Blogger Babble: Keep it Chic

By Dana Linett-Silber
April 28, 2011

Jennifer Alfano and Preston Davis, the founders of the increasingly popular Keep It Chic blog, like to say they are two editors with 28 years of combined experience between them. And "editors" is the operative word here. What makes their style blog so indispensible to so many is its authors' ability to synthesize daily pearls of pithy style wisdom down to no more than a few, easy-to-digest sentences. With close to 40,000 hits per month since the Keep it Chic style blog launched in February of last year, these former Vogue and Harper's Bazaar staffers, whose fashion industry friends are among their most ardent supporters, are definitely on to something.

Preston Davis, Jennifer Alfano

Preston Davis, Jennifer Alfano

The Inside Source: How did you come up with the name Keep it Chic?

Jennifer Alfano: When we were at Vogue, Anna Wintour used to always say “keep it chic." And we thought that kind of summed up what we are trying to do—help create a lifestyle where every aspect can be chic.

The Inside Source: Your style blog posts are so short and sweet. How do you manage to keep from going on and on about something you love?

Jennifer Alfano: I think things can get too long, and the women we speak to are so busy with work and their kids, so they need posts they can get something from quickly. Our goal is to do quick bites you can take with your morning coffee.

The Inside Source: What sets Keep It Chic apart from all the other style blogs?

Preston Davis: I think one of the main differences is that most blogs for women are by younger women—either someone who can’t find work or is still in college. They’re blogging before they have any experience. We’re coming at it from a different perspective. We’ve had careers; we are editors and so we’re able to be precise about what’s important to us. We have a very targeted, sweet spot audience. Jennifer and I don’t say here’s the look from the runway and here’s how to get it for less. Our readers are established, so we say here are the exact pieces and here’s the trunk show where you can buy them.

Keep it Chic, a Sampler

Previous Next

In The Trenches: Jennifer Alfano cites this post...
The Simple Wardrobe... and this one as her two favorites by Preston.
2010? This one on dirndl skirts...
My Favorite Packing List... and this one on Joan Didion's packing list are Preston's favorites by Jennifer.
Happy Birthday Grace: One of the highlights of Keep it Chic is its celebration of stylish women. Grace Coddington, the beloved Creative Director of American Vogue, just celebrated her 70th birthday. This photo is of her 50th party, which Alfano and Davis attended at New York's famous Indochine restaurant.

The Inside Source: Do you have any steadfast rules for your style blog posts?

Jennifer Alfano: Yes! We don’t like to write anything negative about fashion…it’s just too easy to fall into that.

Preston Davis: Also, we make it personal without sharing too much personal information. We want our readers to know us and I think they do, but we’re not sharing all the details of our lives. We’re trying to make it accessible without being too intimate.

The Inside Source: Do you stick to certain topics on the Keep It Chic fashion blog?

Jennifer Alfano: We are definitely fashion and home/interior obsessed. We talk every day and we usually have more than we can actually run. We try to post every day, during the week but if we have more to say, I’ll put up twice in a day.

Preston Davis: I push for it to not be completely fashion centric. Jennifer is the fashion person. I’m more lifestyle. I want to do more on art, profiles of women we find interesting, style setters. I did three questions with Kate Betts and I think that is the essence of the site.

The Inside Source: So you’re really into different things?

Preston Davis: We are the same demographic, but we have different takes on things, and that’s what makes it work. Together we appeal to a larger audience. We are both women living our lives, raising children, and at the end of the day if you can do it all and keep it somewhat chic, well, bravo! We both want to answer the question, “How do you keep it all together with a sense a sense of style?”

The Inside Source: Is it hard to come up with something good to post on the style blog every day?

Jennifer Alfano: No, what we write about is really heartfelt and I think that’s why it works.

Jennifer Alfano tells us her current favorite eBay search keywords include "Chanel 2.55 bag," "Hermes," "Celine" and "Derek Lam," while Preston Davis cites "Hermes trim," “Brunschwig & Fils” (specifically bird), “Cowtan & Tout” and “Pattern Paris Original” among her saved searches.