A WESTBURY writer and blogger features in this week’s issue of the national fashion magazine, Grazia.
Dan Hasby-Oliver, 23, has been named as “Style Star of the Future for Fashion Blogging” by Grazia. He features in a special photo shoot and editorial spread alongside artist Lilly Lewis, T4 presenter Jameela Jamil, Marina Diamandis from Marina and the Diamonds and Ellie Goulding, singer and BRIT award winner.
Described by Grazia as “the web boy wonder,” Dan is a freelance fashion journalist and blogger who works from his home in Westbury.
Dan was approached by Grazia earlier this year after his work caught their attention. “I had an e-mail back in January, where they said they’d looked at my website and blog,” he explained. “It was very bizarre – I didn’t expect it at all because I’d only been doing my blog for a few months!”
Dan was then invited to a photo shoot at Spring Studios in London. “The photo shoot was quite surreal, fast-paced but also with a lot of waiting around, and fun,” he said. “The Grazia crew were amazing, and Kay, the journalist, was fantastic.” Dan also got to meet the other big names of fashion’s future, and has even kept in contact with artist Lilly Lewis since the photo shoot.
Dan has his own men’s style blog at LastStyleOfDefense.blogspot.com, which is read by 3,000 people a month from all over the world. “I started my blog last July,” he said. “We were meant to do a blog as part of my course at uni, but I thought it was fairly pointless – I was busy working and studying. But then I started one and it’s really progressed. I tend to blog every day during the week, usually 2-3 posts a day.”
Focusing on men’s fashion, the blog covers designers, products, and events in the fashion world. “I don’t write about anything I don’t like or don’t feel passionate about,” Dan said. “People do enjoy blogs because they give up-to-the- minute news, and they don’t have to wait for a magazine to come out.”
Dan graduated with a BA fashion journalism (Hons) degree in 2008, and is now a writer for The Glass Magazine and Adones.org. Although he covers events all over the country, he is trying to concentrate more on the local area. “I’ve got a strong readership in Bath and the south Wiltshire area, and I like to tailor my posts to people in the area,” he said. “I think its such a thriving area for young artists. You used to have to trek to London to do some shopping but now there’s some fantastic little boutiques around here you stumble across.”
