#Interview: My personal philosophy has never chased the perfect Instagram grid: Aanam C, What When Wear

Aanam C, the brand behind What When Wear shares what went into creating a diverse and far-reaching blog.

It all began as her personal blog in college and today What When Wear is present across social media platforms. with a massive reach. Functioning out of a home set up, with two full-time employees, Aanam believes in giving her content a personal opinion approach.

In conversation with Social Samosa, Aanam shares some interesting stories with lots and lots to learn from, especially if you're an aspiring fashion blogger.

Read on.

Who are we?

What When Wear started out as a peronal blog where I would share my fashion and beuaty experiments and daily style diaries. Over a period of time it has grown to a platform across all social media pages that has an overall reach of over 3 million people per month. I love how we have diversified with content over a period of time and built a community of engaging followers that relate to the content we create.

Our journey

I was still in college when I started the blog as a space of personal expression, so it might be fair to say we’ve come a long way with a few happy accidents along the journey. From being my own production coordinator, manager, intern and beyond to now having a little team of my own, it’s been an interesting seven years in this space.

Our family

Putting together a team has to be one of the toughest things I’ve ever done – more so since in this non-traditional space, we don’t really have any fixed formats of working.

I have a home office set up (the extra room has been converted into our office/studio space) where I have 2 employees coming in five days a week, while the remaining employees work from home on a full-time basis. This initially was an off-beat yet conscious choice I made since I wanted each person to be responsible for their work and time, not just to come into an office space for the sake of it. I am someone who’s not in all five days a week myself between events, shoots, and travel, so as long as there’s a qualitative work output, I don’t find the need to see each person every day (as of now!!)

What’s in the name?

When I started What When Wear in December 2011, it was actually called Fashionably Ever After. (I was 19!!) I think that over the first year, I outgrew the name and the theme that I thought it had going for it. Instead I wanted to opt for something that was a little bit cooler, with a little wit in the name. Something that would leave the other person remembering what it stood for, so after about a year of operations as Fashionably Ever After, we rebranded and relaunched the blog as What When Wear.

Our mission statement

The one consistent thing that has stuck with me through the past seven years has been the idea that my content needs to be relatable. My personal philosophy has never chased the ‘perfect Instagram grid’ so I always found it important for my content to come through in the same light. I find it imperative to find the balance between all things ‘need’ and ‘want’ and ‘wish to have’.

We create content for?

The real girls out there. The ones who genuinely are looking to shop basis recommendations, opt for services basis our reviews and come to me for help in times of need.

We even set up a separate email ID specially for the followers to write in on some time ago and it’s something I personally look into on a weekly basis.

Also Read: Interview: We define our channel as “Not a category.”: Sejal Kumar, Content Creator

We work with...

Only the brands we believe in. It could be affordable or high street, or might even come from the experimental space; I have always believed in giving my content the personal opinion approach so if I try something and like or dislike it, you’ll find me talking about it.

We are proud of

The connect we’ve managed to build with followers over the years. They’re the perfect digital family that don’t believe in one sided conversations, and intstead, engage with us through their feedback, suggestions, constructive criticism and overall communciation.

Our WTF moment

A couple of girls showed up at my hotel lobby ‘for a meeting’ while I was traveling – it was cute but creepy at the same time because they not only knew I was staying there (social media!!) but also assumed I would be in the room at that exact time!! The front desk called to confirm thankfully, which is when we asked to have them wait while I went down to meet with them. In hindsight, it was actually a really fun little meet and greet; I just wish they had emailed and arranged for it properly haha

Stay tuned for...

We launched @whatwhenwearwardrobe a few months ago which is a non-profit initiative that allows me to donate pieces from my wardrobe or from PR – 100% of the sales goes to charity. What we’re working on in the coming weeks is a format where not only can you buy, but you can also donate (allow us to sell) pieces for you pan India. It’s a very exciting idea for us and we’re looking forward to using our platform for the better.

Content wise, we recently launched our ‘makeover series’ where followers come and get their makeup and hair done with me. This is something we’re working towards making a regular feature over the time to come as well since it gives us a chance to really interact with the followers and get to know them well.

Are, you hiring?

YES! We’re currently looking for a full time assistant. Someone who will assist my manager and I in logistics, admin work, and also coordinate with followers and vendors for various projects including Wardrobe. This is a full time job (coming into office) based in Bombay. Any interested candidates can write in for this paid job on jobs@whatwhenwear.in along with their cover letter and their CV.