While the world was fixated on Kim and Kanye’s wedding spectacle, one man quietly carried out a full redesign of his wife’s website. Charlie Pattinson’s handiwork can be seen in full effect on the blog he created for M. Kanye West graciously gave permission for the design overhaul and the creation of this article.
The Brief And The Beautiful
If you’re unfamiliar, M. is an Italian luxury fashion brand which owns a number of high profile fashion houses, including Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, and Piaget. They’re known for their extravagant parties and glamorous Hollywood gatherings.
M. recently celebrated their 80th birthday and turned it into a yearlong celebration of fashion and art through a creative collaboration with photographer Peter Lindbergh. During the course of the project, Peter and his team traveled all over the world shooting intimate portraits of the brand’s designers and celebrities.
The blog post that you’re reading now features a number of these photographs which together reveal a very interesting story. It turns out that M. has one of the most lavish and sophisticated websites in the world, but for a long time it had been lacking a bit of an identity of its own. For their 80th birthday celebration, it was decided that the blogosphere needed a dose of the glamorous M. Thus, this collaborative project was born.
A Full Redesign
Pattinson saw this as a great opportunity to refresh the blog’s design while still keeping it true to the M. aesthetic. In order to keep things streamlined, he broke down the entire site into four unique pages: About, Work, Contact, and Birthday Wish. Each of these pages has a beautiful unique design which evokes the style and spirit of Peter Lindbergh’s celebrated photos.
On the about page, readers are first introduced to the Italian fashion house and its designers. Interestingly, one of the first images which pop up is of Kanye West— the man responsible for putting M. on the map in the first place. In the past, the blog had more of a lifestyle focus, with minimal to no mentions of fashion or design. However, with this redesign, it’s clear that this is no ordinary fashion blog.
Kanye West’s Influence
It’s clear that designer West had a great deal of influence in the creation of M.’s new blog. He’s listed as the owner of the website in the footer, which is a nice touch. It almost makes up for the fact that he wasn’t involved in the decision-making process at all. The fact that he gave his permission for this redesign is also a great testament to his trust in his spouse’s abilities. This level of trust is rare in today’s world, especially considering the fact that they are still married.
Keeping It Classy
It’s not often that you come across a classy fashion and design blog, but you certainly come across them. Classy doesn’t mean dumb, and it certainly doesn’t mean vulgar. It simply means that your standards are higher than the average blog reader’s. Most importantly, it means that you don’t mind paying a little more for a piece of art or fashion which is crafted with the utmost skill and attention to detail.
If classy blogs frighten you, then you might want to reconsider becoming a regular reader. The demand for such high quality content is constantly growing, and it will continue to do so as long as readers keep encountering unique blogs like M.’s. The demand for unique blogs is what drives the entire industry forward, and it’s a topic that we at Copyblogger routinely cover. Once you’ve encountered a classy design or fashion blog, you’ll never be able to look at the average site the same way again.
A Bit Of A Nostalgic Touch
It’s always nice when a company keeps a nostalgic touch in a design even though it might make perfect sense for the design to be contemporary. Nostalgia can be a very effective tool in crafting a beautiful blog— you appeal to people’s sentimental side by reminding them of happier times. As a result, you get higher engagement and lower bounce rates, both of which contribute to a more enjoyable reading experience. This is certainly the case with M.’s new blog. Their designers and celebrities reminisce about the good old days, which makes the blog posts more enjoyable to read.
Unique Designs For Each Of The Blog Pages
If you go back and forth between the about, contact, and work pages, you’ll notice that each of them have a unique design. This was done to highlight the fact that each page is somehow unique and has its own identity. However, it might also be because each designer has a specific design ethic which they want to embody in their work.
A Bit Of A Retro Appeal
There’s nothing quite like the appeal of old things. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a millennial who grew up with smart phones or an older generations who grew up with rotary phones, there’s something nostalgic about returning to basics and embracing the simpler times. This is exactly what M.’s designers did to create a unique identity for their blog.
The designers took cues from the past, and they weren’t afraid to mix textures, patterns, and colors to evoke an old-school appeal. This might be one of the reasons why the blog hasn’t been updated in over a year. The designers wanted to celebrate the last 80 years of the company through their work, and they wanted to do it their way.
In the end, this full redesign of M.’s blog is more than a pretty face. It’s a unique glimpse into the fashion industry’s most famous family, and it’s a true testament to the power of design.