SOMA Magazine SOMA Film and Music Issue Aug 15 | Page 48

Feature

The Influencers
Lara Eurdolian
TexT by Kyle Thornburg
PhoTograPhy by James King

Lara Eurdolian, 31, navigates the blogosphere with a stylesavvy compass. With a background that integrates branding
and beauty, Lara launched her career in marketing with NARS
and Jurlique, after graduating from the Fashion Institute of
Technology. She went on become a brand consultant for entities
like Kiehl’s, Skyn Iceland, and Avon. All the while, she amassed
an outlook of her own. This point-of-view came to fruition in
2009 when Lara started the beauty and lifestyle blog, Pretty
Connected, and again in 2014 when she founded In His Clothes,
a blog that examines the influence of menswear in women’s style.
Lara’s blogging and branding presence has led her to partner
with the likes of COVERGIRL, Aveeno, and Essie, and to catalogue culture along the way.
At the start of your career, as a consultant and social media
strategist, what was most important to you?
Staying current, creating meaningful (original) content and getting results. We transitioned so quickly from a print to digital
world where suddenly we could track influence and results in a
completely new way. The rise of social media was this exciting
time where you could try different things and get to know your
audience in a way that wasn’t possible before.
How did you find a marriage between your own
perspective and the perspective that would become
Pretty Connected?
They are very intertwined in that the blog is all about sharing products and experiences that I’m excited about and feel
will benefit my readers. If the content I’m putting out has no
value to my audience or is off subject, then it doesn’t warrant
being on the site.
How do you ensure that you are remaining inspired from
blog post to blog post, project to project?
My site is more of a lifestyle than a job, so I have to love it or
something has to change. It is a highly personal thing and it’s
not easy, but at the end of the day I’m very fortunate to have
so many relationships with brands and to have the control to
create content that continues to excite.
You can’t do it all (that’s a lesson we all learn at some point)
but if you don’t constantly evaluate your content and opportunities then you’ll never grow. You can’t be afraid to evolve and find
creative ways to partner with brands as well as try new things
that keeps things fresh.
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In His Clothes stands on a different fashion platform than
Pretty Connected. Describe what that’s like for you.
Pretty Connected’s main focus is beauty, but there is a strong
lifestyle component that spans fashion, travel, and home. It
doesn’t have rules as much as a curation of things I enjoy and
think my readers would be interested in.
In His Clothes has a very specific concept without a lot
of gray area. It’s all about borrowing from the boys and then
adding a feminine twist; Converse with dresses, motorcycle
jackets with heels. The Instagram handle for the account @
inhisclothes is particularly fun since we’re constantly featuring
different women and how they interpret trends, whereas @prettyconnected is more focused around new product launches and
my style posts.
What characteristics help you to identify a brand that you
would like to partner with?
I generally go for products and brands I use and get excited
to talk about. A partnership is two sided and I only want my
name associated with brands and products that I love and
use. It just has to make sense for my brand and otherwise I try
not to put limitations and just be open to how I can creatively
partner with brands. I have a strong marketing background so
it’s easy to pick out when something feels forced or off brand.
If you weren’t a blogger and brand ambassador, what do
you think you would do for a profession?
I would have stayed on track with my marketing career and continued to work in beauty. It’s an industry that has always been
very good to me and one I enjoy.
Who are the women who have had the most formative
impacts on your life—professionally and personally?
It’s actually been mostly men that have had the biggest influence on my career. The former head of creative at NARS,
Todd Smith taught me a lot about branding and not cutting
corners to make something beautiful. My former colleague
at both Jurlique and Kiehl’s, Jeremy Goldman, was incredibly
influential in pushing me to make the leap from traditional
marketing to digital. And my boyfriend and partner in the blog,
James King who’s from the digital advertising world gave me
the confidence to go a consulting route and pushes me to grow
and create everyday