Projects — Mabel Chen

The Economic Wardrobe

Building an independent publication from the ground up — brand identity, editorial strategy, content, and distribution. Here's how it came together.

01 — Insight

Insight

Identified a whitespace in fashion media: everyone covers trends, almost nobody reads fashion as economic history. Researched consumer behaviour, trade economics, and sumptuary law to develop an editorial angle no existing publication owned.

02 — Brand Identity

Brand Identity

Developed the name, visual system, and editorial voice. Chose Cormorant for its high-fashion editorial feel paired with Inter for readability. Set a monochrome palette with a single accent colour — every detail reinforcing the brand's position between scholarship and style.

03 — Content Strategy

Content Strategy

Planned and wrote three long-form articles — Byzantine purple, the Black Death's impact on fashion access, and the broke-but-iconic 1990s. Each piece translates dense economic history into narrative-driven storytelling accessible to a non-academic audience. Built the site in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to have full control over the reading experience.

04 — Launch

Launch

Published on Netlify, tested across devices, and positioned the brand in the fashion × economics niche. Three articles live, growing readership, and more on the way.

The Economic Wardrobe

Insight

Brand Identity

Content Strategy

Launch

Recent Projects

The Economic Wardrobe

EZ Realty