Creator Kate Bartlett saw overnight success…after half a decade. At age 15, Bartlett started a fashion blog as a high school student in Florida with the idea in mind that she could mention it on her resume when she applied to college, enlisting her mom to take outfit photos every day after school. She said it took almost five years before she gained more than a few thousand followers, even with consistently posting every day.
But overnight, while studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology, she gained 100,000 followers from a video about what she spent in a day as a fashion student. It was success that she attributes to going against the grain of the lipsync, dance-heavy content that dominated TikTok at the time.
Bartlett, now 25, says she has approached being a creator like a business from the start. Today, she boasts 1.6 million followers on TikTok and has worked with some of the top luxury brands, promoting companies like Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. To help her grow her business, Bartlett returned to school to get an MBA, graduating this year.
I spoke with Bartlett about what makes working with luxury brands unique, why she makes sure her content is always “positive,” and maintaining her audience as she transitioned from consumer to luxury fashion content.
Below are some highlights from our conversation:
Approaching content like a brand-safe business: Bartlett approached her content as a business from the start, ensuring she would be an appealing creator for companies to work with. She makes sure every single video is “positive” for her audience of primarily young women, avoiding any complaints and focusing on only uplifting feeling content. “I've always tried to be very brand friendly,” she said. “I try to keep it very clean, very polished, and very upbeat and positive.” Her biggest income streams are paid partnerships and commissions through platforms like ShopMy and LTK, where she earns a fee every time someone clicks on an affiliate link she shares to buy a product that she recommends. The affiliate space is growing: according to ShopMy, more than $250 million has been paid out to users on the platform; and LTK says it is responsible for more than $5 billion in annual sales.
Education is key: One pillar of Bartlett’s content has been her focus on education, having recently documented graduating with an MBA from New York University. "It's something that nobody can take away from you. It's one thing that you always have for yourself, and you know it's been really transformative for me,” she said of the lesson she hopes to impart on her young followers. She said her degree, and its focus on luxury and retail, allowed her to learn another side of the brands she works with.
Luxury fashion content is a different ballgame from consumer brands: “The more ‘mass’ brands, their biggest concern is numbers, impressions, [whereas] luxury brands that I've worked with in the past really don't seem to care about that at all,” Bartlett said. “They’re much more concerned about you know the image, the aesthetic, and if it has half or a fourth of the amount of the impressions, it doesn't matter to them.” That has changed how she approaches her content. If she’s working with a mass brand, a non-luxury label catering to mid- or low-price points, that cares about impressions, she will make something with a trending sound or a short 15-second clip with text on screen, whereas for a luxury brand she will work with a professional photographer or videographer on a planned out shoot.
This story is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by Washington Post Creator, a team outside The Washington Post’s newsroom that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about Washington Post Creator.
