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W Squared provides retained technology leadership, technology support, finance, accounting and payroll services to Taigan.

November 1, 2009

Julia Reed's newest venture makes the experience of online shopping
interactive, beautiful and, most of all, personal

BY AH&L Staff

PRODUCED BY Kate Abney

After catching up with noted author, professed gourmand and style arbiter Julia Reed, we may have come away loving her newest enterprise, Taigan, just as much as the proprietress herself. A quick perusal of the new members-only Web shopping portal, which just launched in September - with Mrs. Reed on board as Creative Director - reveals many of the penchants that she and AH&L editors share: those for stunning photography, quality writing and the finest that Atlanta has to offer.

And that's no surprise. A luminary of the magazine industry, Reed has logged years at such publications as Vogue and Newsweek, written for venerated Southern titles like Southern Accents and Garden & Gun and also serves as a founding contributor to wowOwow.com, a sophisticated landing site for some of the smartest female voices on the Net. Therefore, her experience makes her the perfect person to spearhead "fetch," Taigan's new online magazine showcasing unusual finds, personal essays and profiles of stylish people, places and things, which just launched in October.

Through her travels across the country, scouting out the rarest and the best, Reed has already ferreted out some of our favorite Atlanta outposts and given them stores at Taigan.com. Here, Bungalow Classic, Deka Athletics, G. Gilbert, Lush Life Home & Garden, Migliore, Sabot, Sid Mashburn, Star Provisions, The Mercantile and more showcase and sell their wares in a chic online environment, where videos by the owners and artisans themselves make the experience as vibrant as stepping into the store oneself. It's interactive, beautiful and, most of all, personal, begging the question, "Why didn't anyone think of something this brilliant before?" Below, Reed explains how the new concept works.

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Tell us about Taigan.
Taigan will include shops from all over the country and every month, we'll add 10 new ones. We already have stores from Atlanta and Charleston to New York and Los Angeles, but there are a lot of great retailers lurking out there and we intend to uncover them! Taigan launched in September and offers people a free 30-day membership. After that it is a mere $15 per month to subscribe. The "editorial page," our Taigan e-magazine called "fetch," launched on the site in October. That's my bailiwick and I'm really excited about it coming together.

You're a celebrated writer for many popular print-and online-publications. What made now the right time for you to embark on this online venture?
I have indeed written for many publications over the years. I started out in college working in the Newsweek Washington bureau and I'm happy to say I'm still there, currently as the Food and Drink columnist, and I contribute other pieces as well. I also worked at Vogue for 20 years and freelanced for many more magazines I love. I am one of those folks who still really wants to hold a newspaper in my hands. But my print brethren are struggling and more and more people are resorting to the web for their information. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to develop an online magazine that actually looks like a magazine, that will deliver the same great quality of art direction and photography and level of writing that readers expect from a great print magazine like Vogue or Garden & Gun, and the late lamented House & Garden, Southern Accents and Domino. At "fetch," we can be much more fluid. We might leave an important or particularly interesting profile up for, say, 30 days, but we can move other things in and out much more frequently if something else warrants our attention. There will be a regular rotating feature called "The FIND," for example. That will be an item that we at Taigan think is the coolest thing offered for sale on the site, as well as an explanation of why we think so. With "fetch" I get to draw on the experience and knowledge and friendships of my professional lifetime to create something entirely new and different, but also familiar in its high quality. I loved what I did at Vogue, but it wasn't fresh to me anymore. This is fresh and new and an opportunity to create something out of whole cloth.

Why the name Taigan?
The Taigan is actually a dog - but not just any dog. It's a rare and cherished sight hound from Kyrgyzstan that is relentless in pursuit of its prey. And that's us - we are seeking out the coolest, best, most extraordinary stores to show fellow seekers.

You're trying to deliver exclusive product lines, with the tag line "discovering the elusive." How did you choose these specific retailers and what makes these hard for others to uncover?
I like to say that every great store has a great story, because every great retailer has a strong point of view. The thing is that a lot of these people don't have websites and they may be in places that you would never ordinarily visit. Even though Atlanta is known as a great shopping destination, a lot of people come and go to Lenox and Phipps and shop in big department stores and national chains and never get off the main drag. They would miss Lush Life and Deka Athletics and The Mercantile and Sid Mashburn and Star Provisions and all the other great stores we have from Atlanta on the site. We all do a bit of detective work to find them. For example, I was in Dallas giving a speech this summer, so I stayed a couple of extra days and ran around to stores that various friends had told me about to isolate a few that we want on the site. I did the same thing in the Hamptons in August. A lot of it is going and looking and eliminating. We are not doing our jobs right if we don't say "no" more than we say "yes."

What makes your approach different than regular online shopping?
Shopping online is pretty generic so far. If you want to buy a dress at Saks, for example, you just see this flat, one-dimensional thing on a page. I've always sent everything I bought online back because, invariably, it comes and looks nothing like you thought it did. With our videos, the items all come to three-dimensional life. Our women's clothiers show you how to put together whole outfits on a mannequin - they show you how something would look belted or unbelted, or they throw a gorgeous coat over everything to finish it off and you can almost feel it on your own shoulders.

What's your favorite part of meeting designers and shop owners in cities across the U.S.?
My favorite part of meeting the shop owners is that we all have a shared passion. I met Sid and Ann Mashburn and Anne Quatrano at a benefit for the Atlanta Girls' School where I was the speaker earlier this year. We all went out to Anne's wonderful restaurant Bacchanalia afterward and Anne sat with us, then we all became instant friends. They are three such amazing people, and so passionate about what they do. One of the first "fetch" profiles is of Sid, whose store is just flat-out one of the best stores I've ever been in anywhere. I really love all of our Atlanta retailers. I've already bought a gorgeous piece of coral and a great basket from Lush Life, and Barbara Heath has a soap and candle maker that I am crazy about, Marianella. Her things are beautifully scented and beautifully packaged. Well before the site launched, I bought tons of Marianella soaps and candles to give as hostess presents all summer.

What do you see as the closest comparable resource to Taigan on the Internet?
There is nothing comparable to Taigan on the Internet. We find people with unique visions and then connect our subscribers to them. Our stores are all one-of-a-kind. And through the videos the retailers post every week, people really get to interact with them. When a friend of mine ordered coffee from Star Provisions through the site, she got an e-mail back from Anne Quatrano herself asking if she wanted it for French press or drip, and did she have a metal or paper cone, so she could send exactly the perfect grind. I mean that level of service just doesn't exist on the Net.

What's next?
Next year, the plan is to bring in retailers from outside of the United States. I already have my eye on a great wine store in Ravello, Italy, called Wine and Drugs. They have absolutely the best Italian wines and olive oils and vinegars (they're the "drugs" part) and it's down a tiny alley in Ravello. In the future, we also want to be able to showcase hotels and resorts and restaurants that are the products of the same kind of vision as our stores.

W Squared provides retained technology leadership, technology support, finance, accounting and payroll services to Taigan.