#soulsundaysessions 01: Social media whizz Loic Quedec

Spring is well and truly here, so we’re going to celebrate the onset of summer with a new blog series over the next few weeks called #soulsundaysessions! We’ll be inviting some of our friends and interesting contributors down to our favourite Sunday spot, Soul Bar & Bistro, to have a late lunch and chat about what they’re up to. We’ll also share the delish dishes we try over the next few weeks, as well! In our first #soulsundaysession we caught up with Instagram expert Loic Quedec (@kedecc) for a chat about his serious social media success. Remix publisher Tim Phin spoke with Loic about how to get a massive online audience. Check out their chat below… How would you describe yourself when someone asks what you do? A fashion blogger. You say a fashion blogger but what would you say makes you unique? I would say my style, my colour choice in objects. Basically, black and white, which is very simple and minimalistic. Very clean, simple outfits but it’s done in a different way to other bloggers. You have your usual fashion bloggers but mine is a bit different. We’re aware of your Instagram but do you have a blog like a Tumblr? I have a Tumblr and a Facebook page. I mostly use Instagram but I do have a website that’s coming. I’m just trying to build a portfolio. I don’t want to open a website and have no content to put up so I just want to have that content ready in time. So is there a process to what you do when you take a picture? It starts with shoes first. Like if I’m about to do an outfit pose, say me against the white board or something, I’ll always start with shoes, white shoes. So I sort of like colour block, which is like getting the shoes to match with the hat or something. I always get stuff that compliments the whole outfit and I make it work for the environment. With the outfit I’m wearing today, I’ll probably take it to a skateboard park or something because that’s the mood I’m trying to portray. With that, you find the place where you want to shoot and the person you want to shoot it for you and then you take the photo. With my process, I basically take the photo myself, except I can’t be that person who physically pushes the button so I give the camera to my friend, I tell him exactly how I want it and after all that is done, I take the camera home and I use Photoshop on every photo and I post it and put a little caption, hastags.  

To start, Tim and Loic shared the shaved raw kingfish and iced seasonal oysters, then some salt and pepper squid and a South Island whitebait fritter that was to die for! With a crisp glass of Torres ‘Sangre de Toro’ 2014 rosé.

So how long does it take, a whole post? Including going out and taking the photo? Oh, sometimes a whole day. Oh, really? Wow! Sometimes it’s just for two outfits. So what are your rules for taking a photo? What are the things you don’t do and things you always have to do? First off, the day has to be cloudy, no rain. Once that’s done, you have to find an outfit, find a mall but in Auckland, everything’s so boring. Auckland doesn’t have amazing architecture for what I really want to do. So I usually end up going back to the same place like the Auckland Art Gallery. So do you delete photos that you don’t get enough likes from? Are you depressed when you see a bad photo or comment? Well to be honest, if it hasn’t hit 200 likes by 5 minutes I’m kinda like, ‘Oh, this post is gonna do so bad!’ Like an amazing photo, for me, would get 300 likes by 5 minutes. I did this photo once that got 1200 likes in half an hour and that was just your normal photo, like wearing a pair of white shoes. So what is the peak time to post? So peak time is, for me, anywhere between 5 and 7. Anywhere. But the best days are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday’s shit. Friday’s shit. Saturday’s shit. Because everyone clunks out or you’re going home and your stuck in traffic or it’s 6’ oclock and the news is playing and you don’t really watch your phone. I don’t know, I think about all this stuff. So 6pm should do it? 7pm is like borderline, cutting it too fine. I’m like a 9.30pm post, I like to post before I go to bed. For some reason, everyone’s on before bed so I reckon it’s the right time. Oh yeah, like everyone looks at their Facebook and their Instagram before they go to sleep.

For a main, Loic chose the slow cooked pork belly, complete with butternut squash puree, crunchy pig’s cheek and a black pudding fritter, while Tim enjoyed the pan fried hapuku, with mushrooms a la Grecque, porcini gnocchi cigars and chervil crème fraiche. These were complimented with sides of sauteed broccolini and a garden leaf salad, with avocado. Oh and a top up of the rose!

When was the tipping point, or what was the point when this became like a business for you? When you started getting free stuff? I think my first breakthrough was after Showroom 22. The marketing manager from i love ugly forwarded me on and Showroom told me about Rookie, their university fashion show. I went to that and I met Olivia who was the marketing manager for everything and it went from there! At the moment, are you getting like 2000 followers a day or something? You must be keeping track of it all. Yeah, honestly it’s slowed down a bit now. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your likes aren’t as high anymore. I think that Instagram is just overcrowded now. Too many people trying to be an instagram model or a food model or whatever. Can we ask the question, who do you think in New Zealand is buying their likes? I’m not going to name and shame! But there are a few! Go through and have a look… if their pics have 800 likes and have been like that for 4 days, they’re FAKE! What are your tips for people wanting more followers and engagement? How do you get more likes? More followers? Without lying? I guess, be original. Like, no one likes a copycat. I mean, I create original concepts. Once you start creating original concepts all the time, people will respond. It’s like i love ugly continuously keep creating content and their marketing is on point, that’s why they’ve become so successful. I guess, if you create original content and it looks dope, that’s it.

To top things off, Loic and Tim ordered desserts. Tim ordered the ‘rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb’ with a medley of rhubarb flavoured delisiousness, while Loic ordered the enviable chocolate pudding with peanut butter slice, crystalised chocolate, popcorn ice cream. Both enjoyed dessert with a cup of coffee.

Do you know the stats in how followers you have in New Zealand? Um, there used to be this website where you could check that but it’s closed down, but most of my followers are in New Zealand and my second-most following place is L.A and that’s where I want to end up with what I want to do. It’s big in Melbourne but it’s even bigger in L.A. So what other stuff are you working on at the moment? I have a regular gig with Topshop, so I do a post for them every week which is like a different outfit. I just linked up with Mr Simple, who opened up on High street and I’ll be doing an outfit pose for them every week. I also have a couple lookbooks coming up for a couple of international brands. A little bit but next year is going to be big. What are your plans for the summer holidays? Chilling, sun, beach photos in colour maybe. Stay tuned for our #soulsundaysession next week, which will be with the boys of Jupiter Project, asking them about their latest music. Anything else you want us to ask? Comment below! If you want to head down to Soul for your own Sunday session (which we strongly advise), then visit Soul Bar & Bistro online here for booking details. Also remember to ‘Like’ them on Facebook here and Instagram here for their latest menu offerings and news. Words by Tim Phin & photos by Carl Thompson.