Meet & Greet with Susie Bubble :)

Through work I had the opportunity to meet the lovely Susie Bubble from Style Bubble during the Berlin Fashion Week. We were at the Bread & Butter fair and were talking about her life and how she actually started blogging. I've had a really nice interview with her. She was super nice and really down-to-earth, funny and inspiring as well.

Read the German version on LesMads and enjoy :)

How come, that you've started blogging? In your blog you're saying that you wanted to rebel against your parents, why was that or when was the point that you've decided to start blogging? Was there a special incident?

  

Well, with fashion I wanted to rebel. Getting into fashion was quite rebellious for me because I’ve attended an academic girl’s school and my parents were quite conservative; I lived in suburbia in London. Fashion was my way of rebelling against that and then later on when I was working in advertising, like right after I graduated, I didn’t want to be  a person who has a boring 9-to-5 job and being content with it. So I started the blog as a hobby, as something on the side, as something to really indulge in and to reenjoy. When I first started blogging, it was like: I’d do it before lunch, before work, during lunch hours, after work and it was like an obsession. I studied history at UCL, that was like my academic state.

I was reading blogs at that time but there weren’t as many like Fashionologie and blogs that don’t exist anymore. I was also on the Fashionspot a lot, the forum. So yeaht that’s kind of how it started really, it was just supposed to be a hobby. I didn’t really care about who was reading it, I just wanted to do it for myself. I always been into extracurricular things, I’ve also did things just to get a different experience.

How did you end up with Dazed and Confused and then later Elle?

In 2008 I’ve had been blogging for like two years because I’ve started blogging in 2006 and they were relaunching the website and were looking for a new and fresh approach. Like somebody who hadn’t been in the print or fashion background necessarily, but someone who was an online person and someone who was digitally minded. They brought me on and I was there for two years and I oversaw the website but it became difficult to do both Stylebubble and Dazed at the same time so I became freelance in 2010, 2011. I worked full time on my blog and also freelance for magazines like Elle, Pop magazine and newspapers like The Guardian and Telegraph. 

Were you always interested in fashion? If yes, what was your first fashion moment in your childhood?  

I’ve always been interested in how you dress yourself and how that represents you. You can use clothing as a creative expression. I wasn’t really one of those people who would be like looking at old Vogue Magazines and stuff, this just wasn’t in my world. Like, my family is not interested in fashion, I don’t have a mother who has got lots of magazines or old clothes and stuff. For me it kind of came from wanting to dress myself. In terms of moments, I don’t know. Like ruining my mum's silk-shirts because I wanted to tie-dye them. I was really into the DIY-customization thing when I was about like 11 or 12, I’d do all this different and crazy projects, those are like my distinct memories. 

Did you have different style periods in your past? For example, a black period: just wearing black or a punk period: just wearing punk-ish stuff?

Definitely, I never had the black period, but I did have the indie-girl period because all the Brit-Pop thing was really big when I was 11 or 12. I went to a harajuku-girls-phase when I was like 15 and then I went to so many like a preppy-phase, a girlie, a super super girlie, really like stuff you wouldn’t probably wear anymore. I think that’s really natural though, but I don’t look back and think oh this was a mistake. It’s more like: oh this was really funny, how your style kind of evolves.

How would you describe your own style?

My own style is really eclectic, that comes from going through all these different phases, and I don’t really want to be one thing or the other. I don’t want to be just girlie or just grungy, I kind of like to mix it up and it’s really about contrast, it’s nice to be like sporty and girlie at the same time. Just juxtaposed, sometimes it doesn’t work, I don’t mind if it doesn’t work to be honest, I’m not afraid to make mistakes.

What was your worst outfit so far?

I don’t look it like that, I hate the word 'fashion-fauxpas', I think it’s a really dumb phrase, because if you wore it at that time, you must have thought you look good, it’s all relative what was going on at that time. You look back and then you won’t never wear it today, because time has passed.

Do you have a signature piece or a favorite piece which you would never give away?

I really like nice vintage things with amazing craftsmanship, like old vintage pieces, things that you cannot replace. Or gifts from best friends, like my best friend, a designer from Paris who has given me some nice things I really value for sentimental reasons.

Speaking of style, what do you think is the difference between Berlin and London?

I think it's quite similar, but maybe in recent years globalization has drawn the cities together, and it's not so distinct anymore but I think London is definitely more trendfocused than Berlin just because we have so many high-street-stores, we have so many options. Berlin is like DIY and you have such great vintage stores here.

Could you imagine yourself living somewhere else? If yes, where and why?

If I’d spoke Japanese, I’d live in Tokio, because I just love it there. I really really really love it there, I go there twice a year just to get like inspiration and everything about it, a real sensory experience. 

Do you have favorite blogs which you follow daily?

Yeah, all the obvious ones, like Business of Fashion, I like Park + Cube which is a British blog, Man Repeller, a friend of mine, Jack and Jil, the kind of street style and one it is called the Cutting Class, a blog just purely about fashion cutting and patterns and then I follow more blogs as well.  

Where do you find inspiration in? Do you have favorite artists, icons or models?

I don’t really have that kind of idols; I get inspired by a lot of different things at the same time. I don’t have a singular icon and I don’t like the whole thing of idolizing somebody or emulating somebody. I mean there are always inspiring people like people you see at a daily basis. Like the stylist Kathrin Barbor or Francesca Burns from British Vogue, they are like people I know in person, it’s just nice to see them and then like: Wow, they have amazing style and they are nice people. That makes them super inspiring.
 
Any fashion advice? For example: Never do these and that or you'll always look good in...

I don’t believe that there are those kind of rules, because it is hard to say everyone will look good in this or everyone will look bad in this because everyone is just very different. I think it sounds really boring but: Go with what you think works best for you, go with your gut intuition. Don’t be scared about what other people think, I think people think about what other people think a lot. It limits yourself.

How come that you're here for Birkenstock?

  
It’s me discovering the brand, it’s not a collaboration, and trying to tell a story, I’ll be doing a big post how it regenerated because there were a restructure in the company. It’s such a successful shoe brand and they did not intend to be successful, they didn’t know marketing and advertising. It was kind of unheard in fashion and I think it’s quite interesting how Birkenstock is not necessarily a fashion brand but how it crosses over into fashion. The Celine collection like two seasons ago with the furly Birkenstock; I like products that come from a genuine place and they are really honest. Made in Germany, they’ve done this for many many years and that’s why I like it. They are really honest.

What's your favorite model of the brand?

  
The ones I'm wearing and a different one, it’s like the Madrid style but the brown sole is all blue so it got a nice contrast to it.

Thank you so much for the interview Susie and hope you had a wonderful time in Berlin,

much love and keep doing!

Guys, let's not limit ourselves, not listen to others and just wear and do whatever and however we feel like :)

XO