| Entrepreneurial Inspiration - Nedahl Stelio |
| Articles - Interviews |
| Written by Krista |
 As the former editor of Cleo magazine & a prominent identity in the fashion industry, we were pretty excited to chat to Nedahl. We ask to her about her online business venture CocoLee and all the other exciting things she’s been doing to get to where she is today. You’ve done a multitude of different things in the media throughout your career involving magazines, television and radio. Did you always know that you wanted to be in the media industry? When did you first know? I figured out when I was 15 and obsessed with reading magazines - I bought everything from Dolly to UK Vogue - that I could put my "natural writing talent" (so my teachers told me) to good use and write stories for a living. How 'bout that! Realising I could get paid to write and at possibly one of my much loved mags was super exciting, so I focused on becoming a journalist. Out of all your different TV & Radio gigs, which did you enjoy most and why? TV is very scary at first so it took me a long while to enjoy it, but now I love it. Doing Kerrie-Anne is so fun 'cause she's just excellent. Her shoe wardrobe is out of this world and I've never seen a woman with a better diamond collection. If I had to choose though, I'd probably say radio because you don't have to worry about how you look! Just that you sound good. My weekly gossip report with Kyle & Jackie O was always a good laugh. Your still involved/doing quite a lot of different things, what are they? I do a weekly radio fashion segment with Christo and Katie on 96.1, I co-host Mike Goldman's radio show once a week which is really a lot of fun, I write fashion/celebrity for ThePunch.com.au , I'm a regular on Mornings with Kerrie Anne Kennerly and I freelance write a teensy bit. Do you have a career highlight? It used to be that my dream was to be Editor of a magazine, and I did that at Cleo for almost five years, but moving on and starting my own business CocoLee.com.au with my sister has been just an incredible ride - this is definitely my career highlight. Tell us about your online business Coco Lee? Coco Lee is a fashion website with news, gossip, celebs and sales. You don't have to know your Loewe from your Lanvin to read my blog, you just have to like fashion and want to learn the best way to adapt catwalk and celebrity trends for you. We have online, weekly sales from everyone's favourite Australian designers like sass & bide, Rachel Gilbert, Alannah Hill, Shakuhachi and heaps more. Sales only last a maximum of seven days and then they're pulled offline so members have to get in quick to access the sale. It's all online - so you can shop from your desk - and you get an email telling you when the sale starts and also what celebs are wearing that week. We have a fashion marketplace where members sell their pre-loved fashion pieces to other members which is totally free! You just join Coco Lee to post things or buy things. And then of course there's my daily blog which is called Celebrity StyleWatch and keeps you up to date on all things happening in the fashion world - fabulous or not. We're actually expanding the site this month to include a bunch of other cool sections - places where members can post their own style looks or favourite new item they've bought, plus some truly unreal sales pieces - it's all going to be mega-spanky and new, but still really easy to use. What inspired you to start it? I wanted to start a sales site because I'd seen the concept take off overseas and knew I could do it really well in Australia. But I also wanted to keep writing - it's my passion - so I came up with the idea of melding the two together and Coco Lee was born. We're the first site to have so much focus on entertaining, fashionable content as well as delivering great sales to our style-savvy members. Your sister Alissar is the other half of Coco Lee, how would you explain both your roles in the business? Alissar also has a fashion & beauty PR agency, Symbol PR and has been in the fashion industry for years so knows exactly what she's doing with the marketing side of things. She takes care of all the business end of Coco Lee - finance, accounts, plus developing new business with different clients and constantly coming up with new ways to market and PR Coco Lee. I take care of all the creative aspect - the look and feel of the site, all the words you see in Coco Lee are mine, all of the content, the newsletters, etc. We both deal with the fashion labels and designers to get them on board and keep them happy. Is there someone (career wise) that you look up to or has inspired you & why? I've followed Lisa Wilkinson's career since I was 15 (I still remember her long plait in her editor's photo) and think she's an absolute inspiration - I love that she's on the cover of Woman's Weekly this month when that was a magazine she used to contribute to! Since switching from print to online I look to overseas for inspiration and think Natalie Massenett has done such a stellar job with netaporter, and then people like Tamara Mellon of Jimmy Choo for her amazing business sense and innate style. Such incredible women! Are there any books you’ve read that you would recommend other budding entrepreneurs to read? Hmm, not really. I probably should though! I think I've done so many stories over my years of working in women's mags on How to Start your Own Business and all those career stories that I wrote/read/edited, that it's all rather sunk in! I personally love your style of writing and really enjoy your daily blog posts, how long would you say you spend on your blog each day from researching subjects, sourcing images and writing? Thank you! Appreciate it :) I usually spend the morning researching pics and different trends and then I either write about them immediately - which often works the best - or save them until I figure out what it is about the image that made me want to buy it. Definitely a good few hours, but then I have actual business ('cause I definitely don't look at my blog as work, it's so much fun to write) to attend to so the sales side of the website runs smoothly and I can actually make a living. I have to pull myself away from my blog most of the time but usually end up posting one or two things in the afternoon - short or long, whatever mood I'm in! Finally, working in fashion, what trends are you looking forward to wearing this winter? Grey, grey and more grey - preferably in different shades and worn in the same outfit. Leggings - thick lace leggings for me but plain for the ones who don't love patterned legs. All black, but textured, embellished, interesting black. Still the trilby hat, Carine Roitfeld rocked it at New York Fashion Week. Two extremes in boots: Thigh high or the ankle boot. http://www.cocolee.com.au/ |
| Last Updated on Friday, 12 March 2010 14:37 |
