In an exclusive interview, Los Angeles-based Jaime Ridge tells Jane Phare that building a brand around social media is not as easy as it looks in an over-crowded space.

Digital_Darlings

It's towards the end of the phone interview that Jaime Dillon Ridge, 26, tells it like it is. The social media landscape is now so full it's hard to be seen and heard above the noise. In an email the day before, I asked her to ponder what advice she'd give to social media wannabes, keen to build their profiles, brands, or push a product online.

She's thought about it a lot overnight. After five years in the game, she's seen the space become crowded, witnessed friends who have beautiful products but can't sell them because no one's noticed.

Ridge, the daughter of high-profilers former rugby league star Matthew and former TV presenter and socialite Sally Ridge, is used to being in the spotlight. But she warns youngsters sitting at home "thinking they don't need to study because they can just start a social media account and become famous" that it's not always that easy.

Yes, there are plenty of examples where that's the way it's worked out, she says.
"But having substance makes what you do credible."

Ridge did a business degree and worked in fashion PR before leaving New Zealand, then studied advanced styling at Central Saint Martins in London. "That is what shaped where I am today."

Building up the eyeballs is hard work

And getting noticed, building up the eyeballs, is hard work and comes at a price. Developing a "really amazing product" is one thing. Getting it noticed is another.

"I know that because I've been doing it for years and I've seen the transition. Five or 10 years ago, yes everyone could create an Instagram account and you could build something really organic and super unique. But now everyone's trying to do it."

Brands that run social media launches with blow-out success and a surge of followers have paid for the online attention in one way or another, she says.

"The algorithms and the way that businesses are built through social media, they require a lot of marketing budget."

"If I started a brand and had a $500,000 marketing budget then of course my sales are going to skyrocket because everyone knows about it."

Launching a successful brand on social media these days requires money and "a lotta, lotta knowledge".

Ridge's advice to newcomers is to do the research. "Read everything about it, invest all your spare time in it. Live it and breathe it and know everything there is to know about it.
If you are really passionate about something and you put in the work you will succeed."

Jaime Ridge modelling Gucci sunglasses. Photo/ Chloe Hill

She's gradually built up a social media following and a career as a fashion stylist, photographer and model. She shies away from the term "influencer". Instead, she describes herself as "a creative", an adjective that has morphed into a noun and become an occupation with the help of social media.

"I don't use Instagram to be an influencer. I use it as a creative outlet rather than to shock people or to coerce them into buying things. It's more of an outlet for my personal vision. Instagram is like an online portfolio."

She's done work for a string of major fashion brands - Tom Ford, Gucci, Bally, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Moschino, H&M and Tiffany & Co, often in charge of the creative direction, content production and styling.

Ridge will often do a full campaign production for a new brand collection. They'll send her the product, she comes up with a creative concept, arranges a model, hires a photographer and oversees the shoot.

Jaime Ridge styled this photo for Gritty Pretty magazine. Photo/Ana Suntay-Tanedo

And she's done photography or styling work, and sometimes both, for fashion magazines or digital sites like Badlands Journal, Gritty Pretty magazine, and Remix and Denizen magazines in New Zealand.

"A lot of the work I do you won't actually know it's mine. It's more behind the scenes."

Her personal Instagram account, which has a following of nearly 51,000, is kept for fashion pieces and collections that she likes, often modelling the item herself and doing her own photography.

Over the past five years, she's built up her fashion blog Dillon Dot, a place where she housed all her work and brand collaborations. But this year Ridge closed that chapter. Dillon Dot is still there but it's kept as an archive of what she's done, not what she's about to do.

"It houses five years of global work and collaborations I've done with some of the best brands as well as casual everyday things I used to share with my followers."

Jaime Ridge styled and shot this photograph of herself wearing an outfit by New Zealand label Harris Tapper to support the band on her Instagram page. Photo/Jaime Ridge

Managing her social media accounts carefully is part of Ridge's style. There's nothing random about her posts. Everything is highly curated and produced. The spontaneity of TikTok's not for her.

One of the greatest lessons she's learned is to be adaptable and to keep an eye out for business opportunities.

Followers of her Dillon Dot blog or her Instagram posts started asking where or how they could buy the same item.

That led to the launch of @sausse.online, a personal shopping service for clothing, shoes, accessories, furniture and art run by Ridge and her business partner, Sarah Jayne Kavali, who is based in Dubai. They have buyers in other parts of the States, and in London and Paris.

"A lot of the stuff I share is not available in New Zealand or Australia."

The Covid-related travel bans and border closures have meant an unexpected bonus for the growth of the business.

Clients can see what they want online or on social media but they can't access it, often because brands don't ship to Australia or New Zealand.

Sausse is not a click-to-buy website. Instead, Ridge and Kavali source the item in the style, colour or size needed and arrange shipment.

Pre-Covid, Ridge hit the international fashion circuits twice a year, jet-setting between New York, London, Milan and Paris. It's long hours and hard work - "probably not as glamorous as it looks", she says. But as a result, she's built up contacts in the business and can get priority access to items.

Ridge posted a Prada belt bag from last season's show in Milan on her Instagram and clients "went crazy for it".

Up it went on the Sausse website to let clients know they could buy it.

"Things sell out so quickly. Instagram has really fuelled that hype buy. If something's cool everyone wants it, it sells out and you can't find it anywhere. Through our contacts, we can access things you wouldn't be able to find yourself."

Jaime Ridge and her fiance, Tommy Bates. Photo/supplied

Since Covid, Ridge has been pretty much confined to her West Hollywood home with her fiance, social media guru Tommy Bates. Used to dividing her time between New Zealand, Sydney and LA, Ridge is resigned to being hunkered down for the foreseeable future.

"I miss New Zealand. I've shed a few tears."