Julia Engel grew her lifestyle blog into a collection of classic, feminine clothing that’s catching commercial appeal
Julia Engel in the Gal Meets Glam Collection’s “Marianna,” being released in March. In addition to personal style, Engel’s blog touches on beauty, travel, and home decor.
Julia Engel didn’t have a formal education in design when she started her own clothing line. What she did have was more than a million social media followers; a wonderfully successful style blog, Gal Meets Glam; and a talented team including her photographer husband, Thomas Berolzheimer.
This spring, the Charleston resident’s Gal Meets Glam Collection turns one. When it launched, the line was devoted entirely to dresses and sold through shop.galmeetsglam.com and Nordstrom. But expansion came quickly: Engel has added jackets, skirts, and jumpsuits to her lineup, with resort looks debuting in February and March. Big-name retailers including Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus, Dillard’s, and Von Maur have recently picked up the garments, and so has online subscription and personal styling service Stitch Fix.
“I feel like I’ve really found my calling,” says Engel, who knew she wouldn’t want to be in the spotlight on her blog forever. “A blog can only go so far, and I wanted to have something that was more than just myself.”
Engel works with her design team to add new, limited-edition styles to the Gal Meets Glam Collection each month—anywhere from 10 to 40 of them. Her sartorial aesthetic is simple: classic and sophisticated, without the high-fashion price tag (most pieces are under $200). Once a design sells out, it’s gone.
The team still produces multiple blog posts per week, but the collection is “a bigger entity, and it sells,” she acknowledges. “I’m so glad to have founded the blog so that I could be right here doing what I’m doing now.”
(From left to right) Gal Meets Glam Collection’s “Willow,” “Cecily,” and “Violetta”
Pretty Impressive: The Gal Meets Glam enterprise, by the numbers
Julia Engel has 1.2 million followers on Instagram (@juliahengel).
The Gal Meets Glam blog nets 275,000 visitors each month.
The Gal Meets Glam Collection is sold in 100 stores around the country—including Nordstrom, Dillard’s, Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus, and Von Maur locations, as well as specialty shops—and via Stitch Fix.
Engel was recognized as one of Forbes’s 10 Top Fashion Influencers of 2017 and included on Fashionista’s Most Influential Personal Style Bloggers lists in 2015 and ’16.
Photographs courtesy of (4) Gal Meets Glam Collection
