Chriselle Lim is bringing her cool-girl style to Nordstrom via a label of her own.
The former stylist turned fashion superinfluencer, who runs popular blog The Chriselle Factor and production company Cinc Studios, is launching an eponymous label. Featuring fall staples that can be mixed and matched, The Chriselle Lim Collection will be available in 40 Nordstrom doors and online starting Sept. 13, pairing Lim’s social following — 1.1. million on Instagram and 760,000 YouTube subscribers — with the retailer’s platform.
“I think of fall when I think of fashion,” said Lim, who is pregnant with her second child, on a recent morning from a suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Manhattan. “This collection was inspired by everyday working women, whether it be women who wake up every morning to go to work, to chase their dreams or simply on the search of something greater.”
“We know our customers love Chriselle and are excited to see her new Chriselle Lim Collection focused on wear-to-work pieces come to life in our stores and online,” said Tricia Smith, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of women’s apparel for Nordstrom. “Many of our customers look to influencers for inspiration and it’s brands like this that allow us to continually bring them newness and a sense of discovery.”
Lim was one of the first influencers to create fashion content on YouTube. One of her early fashion tutorials — on how to tie a scarf — racked up millions of views within a matter of weeks, prompting her to build a following by posting about fashion in video form.
She previously partnered with clothing brand J.O.A. on her first design collaboration, which bowed at Nordstrom in March.
The Chriselle Lim Collection, priced from $59 to $189, includes classic pieces such as knits, cardigans with asymmetrical buttons, mock turtlenecks, blouses with a slight puff sleeve, a jumpsuit, dresses, pants, an oversize plaid blazer, skirts and trench coats, aka “the epitome of sophistication.” Most of the items come in solid hues, with some offerings in a floral print, and Lim designed them to be worn separately or as sets.
Chriselle Lim
George Chinsee/WWD
“A lot of my followers follow me because they relate to my style,” said Lim. “I can’t wear half the things I have in my closet to the office, so I knew when I designed my collection that it had to be wearable. I wanted it to have more of a work twist. So many of the girls that follow me are young career women.”
For the digital rollout, Lim will be gifting her friends the line and is also planning a campaign with non-Insta-famous women.
“We’re doing another shoot where I’m gonna be meeting and talking with real women,” she said. “They don’t necessarily have followings, but they’re real women with different types of jobs. We’re going to be styling them in the collection. That’s the strategy: taking real women in the workplace and figuring out how they would incorporate it into their life.”
The campaign is in line with what Lim has found to perform best on her own platforms: candidness.
“My followers love the beautiful, girly, big moments such as when I’m wearing a wedding gown or a Dior dress, but how often do those moments happen in real life?” she said. “The moments that do best on my Instagram and that my followers respond to the best are moments when I’m at the office, in my element and things look more candid and real. I wanted to make sure that was conveyed in this collection. I didn’t think too hard about what will do well, what will sell. It was about what I would wear and what the girls would wear in their everyday life.”
Her content slants more toward fashion and lifestyle, but Lim is known to post about beauty on her blog and social media channels. With superinfluencers launching social first-beauty brands of their own — Summer Fridays, for example — the prospect of a Chriselle Lim beauty line isn’t out of reach. In fact, the idea has already crossed Lim’s mind.
Asked if she’d ever put out a beauty line of her own, she said, “When you commit to something like that, you have to find the right partners, the right lab, and if I ever did something, I wouldn’t just stamp my name because it’s going on your face and your skin and it can get so intimate. That would definitely be something up my alley that I would love to do and explore. For now, I’m focusing on [The Chriselle Lim Collection] and launching it. We’re already working on the next season, we started maybe two months ago. One thing at a time.”
More from WWD.com:
Digital Download: Chriselle Lim, the Superinfluencers’ Outlier
Influence Peddler: Chriselle Lim, J.O.A. Partner on Collection