Taylor Tomasi Hill, artistic director, Moda Operandi
When the crimson-haired street-style star Taylor Tomasi Hill left her plum print-publishing position as accessories director at Marie Claire for Moda Operandi — Vogue editor Lauren Santo Domingo and former Gilt Groupe exec Aslaug Magnusdottir's ultra-luxe online retailer — the industry took notice. With one of fashion's favorite young, rising editors poached by e-commerce, we began to wonder if the future of glossy, high-end content was shoppable. We're not wondering anymore.
Attention, Shoppers: “Moda Operandi launched at a time when online retail was dominated by discount shopping. But the thing was, consumers were increasingly comfortable with shopping online for unique, limited, or luxury products. Because we all follow designers and street-style images online, shoppers are much savvier about how they define luxury and what pieces they want to buy. The Internet transformed fashion shows from exclusive trade events to global consumer events. Still, the full-priced consumer was largely being ignored. We leveraged all that Fashion Week excitement by giving women access to the pieces they already loved, that might not be at brick-and-mortar luxury retailers.”
Broadband Connection: “One of the best things about technology is the potential for wide outreach. We recently collaborated with goop, which focuses on an impressive range of topics for women — a great opportunity to extend far beyond fashion. Even when I conceptualize and style editorial stories for Moda Operandi, we’re helping our customers imagine new ways to wear our products.”
Learning Curves: “Even though I work at an online company, I’m not the most tech-friendly individual. I carry a BlackBerry for emails and texts, and an iPhone for everything else (especially Instagram!). I was told recently that I have good Instagram etiquette, which was huge! When I first started Instagramming, I did really offensive things like use Kelvin with the border. I should also probably add learning Excel to my to-do list!”