Fiona Byrne On Why She Folded Naag.com, Her Fashion Site With Agyness Deyn, and Is Launching A New One

When Fiona Byrne and Agyness Deyn launched naag.com in 2010, we had high hopes for the online mag: The fashion was on-point, the content was well-written, and hello, they had fashion's model du jour and a veteran journalist at the helm. So, needless to say, we were a bit saddened when we popped over to naag.com recently only to find a message reading: As of today, Naag will be no longer. Thanks so much for your support and kind words over the past couple of years, it's been so much fun and it means so much that you liked Naag as much as we did. We won't say goodbye, we'll say "till we meet again." We got in touch with co-founder Byrne to get the scoop on why the site called it quits--and where we can go to hear her voice now (hint: she's got a new site).
Author:
Publish date:

When Fiona Byrne and

"[We decided to shut Naag down because] I wanted to focus on my own site and Aggy was at the very start of her acting career so she wanted to focus on that," Byrne told us. No drama, no gossip: the duo simply decided to part ways as they pursued other ventures.

Was it a hard decision to make? "A small bit," Byrne said. "I really liked Naag and just like with anything you like, you are sad to see it go." Happily, though, Byrne has found another outlet for her editorial talent: Enter Byrne Notice, the journalist's just-launched site, which helps to fill the void Naag left--and them some.

"There were things I wanted to do [at Naag], such as interiors, and it made more sense to do them on The Byrne Notice," Byrne told us.

"Aesthetically [Byrne Notice is] more editorial looking [than Naag]," she said. "I wanted a more classic look. I've also added interiors, separated Food & Drink and Travel and I have a lot more galleries within stories. That's something I enjoy on other sites so I wanted to make sure we had it here.

"It's also a little less 'everything is awesome' and more informative and sometimes a bit droll," she added.

To wit, Byrne Notice's homepage currently houses a house tour and interview with Christian Siriano and boyfriend Brad Walsh, a piece on home accessories label Make & Brothers, a news item on the YSL exhibit in Denver, and a cute review of Miami's The Shore Club's mini-bar.

Needless to say, we think we've found a new bookmark.

Related Stories

Business

Agyness Deyn Finally Admits She's Been Lying About Her Age

Agyness Deyn, née Laura Hollins, changed more than just her name when she became a model. The British beauty, who has recently begun dipping her toes into the acting pool, shaved a few years off of her age around when her career started to skyrocket. Though that isn't exactly breaking news--most of us had some idea and there was a facebook group about it called "Agyness Deyn, You're Not 18"--the age she claimed to be when she came to New York at the real age of 24. However, she's never come out and said it until now.

Business

Updated: Agyness Deyn Married Actor Giovanni Ribisi

Agyness Deyn, born Laura Hollins, is just full of surprises these days. This year alone, she revealed her real age (ok that wasn't that much of a surprise), eschewed modeling for acting and now, apparently, she's gotten married. And to a pretty famous actor. How do we know? It's a pretty cute story.

Business

Why Pro-Anorexic Content Still Flourishes On Sites That Have Banned It and Who's Really To Blame

Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest have all banned so-called "thinspirational" images--but has it really helped? That's the question many news outlets, including New York Daily News, Jezebel, and Mashable are asking--and with good reason. But while the question may be on everybody's lips, the answers are far from forthcoming. "I think its too soon to tell [if the banning of thinspo images will have a large impact on the pro-ana community]," Lynn S. Grefe, MA, President and CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association, told me over the phone. While Mashable claims Pinterest has done "little-to-nothing to edit out the pro-anorexia content," siting the fact that hundreds of images still come up when you search a tag like "thinspo," it's worth remembering that Pinterest's new terms of use only went into effect on April 6, and that successfully policing the images is going to be a slow process. Officially banning the content, regardless of how immediately effective that new policy is, is certainly the first step. "I really have to applaud [Pinterest and Tumblr] for working with us and for making the effort," Grefe said. "I think it's huge that they did it. It needed to be done but a lot more needs to be done."

Business

Versace for H&M Crashes Retailer's E-commerce Site in the UK; US Site to Launch in Fall 2012

And the madness begins... Versace for H&M hit stores today in London, Paris, Milan and Shanghai today, and, as we expected, shoppers came out in droves in person and online to shop the new collection. In Shanghai a fight even broke out when some of the professional queuers (yes, this is apparently a real thing) didn't want to wait on line, WWD is reporting. On line (like the internet kind of line), there was a bit of Missoni for Target deja vu. H&M's e-commerce site crashed only moments after the collaboration went up for sale, according to the Daily Mail. We checked the retailer's e-commerce site and while it appears they are still having technical difficulties (only some of us were able to get through), it doesn't seem like the site is completely down anymore. H&M apologized over Twitter for the inconvenience to shoppers saying, "Followers, we’re sorry about the technical problems in our shop online markets – we’re working hard to solve them!" Stateside, we have much more exciting news when it comes to H&M's e-commerce: