my new home 2021

In October of this year, I will celebrate a decade of living a part of my life online. In that time, you’ve watched me fall in and out of love, navigate life as a student and as a graduate. I have moved in and out of homes, and I went from fiancé to wife. I’ve succeeded in ways I never imagined whilst also experiencing unimaginable failure. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, and sometimes I’ve even lost myself. What never wavered was my growth as a human being and this is the next chapter in that story.

Some of you might not know that my blog existed long before the videos and vlogs. A space where I shared my outfits, inspirations and musings three times per week for many years. For all of the Gen Zs reading this out there, back then most of our blogs were coded by ourselves, and images were taken in messy bedrooms- unfiltered, unedited and unafraid. Instagram certainly didn’t exist and your following size consisted of a couple of hundred or thousand blogger followers (unless you were Lily Melrose, that is) and in truth, it didn’t matter all that much because we were all grafting away for the sheer love and creativity of it all. The latest drop of “Inlovewithfashion” dresses was the talk of Twitter and if we were lucky, we’d be invited to the upcoming Motel Rocks event where we’d get free nail art and a cupcake or two. It’s always such a positive feeling to reminisce on the early days but also to look at how far we’ve all come. All-in-all, it’s really quite hard not to feel immensely proud when I look back on it- knowing myself and so many of my friends are part of an industry dominated by women… one that is thriving, making waves and disrupting markets. With that in mind, it seemed fitting that my home on the internet reflect my growth as a woman, business woman and blogger whilst also reflecting the incredible positioning of the industry in 2021.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to create a space where you were only one click away from all the content I lovingly put out into the world wide web. I wanted to remove the frustrations of trying to remember where that plant pot I featured back in January was from or what my favourite lipsticks are right now. I wanted to curate a place where you could curl up with on the sofa in the evening with a cup of tea or glass of wine (I’m a fan of both, depending on the night) and get lost in a world of beautiful living, or shop the latest botanical print collections for Spring, or rearrange your kitchen from start to finish with a guide to everything you will need. Whatever your interest or reason for following me is, everything is all here under one beautiful (and user-friendly!) roof.

One of the my top priorities was creating a Shop My Outfits section but I wanted one that I owned, hosted and housed by myself, ensuring the space I have worked too hard to build on the internet is the place that benefits from the traffic of my audience, rather than a huge third-party business. I’m so pleased to be able to bring you my first Outfit Shop, housed within the newly designed Shop section of the site where you will be able to shop my outfits easily by swiping up on stories or hitting up the site for a browse. This space will be updated regularly and sometimes may even see new outfits before Instagram does. If you want to save it as a page on your mobile home screen to check regularly, I would definitely suggest doing so now. Within the Shop section, you will be able to purchase from my own edit of pieces throughout my home, wardrobe, and beauty cabinet- so if you are wondering what candle I’m loving right now or where our mugs are from, you can find them there. Convenient, right?

The other great function that we introduced was a Smart Search, which means that you can use the search function of the site to not only search the blog posts, but search all of the content within the site. This means your search will show videos, products, and more- you will find your answers and get stuck into your favourite topics so much more efficiently. Ah the beauty of technology! Hope this is helpful to you all as I know how valuable your time online is – so frustrating when you can’t find what you are looking for!

You will also find my Instagram Reels housed on the front page as part of my Style In Motion series- these will be linked so that you can easily shop each outfit using the Shop My Outfit section. When watching your favourite Creators’ Reels, have you ever thought to yourself, “Oh I must swipe up on that story to buy that skirt”, only to find that it has timed out. Never again! Navigating what I’m wearing for my Reels will be so much easier.

And finally, my new branding. Can I get an amen?? From the moment I set eyes on it, everything kind of all made sense again. I’d felt stifled for so long with regards to my old branding, it kind of felt like every morning I woke up and put on the wrong jumper… a jumper that said “you fit within this box” blazoned across the chest, when in actual fact, I’d out grown that box long ago. The jumper I was supposed to put on was actually a beautiful oversized cotton shirt or a botanical embroidered linen dress. I wanted something that represented who I am now as a 33 year-old woman rather than the 23 year-old student that I was when I started. Something that represented the growth I’ve experienced on this journey, as well communicated all of the attributes of lydiaelisemillen.com before you even hit the site. More than anything else, I just needed it to be me. You will see this branding roll out across all channels from today and hey, who knows where this could go? 

I also want to take this opportunity to thank you all for joining me on this next chapter in my story, I’m so proud of what we have created and I can’t wait to continue building out this space into something truly wonderful. Please take your time to find your way around- explore and enjoy the space as you intend to use it and let me know what you think. We as a team can’t wait to hear your feedback on it all because this has been a true labour of love from everyone in the team at LEM HQ, alongside the powerhouses at chloédigital.