can talk about, that you want to show, that you want to use as examples of, "Hey, this is what I can do".

(21:20):
And I always say to my students, "Yeah, it's nice to get a good grade. Of course it is, but it's much more important that you leave here with a body of work that you feel represents you because that's actually what employers in the creative sector are interested in and in fashion. They're not interested in grades and box ticking and whether you did really well on that essay. It's a nice bonus, but actually they want to see what you've done.

Kiran Kapur, Host (21:44):
Yeah. And an element of passion can always take you so much further. So what's the most common question your students ask you about the fashion industry? What do you always get asked?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (21:55):
So unfortunately, I think it's that question. How do I get my foot to the door to which I say that? I mean, we get asked a lot, how did we get started? The teaching team. And a lot of us are part-time teaching, part-time working in industry, so we get a lot of that. We get a lot of questions about how to maybe showcase themselves or how to build a personal brand. And to that, we always say, think about consistency, think about being specific. If you just say aspiring fashion person, what does that mean? There's so many different roles. There's so many different sectors in the fashion industry. So you need to whittle down. You need to be really clear for people. Do you want to be a stylist for e-commerce sportswear brands? If you do and you know that, say it. Or if you don't know what role you want to be, give us some real specific interests.

(22:52):
Don't just say, "I have a passion for fashion." Your CV will be put straight in the bin if you say that. But if you say, "I'm really passionate about the opportunities that digital fashion presents and widening inclusivity in the Metaverse. Okay, that gives me something to work with. So I think that's our advice in terms of personal branding. Be consistent, be specific. And again, be proactive, which I think is really hard when you're starting out because you don't necessarily feel credible. But actually, it is perfectly credible and perfectly valid as a fashion student to start talking to people and to position yourself as a future fashion professional. If you are a student, you are a future professional. That is the definition of that. So be proud of that and lead with it. And no one should put you down for that. And if they do, do you want to be working for them in the first place?

(23:52):
I would say probably not.

Kiran Kapur, Host (23:55):
Is there anything else that you would say? I read your blog with huge interest. There's obviously areas of fashion that you are very passionate about. Is there one message you would want to get across? Is it be about sustainability?

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (24:12):
I think sustainability is obviously, it should be a paradigm. It should be the lens through which we see everything, the lens through which we approach everything, rather than something we tack on at the end and go, oh, when is it sustainable? From the outset, from the ideation stage, from the start of what we're doing, we should be thinking about how can I incorporate sustainable practises into this? And I think that's for everyone. Whether you're a photographer, whether you're a stylist, whether you're a social media marketer, whether you're a content creator, whether you are a PR person, think about is what I'm doing or is what I'm proposing to do, is that feeding into a world where we are being a bit more thoughtful about what we're doing? Is that feeding into a world where we are cutting down on our waste, cutting down on our textile waste?

(25:04):
And it doesn't have to be from black to white. It doesn't have to be saying that, well, the fashion industry is inherently bad and there's no way for it to be good or for it to be better. I think it's just about those incremental changes. And if we think in terms of adaptability and innovation and just little changes all the time to make us more conscious or to provoke certain thought processes as makers, as marketers and as consumers, I think that makes it a lot less scary and a lot less preachy because who wants to be preached at or kind of lectured about sustainability? I think we need to find a way to almost gamify it, make it fun and make it something that doesn't feel scary, but something that is about almost like mindfulness and self-care without going too woo-woo, because I really do think it's about just pausing and thinking and thinking through what we do and thinking through how a garment came to be in our hands.

(26:03):
And everyone can do that. There's no barrier to doing that. So yeah, that would be my closing thought, I guess.

Kiran Kapur, Host (26:10):
Fantastic. Lou Rogers, owner of Trendlistr and assistant professor at Northumbria University in the absolutely fascinating fashion communication. Thank you so much. I've really enjoyed that, and I've learned so much.

Lou Rogers, Founder of Trendlistr & Fashion Professor (26:22):
Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it.