DIARY directory recently caught up with fashion blogger and Instagram sensation Katherine Ormerod from Work Work Work. Having worked as a journalist for 10 years on titles spanning from The Sunday Times Style to Glamour and Grazia, Katherine then founded The Fashion Content Agency in 2015, in which she collaborated with a broad spectrum of bloggers. In January 2017, Katherine launched Work Work Work an anti-perfectionism platform for women’s stories which she felt were being lost in the social media and imaged focused era we live in. Her aim was to create a space where she could talk about fashion and lifestyle in real terms and talk to other women about the unedited—and less photogenic—sides of their lives too.

Worked with brands including J.Crew, Elizabeth Scarlet and Smith Hotels, Soho House and Isabella Oliver

"Fashion and lifestyle stuff is great and I love covering it, but ultimately it's beyond over saturated. The voices talking about the trickier sides of life are by far more engaging..."

Who would you say are your core readers? Is there a vast difference between your readers and Instagram followers?

There’s definitely a difference. My Instagram has remained fashion-focused and feels more escapist than my site which is all about the sometimes-harsh realities of life. I truly believe that you have to be conscious of your digital footprint and that your online output should be a balance. I’ve always loved the fantasy, thus the decade-long career on fashion magazines, but I didn’t feel comfortable with only projecting the artistic and creative sides of my life. When you combine the site and my Instagram together, you have both the dreams and the day-to-day grind, which for me is reflective of who I really am.

What content do you think is the most valuable to your blog? Do you prefer writing fashion or lifestyle posts?

100% it’s the relatable and vulnerable content which connect with my audience. Fashion and lifestyle stuff is great and I love covering it, but ultimately it's beyond over saturated. The voices talking about the trickier sides of life are by far more engaging and personally more fulfilling for me to cover as well.

Do you have any professional help with your blog and/or Instagram account?

No, I shoot, interview and write all my own features. My boyfriend Haden takes my Instagram pictures the poor bugger. I do work with an amazing intern Titi Finlay who sometimes helps me transcribe my interviews – should anyone be looking for a dynamic, young women to help across all content disciplines, I would recommend her talents endlessly. I also worked with the design agency Two Times Elliott to put together my site—James the founder is an incredible creative.

You’ve recently ventured into writing topics such as pregnancy, infertility and motherhood. How have your readers reacted to this?

The site was always set up as a place to talk about the issues at the heart of womanhood and for women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond, motherhood can play a central role. I’ve always wanted kids, but I got divorced at 30 so it wasn’t really on the cards for me until the past couple of years—before you really start thinking about it, it’s not really on your radar. For me, it was just something to worry about in the future. But then it suddenly got real and all those features I’d skimmed on infertility and the emotional upheaval of pregnancy were suddenly so relevant. As with anything heartfelt and authentic, readers have responded incredibly well to the pieces I’ve written.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Shall we expect the baby to appear on the blog? Will there be a drastic change in your content?

There will be the odd baby inclusion on the blog and my main Instagram account, but I’ve decided to set up a separate Instagram account for all things baby and mum related. One of the reasons is that when I was trying to conceive I found it really hard to look at all the happy pictures of newborns that started to dominate my feed as more and more of my friends built their families. I just want my followers to be able to ‘opt-in’ rather than having content which might be insensitive, or let’s be honest non-interesting if they’re not into babies, forced upon them. This is totally no criticism of other women who have integrated their content to include their journey into motherhood, it’s just not something I personally want to do. Equally, I definitely wouldn’t ever want to hide that I’m a mother, but I’m not planning on any drastic changes. My passions are fashion, lifestyle and women’s real stories and if the baby fits into those, great.

What brands have you worked with in the past? How has the relationship between yourself and the company worked? How can bloggers and PRs work better together?

I’ve worked with so many brands in both an influencer and in my consulting capacities and obviously through my career as a fashion editor too. I have so many incredible friends at brands and am lucky to count lots of PRs as good friends and I think that is still the key to the puzzle: true relationships. Bloggers are often treated as a commodity and if they haven’t had any work experience outside of blogging it can be really hard to forge ‘proper’ networks built on mutual trust and respect. I have often been shocked at the way a PR has spoken to me because as a journalist you are generally treated with a level of peer to peer respect and that doesn’t always translate when your services as an influencer are being recruited. Often PRs treat it as a one-hit wonder rather than trying to forge a true ambassador style relationship which seems like a huge waste of money to me. Some of my favourite projects have involved working with friends. For example last year I worked with Lindsey Holland (Ropes of Holland) and Lizzy Hadfield (Shot From the Street) on a J.Crew instore event which we publicised over social. Being involved in projects which cross fashion and real-life issues always appeal the most to me. I am also recently worked on a project with Isabella Oliver which was the perfect collaboration because I was wearing their maternitywear anyway and it had legitimately perked me up in the midst of endless morning sickness. On the flipside, I’ve worked with brands, which I won’t name, who have literally sent me a caption with adjective gaps and asked me to post verbatim. Things like that really get to me because it’s just so out of touch. That isn’t the way readers engage and feels so overly sponsored. Ditto being asked to use 5+ hashtags in a caption – nothing looks more inauthentic. Other negatives are when brands ask you not to reveal that it’s a sponsored post something which happens too often and I always turn down. I was also working with a brand at the beginning of my pregnancy who dropped me from a campaign when they found out I was expecting – from conversations with other women, it’s really common. Things like that will ruin-irrevocably- any chance of ever working together again. To add insult to injury the brand suggested we work together later this year—presumably when I’ve lost my baby weight. Clearly, that won’t be happening!

Have you got any future collaborations in the pipeline? What sort of thing can we expect?

I’m actually writing a book at the moment which explores a lot of the subjects covered on Work Work Work, especially in relation to social media, perfection and health. I’m hoping after the baby arrives to be working with a host of different brands around its publication, but you’ll have to watch this space!

Who would be your dream collaboration?

That’s so hard to say because there are so many brands I love—Valentino, Chloe, Gucci—but it totally depends on the remit of the project. I’ve already worked with brands like Mr&Mrs Smith and Soho House which I’d always wanted to collaborate with in the lifestyle market, but I guess in fashion it would be any mid to premium brand that was looking to tell unusual stories. I’d also love to work with the government and change-making institutions to spread some of the messages that I’ve focused on the site.

What do you think was you ‘big break’ moment of blogging?

The launch of my site was pretty overwhelming – it took me a month to respond to the incredible outpouring of support from readers and really fast-tracked that new side of my career.

Following all the publicity and controversy recently surrounding bloggers and influencers being compared to journalists and magazines, what do you think the future will be, how do you think the industry will evolve?

It’s hard for me to say because I still work as a freelance journalist and really only identify as a slashie. I do know that it’s a seriously tough time to be on a magazine and it’s also very hard to make ends meet exclusively as a freelance journalist these days—you have to have a side hustle too. I do think that there is now an understanding that there are all sorts of creatives in the digital world—some can write and have the know-how to work a professional shoot—whereas others have incredible power to guide an audience with their content. The two skill sets are not the same and that’s totally ok – there’s space for everyone and you don’t have to do everything. Ultimately the ‘threat’ that blogging has made to traditional publishing has been really misconstrued – yes things have changed, but now instead of 12 titles you might be able to get a job on, there are hundreds of thousands of brands who all need words and pictures – things that journalists are eminently trained to create. This should be seen as a boom time for all content creators, it’s just a question of readjusting your perspective. As for the blogging industry, we all know blogging readership is down across the board- if people can get it all from social media in a time efficient scroll, why would they spend hours trawling blogs? But there are still so many reasons to invest in your platform, least of all your own sense of fulfilment and esteem—endlessly posting pictures and just relying on Instagram engagement for your sense of achievement is a one-way ticket to unhappiness in my experience.

Listed in DIARY directory in the blogs & vlogs section, Katherine is one of over 1500 categorised influencers that PRs could work with. Subscribers can sort blogs according to social media following across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and filter by country and UK region. See our previous Featured Influencers here!