 |
| Shuttering Preserve : Blake Lively |
For all of the inevitable snark that follows her every move, Blake Lively—yes,
she of the should-be-insured-if-it’s-not-already golden mane, enviable
physique, and increasingly serious acting roles—is a much savvier
businesswoman than anyone would like to think.
And that “like to think”
comes into play here, when what we are dealing with is the increasingly
boundaryless space between social media, Internet forums, online
tabloids, and other forms of quick-fire hot takes. (So, the Wild West,
basically, only far more anonymous in nature.)
You see, last summer Lively launched her own website called
Preserve,
a space intended to connect users with makers (of things, of
experiences, of stories), with a splashy debut heralded by no less than a
Vogue cover (her third) that immediately opened up the project
to the type of intense scrutiny such new ventures are typically spared
until they gain their sea legs.
Gleeful headlines loomed large over
issues with site design, with product descriptions, with prices, all
sung to a tune that goes a little something like “how dare a beautiful
movie star think she could do this,
too?” Lively, who admitted this past June to
Time
magazine that she wished she had waited at least another six months
before the launch, is more than aware of that particular line of
thinking.
“We have an incredible team of people who do beautiful work, but we
launched the site before it was ready, and it never caught up to its
original mission: It’s not making a difference in people’s lives,
whether superficially or in a meaningful way,” she says, on the phone
from New York.
“And that’s the whole reason I started this company, not
just to fluff myself, like, ‘I’m a celebrity! People will care what I
have to say!’ It was so never meant to be that, and that kind of became
the crutch because it was already up and already running, and it’s hard
to build a brand when you’re running full steam ahead—how do you catch
up?”
Which is why, in an attempt to do just that, all of Preserve (from
objets to home decor, accessories and clothing) is currently on a very
deep and very inviting sale, to prepare for its October 9th closure, so
that Lively may rebuild, rebrand, and eventually reveal—on her own
timeline—what her project was always meant to be. (
See? Savvy.)
“It’s very exciting and it’s also incredibly scary,” says Lively of
shuttering Preserve. “I never thought I would have the bravery to
actually do that, to take the site dark and to say, ‘You know what? I
haven’t created something that is as true and impactful as I know it can
and will be. And I’m not going to continue to chase my tail and
continue to put a product out there that we, as a team, are not proud
of.’” While she anticipates a certain amount of backlash—“Failure!
Folly! We
knew she couldn’t do
this, too!”—Lively
feels ready this time around.
“I know what it’ll look like, what I’m
facing publicly, that people are just going to have a heyday with this.
But it’s so much worse to continue to put something out there—to ask my
team to put something out there—that isn’t the best we can do. I’m going
to take this hit, and the only way I can prove all the negative
reactions wrong is to come back with a plan that will rock people.
And I
have that plan. And I’m so excited about it, and that’s what
gave me the courage to do this, to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to
give myself one more shot at this, and I really have to do it as well as
I can do it this time.’ And that is the only thing that will impact
people. And that’s what I’m doing. And I’m totally terrified out of my
mind!” She laughs, “I’ve asked my husband to just play ‘Shake It Off’ on
a loop—it feels
really good to listen to it on a loop!”
When it comes to the new plan, Lively is keeping her cards close to
the vest for now, though she cites research into the founding stories of
the Honest Company, Facebook,
Twitter, and
Instagram,
among other tech triumphs (some more sympathetic than others), and the
new project’s mission statement shares some of Preserve’s original
ethos. “Our goal has always been to touch millennials through
storytelling, and the idea is to create a shoppable lifestyle.
And
that’s not to say to turn everything into commerce, but to make things
easier: This is a thing that I created with my own two hands and this is
how you can do it, or this is something that I found on my adventures
and travels and this is how you can have it. It’s about creating a level
of ease for the people who identify with us. We’ve focused in so much
that it’s actually very simple, it’s very clean, it’s very direct.” Will
it still be called Preserve? Well, maybe not. “I love the name
Preserve.
But then, I never thought people would think Preserve had
something to do with jam!” Lively laughs, “Like, ‘Oh, you sell jams!’ ‘
No! It’s like
preserving
things and us and life and artisans!’ ” She sighs. “These are all of
the things you don’t think of when you’re too intimate with something.”
And if the past year has had its bumps, well, consider her
all-terrain-ready. According to Lively, this is how it’s going to go:
“[The news will] blow up and I’ll look like a jerk and everyone will be
really horrible. And then the
new news will come out and I’ll
look like a hero and everyone will be really nice, and then the new site
will come out and half will be nice and half will be mean again. I
mean, champagne problems—thank God these are the things I get to
complain about.”
Fizzy as they may be, champagne problems are not without their sting.
And being pilloried in the press for a new venture, as Lively well
knows, is never fun. “The only time I’ve ever done something and felt
real reward is when I’ve done something that’s incredibly risky, because
without great risks it’s impossible to have huge success. I don’t mean
financial success, I mean personal success, pride, happiness in what
you’ve done.
And the only times that I have felt that are the times that
I have really put myself out on the line and done something that really
scared me—and I know that sounds like something out of a Hallmark card,
but this feels like something I really have to do,” says Lively, with
what I’m coming to learn is characteristic grit. “I’ve finally summoned
the strength to take on whatever anybody says because I know I’m going
to come back with something stronger.
I’m proud of it and I can take it,
because I am a much harder critic on me than any nasty gossip rag. And
that’s a good thing and a bad thing, but I just want to make myself and
my family proud. And this time around, I really think I’ve done that.”
Tough
and savvy? Looks like the world may have been underestimating Blake Lively. We’re willing to bet you won’t make that mistake again.
Cr.
Vogue,
Fashion Lady Accessories
,
Synergy | Twitter
,
ข้อมูลอัพเดท
,
bangkok21st
,
