Who is Blakely Rhode?
Some of you may have found yourself asking this question so I thought it was time to share, from myself (Bek), who and exactly what "Blakely Rhode" is and what that means to me.
Firstly, I would like to preface, Blakely Rhode as a business is not gender specific however, I will refer to Blakely Rhode, the persona, as "she".
Blakely Rhode is an alter ego, a style icon, someone with effortlessly cool, casual yet unique, style but most importantly she's someone not just aspirational, she's attainable.
I first heard the name "Blakely" when visiting Tennessee for Thanksgiving whilst I was living in New York City. A very special and pivotal time in my life. From the moment I heard the name, I never forgot it.
I have always loved a more masculine name for a girl and for me this was such a beautiful intertwine of both boy & girl. Something in which I wanted my brand to represent.
Rhode, is not only a name i've always loved but became a play on words as I wanted my business to be "a road to on trend & attainable style". I guess you could say it's also like a business putting "avenue" at the end of their brand name.. but keeping it unique.
When I first started gathering inspiration for Blakely Rhode, I pulled things from Pinterest and Tumblr, to create my own mood board and posted them on a private Instagram. The business was not yet a business and therefore it certainly had no name. The quickest thing I could think of, was to take one straight from the baby list IYKYK, and therefore I created the Instagram under "@blakelyrhode". I knew no one would have the handle or would be able to find it so it seemed like a great idea. However, the plan was to eventually change it....
To cut a long story short, I posted and started to build my brand image and the brands persona on this private Instagram. Who is she? What is she? I started to play around with adjectives such as, cool gal, effortless, style icon and so on.
As I referred back to the mood board, I started to resonate similarly to as I would when scrolling on Pinterest or stalking someone with cool & effortless style on Instagram. It was giving... Who is this girl? Why does she have such a cool name? ..
I don't know if it's just me, but does anyone else think when someone is so effortlessly "cool", they seem to have the perfect name to go with it?
Anyway. For me this was the pivotal moment. There she is, it's Blakely Rhode, it's the girl I want to be. It's the girls style I want to follow.
Blakely Rhode was being born in front of me and she had to have this name.
My close family and friends loved the brand name with the brand image and it went from there. The more the business began to evolve, the name began to make more and more sense. "Blakely Rhode" also started to remind me of a lot of a brand I feel a huge connection to. A brand where I still draw a lot of inspo from today, "Brandy Melville".
Don't forget to read my Blog post "What Is Blakely Rhode" for the continuation...
Big love always, Bek xx